"This is the wretch, excellent Mustapha, faithful guardian of the most slippery of things-women," said the officer; "the wretch whose boastings have reached the sublime ear, who gives out that he has been an honoured guest in the seraglio during our lord's absence, has seen all his beauties, and was even in the baths when they bathed!" "The monster!" groaned Mustapha.

"The sultan may be every instant expected, and he will do justice," returned the officer. "Meanwhile he has commanded me that I accompany you and this traitor throughout the harem, and see if he really has the knowledge which he pretends in it."

"Mirror of thy master, sublime Ibrahim! let us see whether the villain has the impudence; but I imagine he is out of his mind!" said Mustapha.

Abdool stared in dumb amazement on this revelation, and knowing that he had been made the victim of a perfidious jest, still he reflected with horror on the dreadful punishment to which, in all likelihood, Zulima would be exposed. Mustapha was so agitated that he scarcely knew whether he went on his head or his feet; but he purposely led the way in the firstplace, to the women's apartments. Ibrahim, (for it was the great vizier himself,) he knew, dared not enter the sacred precincts; and under pretence of ascertaining whether the wretch pretended to have been within the oda, he led him in.

The ladies' apartment was one of the finest in the palace; and was composed altogether of white marble and gold; the windows overlooked the sea, and admitted the most refreshing breezes. Here, reclining in groups, which their beauty made more gorgeous than heaps of jewels, engaged in exhilarating gossip, were the fair tormentors of Abdool the Simple. The moment they perceived him, they flocked around him like doves to one scattering corn, expecting some new diversion of Mustapha's contrivance; but the tune changed wonderfully when the chief of the eunuchs lamentably expounded what had happened. All threw themselves at Abdool's feet, and with sobs and tears implored him to have mercy on them. Mustapha joined, in the most deplorable manner; but Abdool's heart remained steeled, while Zulima, Nourmahal, and Aphrodite knelt and embraced his knees with streaming eyes, and cheeks crimson with anxiety-large eyes glittering, and bosoms wildly palpitating; but when Zulima threw herself on his neck and exclaimed, Drop a tear, at least, in the sea which shall soon swallow me, in memory of one who loved you," he was overcome.

66

"I know not who can have infused suspicion into the sultan, unless it was one of the treacherous dervises!" he said. "But be not afraid;

I will deny all."

At this moment the clash of drums and cymbals was heard, and a slave rushed in to announce that the sultan had arrived, and was coming immediately to visit the apartments of his ladies, to receive their compliments on his return. Comforted by Abdool's promise, the odaliskas had scarcely time to smoothen their agitated features ere the great Solyman, in all his glory and majesty, attended by the mutes of the seraglio, with their bowstrings ready set, and the grand vizier, Ibrahim, carrying three sacks, entered.

"Let the slave who related that he had been three times made the guest of a certain vizier's seraglio, inform me if he recognises this place and these persons!" said the sultan, in a tremendous tone, and all

present fell mostrate, wishing it might be into some bottomless gulf.

Abdool raised himself, at length, shuddering, and, without daring to lift his eyes, declared that he had never made any such statement to any dervis.

"Look at me, fool, but good-natured! and deny it again!" returned the sultan; and glancing fearfully up, with a start of horror, Abdool recognised the dervis in the mighty sovereign himself! He could not, of course, utter another word; and the sultan commanded the mutes instantly to put Zulima, Nourmahal, and Aphrodite into the sacks, and throw them into the sea, while the bowstring was fitted round the neck of Mustapha. The sultan himself opened a window up to which the green waves of the sea flowed; and with shrieks of despair, the unhappy ladies were stripped of their ornaments, and thrust into the sacks, while the rest of the harem looked on with tears and sobs.

The dismal sight quite overcame all feeling of revenge in Abdool's heart. He prostrated himself at the sultan's feet, and, in a piteous voice, implored mercy.

"My only fault, light of the world!" groaned Mustapha, "was endeavouring to preserve your women from mischief of a worse sort, by giving them some to do that was bad enough!"

The story relates that the facetious Mustapha pronounced these words in such a dismal tone, that the sultan could not forbear laughing; but instantly resuming his severity, he turned to Abdool, and quired if he were willing to perish in the place of the three ladies. was a dreadful moment; but Abdool the Simple very frankly consented. "You shall do worse than die for them!" said the sultan, after a pause of the most intense astonishment-" you shall live with them! I give them to you all three for your wives, and appoint you to the care of my silk-worms, which is a post of great honour and profit, and requires no exertion of surpassing genius. As for you, Mustapha Ag. if in a month you do not find me one woman more beautiful than allse three put together, the bowstring shall be drawn, which, uren, you are to carry about with you on your neck."

THE WATERLOO BANQUET.

JUNE 18.

BY F. W. N. BAYLEY.

I.

NOT as of old!-not as when first the wonder
Of the grand victory burst upon the world,
Quenching a war with its almighty thunder,
And waving the fair flag of peace unfurl'd;-
Not as when nation's eyes were flashing flame
To the proud victor in his house of might,
While England's glory blazoned all his name
In the deep brilliance of their fiery light!

II.

Not as when, erst the "Waterloo" was sounded,
A saviour word to kingdoms and to kings!

Bearing upon its echoes joy unbounded,

And Freedom's angel on its wandering wings!

And as the wild star set in that far ocean
In the sad isle where all his spirit died,
And faded from the mad intense commotion
He loved to kindle, with a fiend-like pride,
His rival lustre shone with steadier light,

And with more truth and with more splendour even! A holier, calmer glory, burning bright

With rays of PEACE, and starring all her heaven!

V.

Not as in that first freshness of rejoicing,

When the quick gush of praise was on the tongue,

And all a nation's gratitude was voicing

Its fervour forth alike from old and youngWhen the loud cannon boom'd along the river, And every house was as a blaze of light, While the mad people's "Wellington for ever!" Stunn'd the broad day, and startled the deep night!

VI.

No, not as then !-but thirty long years after,
When all the battle-field has lost its stain-
When the brown peasant's free hilarious laughter
Rings in the air that felt the leaden rain-
When the corn grows in that death-valley fairer
Than e'er it grew before it clasp'd the dead-

When wiser Europe's voice of war is rarer,
And her gold Commerce-lap is wider spread,

VII.

The aged Conqueror, with the sword long sheathing

In its eternal scabbard of renown,

With warrior-bays his silver hair enwreathing!

-The old man's time-crest and the soldier's crown !

Calls, in his hall of glory, all around him,

The hoary veterans of his battle day,

And proudly bids the harper, Memory, sound him
Back the old glory of their war array.

VIII.

So when the gifts of kings are scatter'd round him,
And triumph-trophies blaze along the board,
Calm in his age, and true as once they found him,
The star-gemm'd warriors gather round their lord!
And still, as every summer sun shines o'er them,
And, Life warm-kindles to June's rosiest hue,
That board of Wellington is spread before them,
And they shall keep the FEAST OF WATERLOO!

58

BY CAPTAIN MEDWIN.

FROM the great deference and respect shown for the Beerhahn, at the Abschied's Commers, I was led to consider him a trump, or, as the Germans who still continue to play, as their great-grandfathers did, at ombre—say, a matadore. The daring of his demeanour-his dry wit and humour, attracted and made me desirous of diving deeper into his character, and knowing more of his life, and hearing a fuller detail of some of the adventures he had divulged the preceding evening. He had, at parting, invited me to breakfast at eleven, and true to my word, I sallied forth at the appointed hour, and having inquired, of the first student I met, Shreikenberger's address, I found myself, after zig-zagging through several lanes, dignified with the name of streets, at a dingy-looking private house, that corresponded with the indicated

number and letter.

I mounted two flights of perpendicular stairs, and rung. The door was opened by a young studio, with eyes like an Albino's, white eyelashes, and long flaxen hair trailing over the collar of his coat, covered with tags and embroidery, whom I had no difficulty in recognising for a fox-a designation common to the pages or chamberlains of German students.

A system prevails at the German Hochschules not dissimilar from that of our public schools. The Fuchses, in a great measure, resemble fags: theirs is no sinecure office. A Fuch is expected to pass most of his time at the Kneipe, in order that he may, by practice, in his own person, learn the Beer cormmont, or code-the laws, fines, &c., relating to beer-drinking. He must come well provided with tobacco, -for the purpose of stopping the pipes of the bursches; is expected to treat and entertain guests that may be recommended to the corps-to have one of them at any time quartered on him—to give up his bed to any senior of his Landsmaunschaft who may happen to be without a bed himself, and sleep on his sofa-to provide, for those lords of the creation, breakfasts, suppers, occasionally champagne and claret-to post the videttes before Pauking-to provide a carriage when required -to be constant in his attendance at the Fechtboden—and to keep, to use a German expression, his Maul-mouth in his pocket. These are a few of the duties of a good Fuchs, who is at once servant and paymaster. Some of the Alte Hauser (the old stagers) make the Fuchses still more useful. They wear their clothes, exchange old torn linen for theirs exchange is no robbery-and swap their shoes and boots that will not hold together for new ones, &c. I do not suspect Redbeard of these practices; but his Leibfuch's page, or chamberlain, seemed to have been well-trained. With a more deferential air no one could have been ushered into the presence of a lord and master. Hector, who was lying at full stretch in the way, politely got up to let me pass. He recognised and welcomed me, by thrusting his huge head between my legs, which, had I been off my guard, might have caused me to make a Chinese salutation. As to Shreikenberger, he seemed in no condition to return or make any salutation. He was lying at the further end of the room on a sort of French Canapé,

*See a previous paper, by Capt. Medwin, in vol. iv., page 317, of "Ainsworth's Magazine."

covered with red calico, somewhat the worse for wear, literally in his Schlafrock and slippers, with his face towards the back of the court, and was unaware of my entrance. He was suffering from a malady common to his brother students, to which they give the expressive name of Catzen-jammer. My dictionary says that Jammer means wailing, lamentation, misery. Of the first syllable of its compound we have made a verb, applying it, though in a different sense, to the effects of a similar disorder. Fortunate those who require this etymology. Of all drunkenness malt-drunkenness is the most horrible: sea-sickness is a trifle to it. It acts upon the morale worse than a sirocco at Venice; nay, it produces an utter prostration of mind and body. The head is bursting with a congestion of blood-the heart seems unable to perform its functions, and throbs with audible upbraidingsthe limbs are weighed down as if they were enwrapt in a mantle of lead: there is no whole part about the body. This unhappy state to which the Beerhahn was reduced, enabled me to make a drawing, in my mind's eye, of his habitation.

The room was large and lofty, and appeared more so than it really was, from its plentiful lack of furniture; for three or four chairs in great decrepitude, a table, a broken mirror, and the said Canapé, comprised all its moveables. Books there were none, his stock, if he ever had any, having been long before disposed of to Aaron or Moses. But en revanche, as a set-off to this semblance of poverty, his Pfeife system was, indeed, a splendid one, and filled a considerable portion of one of the side-walls. Here were disposed, in goodly array, pipes of all sorts and denominations, Turkish cherry-sticks, with their gilt clay cups, lying in juxta-position with meerschaums, and bowls of porcelain. These latter were many of them admirably painted. Some contained views of the different universities; on others, armorial bearings were richly emblazoned. Nor were there wanting copies of celebrated paintings; and, lastly, miniatures of women famed for their beauty, among whom I perceived Rubens' Chapeau de Paille and Raphael's Fornarina. I was perfectly astonished, as I examined this picturegallery, at his treasures; the more so, as I had heard that the single combats in which he had been engaged were denoted by their number. Over them, trailing down the fractured glass, were suspended ten or twelve bands, enwoven with all the hues of the rainbow, presents of his friends in various corporations, and between them hung, worked in gold, a Cerevis Muzze. A beer-cup, masks, foils, florets, parisers, schlagers, and sabres, stood side by side, pell-mell, in one corner of the room; and many engravings, and several drawings of remarkable duels, unframed and unglazed, together with fifty or sixty Silouettes of his acquaintances, were nailed, with some little pretension to symmetry, about the room.

Scarcely had I finished my mental inventory and survey, when Shreikenberger turned round, and, perceiving me, by a determined effort and struggle with the Beer-dæmon, succeeded in lifting his heavy head from the sofa, and, rising with a sonorous yawn, stretched out his hand to me. As to the Fox, who was in almost as seedy a condition as his patron, he was lying on the floor with his master's dog, both fast asleep. The voice of Shreikenberger soon roused him, however, from his trance. "Fox," said he, to the wool-headed, beardless youth, "this Catzen-jammer of mine is all owing to you, and the like o' ye. The Heidelberg Sprichtwert is true-you know it well; a