It was the very weakness of his brain, XXIII. His heart was formed for softness-warp'd to wrong; The gentle plant hath left no leaf to tell XXIV. 'Tis morn-to venture on his lonely hour And fair the monument they gave his bride: Link'd with one virtue, and a thousand crimes 19 NOTES TO THE CORSAIR. 5. While dance the Almas to wild minstrelsy Page 141, line 42. Dancing girls. 6. A captive Dervise, from the Pirate's nest. Page 141, line 55. It has been objected that Conrad's entering dis guised as a spy is out of nature.-Perhaps so. I find something not unlike it in history. "Anxious to explore with his own eyes the state of the Vandals, Majorian ventured, after disguising the color of his hair, to visit Carthage in the character of his own ambassador; and Genseric was afterwards mortified by the discovery, that he had entertained and dismissed the Emperor of the Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction; but it is a fiction which would not have been imagined unless in the life of a hero."-Gibbon, D. and F., vol. vi. p. 180. That Conrad is a character not altogether out of nature I shall attempt to prove by some historical coincidences which I have met with since writing "The Corsair." "Eccelin prisonnier," dit Rolandini. "s'enfor moit dans un silence menaçant, il fixoit sur la terre The Kiosk is a Turkish suminer-house. the palm son visage feroce, et ne donnoit point d'essor a sa is without the present walls of Athens, not far from profonde indignation.-De toutes parts cependant the temple of Theseus, between which and the tree les soldats et les peuples accouroient; ils vouloient the wall intervenes.-Cephisus' stream is indeed voir cet homme, jadis si puissant, et la joie univer- scanty, and Ilissus has no stream at all. selle éclatoit de toutes parts. "Eccelin étoit d'une petite taillie; mais tout l'aspect de sa personne, tous ses mouvemens, indiquoient un soldat.-Son langage etoit amer, son deportement superbe et par son seul egard, il faisoit trembler les plus hardis." Sismondi, tome III. page 219, 220. "Gizericus (Genseric, king of the Vandals, the conqueror of both Carthage and Rome) staturà mediocris, et equi casu claudicans, animo profundus, sermone rarus, luxuriæ contemptor, ira turbidus, habendi cupidus, ad solicitandas gentes providentissimus," &c., &c. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 33. I beg leave to quote these gloomy realities to keep in countenance my Giaour and Corsair. 24. 9. He tore his beard, and foaming fied the fight. Page 142, line 73. 15. That frown—where gentler ocean seems to smile Page 146, line 20. The opening lines as far as Section II. have, perhaps, little business here, and were annexed to an unpublished (though printed) poem; but they were written on the spot in the spring of 1811, andscarce know why-the reader must excuse their ap pearance here if he can. 16. His only bends in seeming o'er his beads. Page 146, line 104. The Combolcio, or Mahometan rosary; the beads are in number ninety-nine. 17. And the cold flowers her colder hand contain'd. Page 150, line 75 the bodies of the dead, and in the hands of young In the Levant it is the custom to strew flowers on persons to place a nosegay. 18. Link'd with one virtue, and a thousand crimes Page 151, line 43. That the point of honor which is represented in one instance of Conrad's character has not been carried beyond the bounds of probability may per A common and not very novel effect of Mussul-haps be in some degree confirmed by the following man anger. See Prince Eugene's Memoirs, page "The Seraskier received a wound in the thigh; he plucked up his beard by the roots, because he was obliged to quit the field." 10. Brief time had Conrad now to greet Gulnare. Page 142, line 117. Gulnare, a female name; it means, literally, the flower of the pomegranate. 11. Till even the scaffold echoes with their jest! Page 144, line 87. In Sir Thomas More, for instance, on the scaffold, and Anne Boleyn, in the Tower, when grasping her neck, she remarked that it "was too slender to trouble the headsman much." During one part of the French Revolution, it became a fashion to leave some "mot" as a legacy; and the quantity of facetious last words spoken during that period would form a melancholy jest-book of a considerable size. anecdote of a brother Buccaneer in the year 1814. Our readers have all seen the account of the enterprise against the pirates of Barrataria; but few, we believe, were informed of the situation, history, or nature of that establishment. For the informa tion of such as were unacquainted with it, we have procured from a friend the following interesting narrative of the main facts, of which he has personal knowledge, and which cannot fail to interest some of our readers. Barrataria is a bay, or a narrow arm of the Gulf of Mexico: it runs through a rich but very flat country until it reaches within a mile of the Mississippi River fifteen miles below the city of New Orleans. The bay has branches almost innumerable, in which persons can lie concealed from the severest scrutiny. It communicates with three lakes which lie on the southwest side, and these, with the lake of the same name, and which lies contiguous to the sea, where there is an island formed by the two arms of The east and west points of this lake and the sea. this island were fortified, in the year 1811, by a band of pirates under the command of one Monsieur La Fitte. A large majority of these outlaws are of that class of the population of the State of Louisiana who fled from the Island of St. Domingo during the troubles there, and took refuge in the Island of Cuba: and when the last war between France and Spain commenced, they were compelled to leave that island with the short notice of a few days. Without ceremony, they entered the United States, the most of them the State of Louisiana, with all the negroes they had possessed in Cuba. They were notified by the Gover nor of that State of the clause in the constitution which forbade the importation of slaves; but, at the same time, received the assurance of the Governor that he would obtain, if possible, the approbation of the General Government for their retaining this property. The Island of Barrataria is situated about lat Se "Curse of Minerva.' 29 deg. 15 min. lon. 92. 30. and is as remarkable for measure connected with the profession of the hero its health, as for the superior scale and shell-fish of the foregoing roem, I cannot resist the temptawith which its waters abound. The chief of this tion of extracting it. horde, like Charles de Moor, had mixed with his "There is something mysterious in the history many vices some virtues. In the year 1813, this and character of Dr. Blackbourne. The former is party had from its turpitude and boldness, claimed but imperfectly known; and report has even asthe attention of the Governor of Louisiana; and to serted he was a buccaneer; and that one of his break up the establishment, he thought proper to orethren in that profession having asked, on his arstrike at the head. He therefore offered a reward rival in England, what had become of his old chum, of five hundred dollars for the head of Monsieur La Blackbourne, was answered, he is archbishop of Fitte who was well known to the inhabitants of the York. We are informed, that Blackbourne was incity of New Orleans, from his immediate connexion, stalled sub-dean of Exeter, in 1694, which office he and his once having been a fencing-master in that resigned in 1702; but after his successor Lewis Barcity of great reputation, which art he learn ia net's death, in 1704, he regained it. In the followBonaparte's army, where he was captain. The re- ing year he became dean: and, in 1714, held with it ward which was offered by the Governor for the the archdeanery of Cornwall. Le was consecrated head of La Fitte was answered by the offer of a re- bishop of Exeter, February 24 1716, and translated ward from the latter of fifteen thousand for the head to York, November 28, 1724, as a reward, accordof the Governor. The Governor ordered out a com- ing to court scarial, for nicing George I. to the pany to march from the city to La Fitte's island, Duchess of Munster. Tais. however, appears to and to burn and destroy all the property, and to have been an unfound d calumny. As archbishop bring to the city of New Orleans all his banditti. he behaved with great prudence, and was equally This company, under the command of a man who respectable as the guardian of the revenues of the had been the intimate associate of this bold Cap- see. Rumor whispered he retained the vices of his tain, approached very near to the fortified island, youth. and that a passion for the fair sex formed an before he saw a man, or heard a sound, until he item in the list of his weaknesses; but so far from heard a whistle, not unlike a boatswain's call. being convicted by seventy witnesses, he does not Then it was he found himself surrounded by armed apr to have been directly criminated by one. in men who had emerged from the secret avenues short, I look upon these aspersions as the effects of which led into Bayou. Here it was that the mod mere malice. How is it possible a buccaneer should ern Charles de Moor developed his few noble traits; have been so good a scholar as Blackbourne cerfor to this man, who had come to destroy his life tairy was? he who had so perfect a knowledge of and all that was dear to him, he not only spared his the classics, (particularly of the Greek tragedians,) life, but offered him that which would have inade as to be able to read them with the same ease as he the honest soldier easy for the remainder of his could Shakspeare, must have taken great pains to days, which was indignantly refused. He then, acquire the learned languages; and have had both with the approbation of his captor, returned to the leisure and good masters. But he was undoubtedly city. This circumstance, and some concomitant educated at Christchurch College, Oxford. He is events, proved that this band of piraces was not to allowed to have been a pleasant man: this, howbe taken by land. Our naval force having always ever, was turned against him, by its being said, 'he heen small in that quarter, exertions for the destruc- gained more hearts than souls."'" tion of this illicit establishment could not be ex pected from them until augmented; for an officer of the navy, with most of the gunboats on that "The only voice that could soothe the passions that station, had to retreat from an overwhelming of the savage, (Alphonso III.) was that of an amia force of La Fitte's. So soon as the augmentation ble and virtuous wife, the sole object of his love; of the navy authorized an attack, one was made the voice of Donna Isabella, the daughter of the the overthrow of this banditti has been the result; Duke of Savoy, and the grand-daughter of Philip II. and row this almost invulnerable point and key to King of Spain.-Her dying words sunk deep into New Orleans is clear of an enemy, it is to be hoped his memory; his fierce spirit melted into tears; and the government will hold it by a strong military after the last embrace, Alphonso retired into his force. From an American Newspaper. chamber to bewail his irreparable loss, and to mediIn Noble's continuation of Granger's Biographi- tate on the vanity of human life.-Miscellaneous cal History, there is a singular passage in his ac- Works of Gibbon, New Edition. 8vo. vol. iii page ount of Archbishop Blackbourne, and as in some 473. 20 THE Serfs are glad through Lara's wide domain, II. The chief of Lara is return'd again: And why had Lara cross'd the bounding main ? III. And Lara left in youth his father-land; A hundred scutcheons deck with gloomy grace, The Lara's last and longest dwelling-place: But one is absent from the mouldering file, That now were welcome in that Gothic pile IV. He comes at last in sudden loneliness, Of foreign aspect, and of tender age. He lives, nor yet is past his manhood's prime, Though sear'd by toil, and something touch'd by time; His faults, whate'er they were, if scarce forgot, V. And they indeed were changed-'tis quickly seen, That darts in seeming playfulness around, tread |And then, his rarely call'd attendants said, And makes those feel that will not own the wound; Through night's long hours would sound his hurried All these seem'd his, and something more beneath, Than glance could well reveal, or accent breathe. Ambition glory, love, the common aim, That some can conquer, and that all would claim, VI. No much he loved long question of the past His brow fell darker, and his words more few. VII. Not unrejoiced to see him once again, VIII. 'Twas strange-in youth all action and all life, To curse the wither'd heart that would not break. IX. Books, for his volume heretofore was Man, With eye more curious he appear'd to scan, And oft, in sudden mood, for many a day From all communion he would start away; O'er the dark gallery, where nis fathers frown'd In rude but antique portraiture around: The sound of words less earthly than his own. Why gazed he so upon the ghastly head Which hands profane had gather'd from the dead. That still beside his open'd volume lay, As if to startle all save him away? Why slept he not when others were at rest X. It was the night-and Lara's glassy stream XI. He turn'd within his solitary hall, Like life, but not like mortal life, to view; |