Well wist the damsel, who the succouring knight:
Yet pale and breathless with her wild affright,
Around his neck her snowy arms she threw,
And with fond transport to his bosom grew.
There first, 'tis said, in many a thrilling kiss
He took sweet earnest of a dearer bliss,
Then on his steed the lovely burthen flung,
And lightly in the lofty saddle sprung;
Clasp'd in his folding arms the blushing maid,
And urg'd his steed towards a gloomy shade.
There his faint courser's faltering vigour plains,
And with dissembled sorrow checks the reins.
Then, lighting from his sell, the damsel press't
In that choice spot to woo the sweets of rest.
With loitering steps the lovely princess stray'd
Thro' the thick covert of a shadowy glade.
On a soft bank, where flowers of various hue
Mix'd their gay tints, her dainty limbs she threw.
Soft breath'd the damsel, and refreshing sleep
Seem'd her bright eyes in balmy dew to steep:
Her arms, which all that sculptors feign, surpass'd,
With sweet neglect amidst the flowers were cast;
And, for no zephyr slack'd noon's sultry tide,
Her mantle, gay with fur, was thrown aside:
While her transparent wimple* wray'd to view
Her breast of loveliest form and fairest hue.
O'er the sweet maid the prince enamour'd hung,
Then round her waist, in speechless rapture, flung
His arms incircling; at the strict embrace,
Pass'd a soft blush across her lovely face.
Again his eager arms enfold the maid,

And his warm lips each tempting charm invade :
Broke from her heaving breast a smothered sigh,
But still soft slumber seal'd each drooping eye.
Or slept the damsel still, or paus'd the knight,
I wot not, I woe worth the daring wight,
Who steals on Hymen's joys, and boldly wrays
Fond love's mysterious rites to vulgar gaze!
But, sooth to say, if still soft slumbers weigh'd,
The drooping eyelids of the royal maid,
A dream of more than mortal joy, I wiss,

Lapt the sweet damsel's every sense in bliss.

Two truly Ovidian epistles, in Latin elegiac verse, from the elegantly classical pen of the Honourable William Herbert, add, in no small degree, to the charms of this spirited production.

Poems. By Peter Bayley, Esq. 8vo. 7s. Miller, 1803.

THESE verses are, in many instances, very creditable to the genius of their author, but they are by no means so to his industry and Wimple a covering for the neck.

attention. We do not, in such a case as the present, require the gestation of nine years, but we think that this poetical bantling, being a mere mortal conception, should at least have had the advantage of being borne nine months longer.

Petrarca. A Selection of Sonnets from various Authors, with an introductary Dissertation on the Origin and Structure of the Sonnet. 12mo. Baldwin.

THE work before us is a selection of the best sonnets in the language, for the principal 'of which the editor is indebted to Lord Strangford, Mr. Bowles, Mr. Sotheby, Mr. Penn, Mr. Park, and Miss Seward. It was his wish to have enriched the volume with a few of the sonnets of Mr. Southey, but an application for the purpose, made to the publishers (in London) was not productive of suc

cess.

We shall consult the amusement of our readers, by selecting the following

Written on the Sands below Beachy-head.

BY MR. PARK.

With giant-port high towering o'er the main,
Beachy, thy cliffs in massy grandeur rise
Like some cleft castle, which with calm disdain
Still braves the outrage of inclement skies ;
The daws that round thy chalky summit soar,

Are dimly seen, and feebly heard their cries,
While the hoarse tide that flows with hollow roar;
Round many a fallen crag indignant sighs,
And steeps in foam yon sable-vested chain
Of rocky terrors; England's wide defence
Against her foes; where oft th' invading Dane
Fell a stern victim to his bold pretence;

And Gaul may fly, as once Iberia fled,

Those bulwarks of our coast Omnipotence hath spread!

The "introductory dissertation" contains nothing either very new, or very interesting.

The Stranger in France; or, a Tour from Devonshire to Paris. Illustrated by Engravings, in Aqua Tinta, of Sketches taken on the Spot. By John Carr, Esq. 4to. 1l. 1s. Od. Large Paper, 1. 11s. 6d. Johnson, London. 1803. (Continued from

Page 331.)

Among other curiosities of Paris, Mr. Carr notices the celebrated Madame Recamier, who excited so much admiration, not unmixed with some popular clamour, a short time since, in this coun

try. After relating a few secret anecdotes respecting this lady, he ⚫ mentions her magnificent bed.

It is a superb sofa, raised upon a pedestal, the ascent to which is by a flight of cedar steps; on each side are altars, on which are placed Herculaneum vases of flowers, and a large antique lamp of gold; the back of the bed is formed by an immense pier glass, and the curtains, which are of the most costly muslin, festooned with golden tassels, descend in beautiful drapery from a fic ral crown of gold."

Mr. Carr gives a description also of Tivoli, a favourite place of amusement with the Parisians; Frescati, the fashionable prome. nade at the conclusion of the opera; the courts of justice; the national library; the Gobelines; the hall of the Legislative Assembly; and the English convent, or, as it is called, the convent of blue nuns, in the Rue de St. Victoire, the only establishment of the kind throughout the republic which has survived the revolution.This convent, in the reign of terror, was converted into a prison for the female nobility. It was here that the duchess de Biron and her mother were immured, whose fate stands recorded as one of the most signal and savage atrocities which marked the bloody career of Robespierre.

"Amongst those who suffered was the beautiful young Duchesse de Biron, said to be one of the loveliest women of the French court. Her fate was singular and horrible. One morning, two of the assistant executioners came into one of the rooms, and called upon the female citizen Biron to come forward, mean, ing the old Duchesse de Biron, the mother, who was here immured with her daughter; some one said, 'Which of them do you require?' The hell-hounds replied, Our order was for one only, but, as there are two, we will have both, that there may be no error,' The mother and daughter were taken away, locked senseless in each other's arms. When the cart which carried them arrived at the foot of the scaffold, the chief executioner looked at his paper, which contained a list of his victims, and saw the name of only one Biron; the assistants informed him that they found two of that name in the convent, and, to prevent mistake, they had brought both. The principal, with perfect sang froid, said it was all well, wrote with a pencil the article les,' before the name Biron, to which he added an s, and immediately beheaded both!!!”

Of course Mr. Carr did not fail to visit the Temple, a building which it is impossible to name without shuddering, from its having been the scene of so many horrible excesses, and which, if they had not distinguished it in the bloody annals of the revolution, must be an object of peculiar interest to Englishmen, as the prison from which one of the greatest ornaments of the British Navy made so remarkable an escape. Of the particulars of this singular event, there is a most interesting, original, and, we have reason to believe, authentic relation, in the volume before us, which we mean to in

sert at length in our next number, our limits not affording us suffi cient room for it this month; we shall therefore content ourselves with transcribing an anecdote of a French officer, to whom Mr. Carr had letters of introduction, Captain Bergeret, a man whose conduct in the mission in which he was employed did him the hishest honour, and rendered him very justly dear to the immortal hero of St. Jean D'Acre.

"It will be immediately remembered that this distinguished hero, in the Virginie, displayed the most undaunted courage, when she was engaged by Sir Edward Pellew in the Indefatigable, to whose superior prowess and naval knowledge, he was obliged to strike the tri-coloured flag. His bravery and integrity have justly entitled him to the admiration and lasting friendship of his noble con queror, and to the esteem of the British nation. When Sir Sidney was confined in the Temple, and Captain Bergeret a prisoner in England, the latter was sent to France upon his parole, to endeavour to effect the exchange of Sir Sidney.-The French government, which was then under the direction of some of the basest and meanest of her tyrants, refused to listen to the proposal, and at the same time resisted the return of their own countryman.

"The gallant Bergeret was resolved to preserve his word of honour unsullied, or to perish in the attempt. Finding all his efforts to obtain the liberation of the illustrious captive unavailing, menaced with death if he departed, and invited by promised command and promotion if he remained, he contrived to quit his own country by stealth, and returned, a voluntary exile, to his generous and confiding conquerors."

English Exercises adapted to Murray's English Grammar: designed

for the Benefit of private Learners, as well as for the Use of Schools. Also a Key to the Exercises adapted to the above Grammar: calculated to enable private Learners to become their own Instructors in Grammar and Composition. By Lindley Marray. Bound together in one Volume. 8vo. 4s. Longman and Rees, &c,

1803.

Six editions of this work having been bought up with avidity, and this, the seventh, having been urgently called for, we are left without any thing to say on its merit and usefulness, that would not prove wholly superfluous. The advertisement therefore will best furnish us with every comment that is necessary to make on this publication in its present form. "Besides expunging," says Mr. Murray, some obscure and uninteresting sentences; inserting a number of examples adapted to the latest improvements in the grammar; and adding to the syntax many useful exercises; he has subjoined to the part designed to promote perspicuous and accurate writing, a whole chapter (twelve pages) of promiscuous exercises peculiarly adapted to this subject." After this statement Mr. M.'s labours require no further recommendation.

Introduction to the English Reader, or a Selection of Pieces in Prose and Poetry, calculated to improve the younger Classes of Learners, in reading; and to imbue their Minds with the love of Virtue. With Rules and Observations for assisting Children to read with Propriety. By Lindley Murray. Second Edition, enlarged and improved. Longman and Rees, &c. 8vo. 1803.

THE Compiler has added to this edition of his book, more than twenty pages of matter, and his hope that it "will be found useful and interesting," will, we doubt not, be realized to his profit, Abridgment of Murray's English Grammar, with an Appendix containing Exercises in Parsing, in Orthography, in Syntax, and in Punctuation, designed for the younger Classes of Learners. By Lindley Murray. Ninth Edition. Longman and Rees. 12mo.

1803.

THIS little manual has experienced an accession of 18 pagesBrevis esse laboro, obscurus fio, may be said of other abridgments, but with as small a share of truth in the present instance, as in any we ever witnessed.

Nature, or a Picture of the Passions; to which is prefixed an Essay on Novel Writing. By J. Byerley. 4 Vols. 16s. Highley. 1804.

MR. BYERLEY'S ingenious publication is dedicated to George Brewer, Esq. with this remark, which is more interesting than clear: *To you, Sir, I owe much; actuated by the purest principles of generosity, you relieved the child of misfortune; and, in some measure, restored him to those blessings of which a fatal compliance. with the rules (of) false honour had deprived him."

The Essay on Novel Writing which precedes the work itself is, ' with the objection of being rather too declamatory, replete with sensible and judicious remarks. We warmly recommend it to the perusal of all those who are ambitious of a place on the shelves of circulating libraries, as containing the advice which they have long been in need of, or shamefully neglected.

“Nature, or a picture of the passions," says Mr. B. in his advertisement, CC was written about three years ago, when the author was only nineteen years of age." Viewed in this light the work exhibits an uncommon portion of the knowledge of human nature, of genius, and good writing. Added to these qualities we may safely use Mr. B.'s own words in commendation of it, and say, "that it does not contain a single line offensive to religion, morality, or the strictest virtue."

Some little affectation we observed in the style, as in the phrases, the limit where the decrement of virtue equalled the increment of