dotes, give an interesting and (as far as we can judge) a faithful portrait of the manners of the French nobility at that time. In fhort, though we do not wave our objections to this fpecies of biography, we cannot conclude this article without expreffing a wifh, that, in other works of the fame kind, there may be as much to commend, and as little to cenfure, as will be found in the "Memoires d'un Voyageur qui fe repose.”

ART. III. Madoc. By Robert Southey, &c.
[Concluded from page 410.]

ADOC finds his way back to the Mifouri without difficulty, and is informed by Cadwallon, whom he had left in charge of his new fettlement, that fymptoms of treachery had lately appeared in the Aztecas, and that they were evidently preparing for war. This is confirmed by Erillyab, and accounted for, in fome meafure, by Neolin, prieft of the Snake-god, who, in a profing kind of fpeech affirms, that this fpiral deity had called for blood, and that it was therefore neceffary to have recourfe to their ancient rites. Still farther to afcertain the fentiments of the Aztecas, Madoc makes a feast, at which he encourages Amalahta, a fullen favage, but somewhat communicative in his cups, to intoxicate himself with mead. A difgraceful scene follows.

"Give him drink,

To be at peace! quoth Madoc. The good mead
Did its good office foon; his dizzy eyes

Roll with a fleepy fwim; the joyous thrill
Died away; and, as every limb relaxed,*

Down funk his heavy head, and down he fell!!!!!

The poet himself could fcarcely have been fober when he wrote this fection; and the reader will furely agree with us, that whatever might compofe his beverage, the waters of Helicon formed no part of it.

The interment of Owen's bones, which is the next occurrence, is fucceeded by an open declaration of war on the part of Aztlan, so that the disgusting debauchery we

* What a verfe! Rev.

have just witnessed might be omitted without injury to the ftory. The Hoamen now hold the feaft of fouls, as described in the account of the North American Indians, at which Neolin plays off fome juggling tricks; and, while the people are intent on their melancholy duties, gives his deity the fignal to appear. The fnake iffues from a huge cavern, and involving the priest in his folds, towers over his head, and looks round for his accuftomed prey. The Hoamen scamper off, but Neolin, difengaging himself from the ferpent, purfues their flight, and, feizing a child, gives it to the reptile, who glides contentedly back to his den. As foon as Madoc is apprifed of the transaction, he haftens to the spot with twenty fpearmen, and lays hold of the priest. He immediately gives the well-known fign; upon which the fnake re-appears, and twines round him as before. The Britons recoil in affright; but Madoc, advancing upon the double enemy, with a fword in one hand and a burning brand in the other, cleaves Neolin down the middle, and fmokes his god once more to his den, whither he is followed and killed.

If Mr. S. had looked into Ovid he would have found a ferpent, more tremendous than his own, destroyed in a manner not unfuitable to the dignity of heroic poetry; whereas nothing can well be more mean, not to fay ridicu lous, than the buftle made by Madoc and his twenty followers in the defeat of this poor reptile.

The fnake-god and his priest being thus difpofed of, Madoc affembles the Hoamen, and at the head of a folemn proceffion, attended with croffes, images, &c. advances to the cave, where he preaches a fermon, of which the Indians do not understand much, but which they take in good part, and unanimously call out for baptifm, which is immediately bestowed on them, to the great delight of "Cadeg, Deiniol, Padarn, and Teilo*." They are now joined by Caradoc, with an Aztecan fpy, whom he had taken prifoner, and whom Madoc inftantly fets at liberty. As the firft proof of gratitude to his deliverer, Tlalala (fo he is named) joins Ocelopan in an expedition to feize one of the ftranger's children, as a victim to Tlaloc, god of the waters. In this they fucceed beyond their hopes. From their hiding place they difcover Caradoc afleep, and Tlalala approaches to

* "Saints and martyrs," Mr. S. tells us in his notes: where, with his ufual dexterity, he labours to turn them all into ridicule.

kill him; but at the inftant he is about to ftrike, the harp of the bard, which lay befide. him, utters a found, and the favage foregoes his prey in a fright. Before he recovers his fpirits, Caradoc awakes, and the Aztecan retires unfeen to his concealment. Here Hoel comes to sport, and is inftantly feized by Ocelopan, who makes off with his prize. Madoc hears the child's cries, pursues him, falls into an ambush, is taken captive, and carried in triumph to Aztlan. Young Hoel is fhut up in a dreary cavern, and the British prince, for whose blood the gods were fo clamorous, is chained by the foot to the centre of a large ftone, and compelled to engage in a fingle combat with the braveft of the Aztecas! He difpatches the first who enters the lifts, and is warmly engaged with the fecond, when a cry is heard, that the Britons are approaching, and all ran to defend the city; while Madoc is bound hand and foot by the pricfts, and quietly laid up in a corner of the temple.

A dreadful battle takes place (the fame which was fought 300 years afterwards by Cortes), which, though highly favourable to the ftrangers, is only ended by the night. During the ftruggle, Amalahta, recovered from his fit of drunkennefs, collects a dozen Hoamen, as wicked as himself, and makes an attempt to carry off the women, who are assembled, with Goervyl, in the houfe of her brother. The conflict which enfues, and which we confider as the worst part of the poem, bears no flight refemblance to the attack of a poffe of conftables on a gang of female gypfies in a barn. In conclufion, however, the ladies are victorious; and the ravishers, seeing their leader firft fcalped, then ham-fringed, and finally run through the body, betake themfelves to flight. While this is going forward at the city of Madoc, that chief is fet at liberty by Coatel, the miftrefs of Lincoya, and conducted to the cavern of Hoel. The poor youth is dragged out through a chafm, which he had previously difcovered in the rock; and Madoc has the fatisfaction of restoring him to the arms of his mother, whom he meets in quest of him. From her he learns the danger of the women, and haftens to their affiftance; all is at peace when he arrives, and the prince, after difcovering the fex of one woman (Senena), and beflowing another (Goervyl) in marriage, arms himself in hafte, and repairs to the field of battle. Here he flays Coanocotzin in fingle combat, while his people, encouraged by his presence and example, redouble their efforts for victory, and, after a fanguinary conflict, force the gates of Aztlan. Driven from their capital, the vanquished retire to Patamba, a neighbour.

ing city, where they celebrate the obfequies of the dead, and choose a new king; while Tezozomoc, the high priest, purfues his bloody work with a moft tedious and difgufting perfeverance. Games of various kinds, but which it is impoffible to understand without a reference to the plates in Clavigero's Hiftory of Mexico, fucceed the folemnities; after which, both parties prepare to renew the war.

Madoc, like Cortes, takes his veffel to pieces, and builds a number of brigantines on the lake; with these he runs down the light canoes of the Indians, and obtains a bloodless victory. The dauntlefs Aztecas attribute their defeat to the influence of the ftrangers' gods on the watery element, and determine on making a laft effort by land. Previous to the attempt, however, the ceremony of watching the appearance of a new fun takes place; and while the prieft and people are anxiously looking out for it, a volcano bursts forth and confumes the miferable Tezozomoc, while an outrageous tempeft fwells the waters of the lake above the shores, and fweeps away Patamba with its inhabitants. The king and fome of the chief warriors efcape by fwimming; others are faved by the exertions of Madoc; and, as all profpect of continuing the war is now at an end, Yahidthiton and his people, in obedience to the voice of a bird, who repeatedly calls out "Depart! depart!"-take up their gods and the alhes of their monarchs, and retire to the weftward to found another Mexico, and meet another conqueror in the adventurous Cortes.

"So in the land

Madoc was left fole lord."

And fo finishes this elaborate poem.

Mr. S. is not happy in his names: many of them fet our organs of enunciation at defiance. Gwgan he has accommodated to our ignorance, and he does not forget to mention it, but we are ftill left to ftruggle with "Gwalchmai, Gwaelod, and Cynddelw; Gwynon, Celynin, and Gwynodyl!" p. 129. The American appellations are still more uncouth and barbarous.

To the notes, which form a large portion of the volume, and a ftill larger of the ftory, we have many objections. They certainly contain fome curious extracts amidit much irrelevant matter, and fome useful elucidations; but they are replete with petulance and levity, which fometimes border on profanenefs. Thus having mentioned Og, king of Bafan, in the text, he here pours out a flood of impious nonfenfe from the Rabbins, in ridicule, as it fhould feem,

of

of his flory. Soon after, he gives an account, from a Latin writer, of the fudden clafhing and receding of two mountains in the ftate of Modena, while fmoke and fire iffued from a chafm between them. This juft description of the effect of an earthquake, by no means uncommon, is thus commented on:

་་

"A fiery mountain is a bad neighbour, but a quarrelsome one must be infinitely worfe, and a dancing one would not be much better. It is a happy thing for us, who live among the mountains, that they are now-a-days very peaceable, and have left offskipping like rams.'"' P. 547.

This, no doubt, is mighty clever, and as it contains a fneer at the facred writers, who, in the lofty language of Eaftern poetry, defcribe the mountains as bounding at the approach of their Maker, it comes with increased zeft. Mr. S. fometimes treats the pageantries of popery with fufficient reverence, it would be better to display it where it is infinitely more due; nor feek the applaufe of fools by the triteft of all follies, the ridicule of Scripture. We will hope, however, that this was not intended, though the expreffiion is incautious.

We also obferve among the notes fome hankerings of jacobinifm. Gilbert Wakefield, we are told, p. 540, "was fent to prifon for quoting a fable of fop." He was fent 'to prifon, (which to him was a scene of feftivity and triumph), for a base and traitorous attempt to paralyze the exertions of his country. We will never fit in filence, and hear this man numbered among the martyrs of liberty. We knew Gilbert Wakefield better than Mr. S., and can tell him from authority not to be difputed, that he exulted in the imaginary deftruction of all that is facred among us. Under the mafk of infantine fimplicity, he concealed a crafty and a malignant mind. He had undoubtedly ftudied hard, and his memory was uncommonly retentive; but he had not a particle of talle or judgment; and the chaos of li terature that rambled in his head was productive of little more than a perpetual ftruggle between temerity and

error.

The extracts, produced from the former part of this work, will afford our readers ample opportunities for judging of Mr. S.'s manner. If there be any difference of flyle, it is certainly not in favour of the concluding pages. Unless we deceive ourselves, Mr. S.'s Pegafus vifibly flags: nor is this to be wondered at, when we take into confideration the unconscionable diftance that he has travelled. To speak out, the poem is much too long; and the author, who, while his Mufe was yet unjaded, frifked and curvetted, and

frolicked