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body of men composed of the most spirited and zealous of its inhabitants, would form themselves into a committee, under the sanction of parliament, for superintending and directing the future buildings and alterations that may be made*. The situation of Brighton admits of what Brown termed great capability: trees with little trouble might be planted, and would certainly thrive, when sheltered by the adjoining buildings from the sea-winds. The improvements which his Royal Highness has made, and is still projecting, will, I trust check the listless torpor and selfish apathy of the inhabitants of Brighton; will reflect a certain portion of taste and liberality on the sordid natives of this lawless waste; and make them more worthy of the illustrious patron, who, from a paltry village of fishermen, has formed one of the most delightful and fashion. able bathing places that our coast presents, and which in time, we trust, will vie, as far as the difference of the climate may admit, with the celebrated Baia of the Romans.

* Had this been done, as it ought to have been, long ago, the Steine would not be now disgraced by the heavy pile of brick-buildings, like a manufactory, which the speculation of a fasteless individual has constructed, and which bears the appearance of an apothecaries' hall, established for the public sale of drugs, for the benefit of Brighton invalids.

FRENCH CRUELTY AND ITALIAN HEROISM.

Remove fera monstra, tuæque

Saxificos vultus, quæcunque ea, tolle Medusæ.

OVID.

"Remove that horrid monster, and take hence Medusa's petrifying countenance."

HAVING revolutionised most of the frontier towns of the republic of Venice, Buonaparté sent his favourite assassin general, Augereau, to Verona for the same purpose. Three of the most respectable of the inhabitants went forth to deprecate his vengeance, and to treat for the safety of their city; but, in violation of all the laws of nations, and of civilised society, this ruffian arrested the deputies, and insisted that the place should surrender at discretion. It was accordingly so surrendered, after a solemn promise had been obtained for the security of the lives and property of all the inhabitants. But what faith can be reposed in the promises of rebels and regicides: the place was plundered, even the public repository for the pledges of the poor was rased, and all their effects confiscated; in short, this military banditti acted, in all respects, like themselves.

"The heads of the guilty shall fall," had the ferocious Augereau declared in a public proclamation, this obscure indication of half-uttered menaces had frozen the blood in every bosom. The thunderbolt was only to strike a few, but the terror that preceded it fell on all. Notwithstanding, after much prayer, entreaty, and exertion, many of the prisoners were restored to liberty, though they expected only to quit

their prisons to be led to execution. This event had induced the Veronese to flatter themselves that no citizen would lose his life, although three yet remained in the hands of the enemy; but their proofs of innocence were such as to afford every hope. Yet, knowing them to be in the power of a faithless foe, some anxiety still prevailed: in fact, they were all destined to a scene of horror which it is painful to relate.

Emili was detained in a castle, an illustrious hostage on the inviolable faith of a treaty, and therefore protected by the ægis of the law of nations; Verita, by the sacred character of ambassador and the third, John Baptist Malensa, assured of his security by the solemn promise of the conqueror. The council of war was already assembled, they had already examined these intended victims, whose innocence was undeniably evident to their inexorable judges.

After hearing them, forgetting that Verita had, with pious haste, brought to Kilmaine his two nephews, by him defended amid the perilous conflicts at Verona; forgetting that Emili had, many times and at great expence, collected and removed the wounded from the field of battle, where their inhuman brethren left them to languish on the naked earth in the last agonies of death; forgetting, that all three had lavished on the French troops, and even upon these their very judges, acts of the most liberal munificence; abusing an incompetent article of the French constitution, trampling under foot all laws divine and human, violating all the rights of hospitality, and rendering justice herself an accomplice of crimes, they pronounced against them sentence of death.

In the dead of a stormy and tumultuous night, the rumour of this melancholy intelligence was scarcely spread, when the relations of the condemned, their friends, and all the other inhabitants resolved, by all possible means, to prevent their execution. To have beheld the ardent interest and attachment which every one demonstrated, it seemed as if it were not three citizens of a town, but three children of a single family, that excited this universal anxiety and ferment. I will not attempt to pourtray all the afflicting scenes of that awful night; I will not detail with how much✩ generosity the elder Emili lavished his wealth for the safety of his brother; I will not describe with howmuch anguish the afflicted consort of the unfortunate Verita, together with her desolate and weeping children, threw herself at the feet of the French commander; or, with what effusion of grief, supplicating in the name of God, she offered her fortunes and her blood to save the life of her husband; but all in vain-the decree was confirmed against them all.

On the morrow they descended from the castle for the last time, and for what crime? For defending their `country. Their blood will be upon the heads of their assassins. They were surrounded by arms; a muffled drum preceded them. Wholly ignorant of their doom, they marched with a firm step between the guards, little expecting the approaching event, when a secretary at war stopped them, and read the sentence of death. Equally prepared to pass from chains to liberty, or from slavery to the tomb, they pursued their way with the same intrepidity as before, and, in the midst of general consternation, approached with courage the place

of execution. Such is the power of a consciousness of right, and of an ardent love of our country.

In the most barbarous regions, when victims are required by indispensible necessity, those who are destined to immolate them, offer every alleviation of their hard fate. The French denied these martyrs of virtue the religious consolations so necessary to all men in the last moments of departing life. Even with this act of impious barbarity they were not dejected; their innocence was registered in heaven, and in heaven an eternal crown was prepared to reward it.

At length they arrived at the place of execution; the guards halted. The military pomp with which they were surrounded, the sight of the cart which was to receive their bodies, the pallid horror of the surrounding spectators, every thing informed them that their last hour was come: when, seizing each other's hands, they communed in a few interesting words, but which with them were lost for ever.

Almost the same instant saw them bend their brows to receive the fatal fillet, kneel, and fall, pierced with innumerable balls. All Verona was filled with lamentations and with anguish, which overwhelmed it like a deep and perpetual darkness. O, ye! whom the scythe of death, by robbing you of the objects dearest to your hearts, has condemned to unceasing grief, why can I not spread over your afflictions that peace which the hand of time can scarcely bestow? Oppressed with the -deepest sorrow, I am compelled to bury my own grief .in silence*.

*The above pathetic narrative is taken from a book, entitled An accurate Account of the Fall of the Republic of Venice, written in the Italian language, and whose author is unknown

to us.

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