Corruptio optime pessimi!" ejaculated the father to the lady Magdelaine, turning up his eyes. "But I commend her, daughter, to thy prayer and exhortation. Let us trust it is the weakness of her brain, rather than the viciousness of her heart, that deludes her." Then muttering a few low words to the lady Magdelaine, he added aloud:-" Thou knowest, lady, sacred duty calls me to attend the consistorial meeting of St. Menehoulm: there shall I a few days sojourn; in the mean time, to the saint's holy care and guidance I consign thee."

The lady Magdelaine bowed to receive the benediction which followed.

"And thou, young stranger," added the friar, walking towards the minstrel, "who hast received so liberally the rites of hospitality, depart in peace: here thou mayest not longer tarry; it is the will of the lady de Montmorel. Go, and St. Dominick be thy speed."

The minstrel advancing a few steps, pressed his. hand to his breast, bowed grateful acknowledgment to the lady Magdelaine, and profound obedience to the friar; who waving his hand with a patriarchial air, pronounced a Dominus vobiscum, and retired."

WAR SONG OF THE ROYAL EDINBURGH LIGHT DRAGOONS.

To horse! to horse! the standard flies,

The bugles sound the call!

The Gallic navy stems the seas,

The voice of battle's on the breeze,
Arouse ye, one and all!

From high Dunedin's towers we come,
A band of brothers true;

Our casques the leopard's spoils surround,
With Scotland's hardy thistle crown'd;
We boast the red and blue*.

Though tamely crouch to Gallia's frown,
Dull Holland's tardy train;

Their ravish'd toys though Romans mourn,
Though gallant Switzers vainly spurn,
And foaming, gnaw the chain.

O! had they mark'd th' avenging call
Their brethren's murder gave,
Disunion ne'er their ranks had mown,
Nor patriot valour, desp'rate grown,
Sought freedom in the grave!

O had they mark'd the avenging call
Their brethren's murder gave.

P. 168. v. 2.

The allusion is to the massacre of the Swiss guards, on the fatal 10th of August, 1792. It is painful, but not useless, to re

Shall we, too, bend the stubborn head,
In freedom's temple born,

Dress our pale cheek in timid smile,
To hail a master in our isle,

Or brook a victor's scorn?

No! though destruction o'er the land
Come pouring as a flood,

The sun that sees our falling day,`
Shall mark our sabres' deadly sway,
And set that night in blood.

For gold let Gallia's legions fight,
Or plunder's bloody gain:

Unbrib'd, unbought, our swords we draw,
To guard our king, to fence our law,
Nor shall their edge be vain.

If ever breath of British gale

Shall fan the tri-colour,

Or footstep of invader rude,

With rapine foul, and red with blood,
Polute our happy shore,

mark, that the passive temper with which ths Swiss regarded the death of their bravest countrymen, mercilessly slaughtered in discharge of their duty, encouraged and authorised the progressive injustice, by which the Alps, once the seat of the most virtuous and free people upon the continent, have at length been converted into the citadel of a foreign and military despot. A state degraded is half enslaved. Scors Ballads, p. 167.

Then farewell, home! and farewell, friends,

Adieu, each tender tie!

Resolv'd, we mingle in the tide,

Where charging squadrons furious ride,
To conquer or to die.

To horse! to horse! the sabres gleam;
High sounds our bugle call;

Combined by honour's sacred tie,
Our word is-laws and liberty!

March forward, one and all!

SIR HUGH SPENCER JUDGED AND BEHEADED..

WHEN the feast was over, sir Hugh, who was not beloved in those parts, was brought before the queen and knights assembled: the charges were read to him-to which he made no reply; the barons and knights then passed the following sentence on him: First, that he should be drawn on a hurdle, attended by trumpets and clarions, through all the streets in the city of Hereford, and then conducted to the market-place, where all the people were asembled :. at that place he was to be bound upon a high scaffold, in order that he might be more easily seen by the people. First, his private parts were cut off, because he was deemed a heretic, and guilty of unnatural practices, even with the king, whose affections he had alienated from the queen, by his wicked sug

gestions. His private parts were then cast into a large fire kindled close to him; afterwards his heart was thrown in the same fire, because it had been false and traitorous; since he had by his treasonable councils so advised the king, as to bring shame and mischief on the land, and caused some of the greatest lords to be beheaded, by whom the kingdom ought to have been supported and defended; and had so seduced the king, that he could not, nor would not, see the queen, or his eldest son, who was to be their future sovereign, both of whom had, to preserve their lives, been forced to quit the kingdom. The other parts of sir Hugh thus disposed of, his head was cut off and sent to London.

LONDON FASHIONS.

THE first matter which occupied lady Buckhurst's thoughts on her arrival in London, was the placing of her domestic concerns in a due form of arrangement; she knew that her style of living must be more expensive than it had been at Rochester, but still she considered that as the eye of the mistress had there saved a great deal, it might, even in the prodigality and luxury of a London establishment, save a title.

This business being settled, if not entirely to her mind, at least as much to her inclination as she found it practicable, she began to turn her thoughts