restored from their wounds, that they could walk about, the one, with a crutch, and the other, by the support of his friend's or a servant's arm; they went through the journey with animation, and pleasure. The benign wisdom of Sobieski, the intelligent enthusiasm of Thaddeus, and the playful vivacity of Somerset, all mingling together made the minutes fly even as fast as their wishes, till a week more carried them into the palatinate of Masovia, and soon after within the walls of Villanow.

Every thing that presented itself to Mr. Somerset was new and fascinating. He saw, in the domestic felicity of his friends, scenes which reminded him of the social harmony of his own home. He beheld, in the palace and retinue of Sobieski, all that magnificence which bespoke the descendant of a great king who even wanted nothing of a royal grandeur but the crown, which he had the magnanimity to think and declare was then placed upon a more worthy brow. Whilst Somerset venerated this true patriot, the high tone which his feelings acquired, was not lowered by associating with characters who were nearer the common standard. The friends of Sobieski were men of tried probity: men, who at all times preferred their country's welfare, before their own particular interest. The most distinguished among them, were the counts Malachowski, Potocki, Puchala, and the prince Cassimir Sapieha. Mr. Somerset, day aftar day, listened with deep attention to these virtuous and energetic noblemen. He saw them full of fire and personal courage when the afFairs of Poland were the subject of discourse; and he beheld with amaze and admiration, their perfect forgetfulness of their own individual safety, in their passion for the general good. In these moments, he felt his heart Dowing down before them; and all the ancient pride of a Briton distended his breast, when he thought, that such men as these are, his ancestors were. He remembered how often their almost chivalric virtues used to occupy his reflections, in the picture-gallery at Somerset Castle: and his doubts, when he compared what is with what was, that history had glossed over the actions of past centuries; or else, what a different order of men lived then, from those which now inhabited the world. Thus, stu

dying the sublime characters of Sobieski and his friends, and enjoying the endearing kindness of Thaddeus and his mother, did a fortnight pass away, without his even recollecting his promise of writing to his governor. At the end of that period, however, he stole an hour from the countess's society and enclosed, in a short letter to Mr. Loftus, the following epistle to his mother:

"TO LADY SOMERSET, SOMERSET-CASTLE, LEI

CESTERSHIRE.

"Many weeks ago, my dearest mother, I wrote a letter of seven sheets from Petersburgh, which long ere this, you and my dear father must have received. I there attempted to give you some idea of the manners of Russia, with the face of the country; and 'my vanity whispers, that I succeeded tolerably well. The court of the famous Catharine, and the attentions of the hospitable count Brinicki, were then the subject of my pen.

"But how shall I account for being here? How shall I allay your surprise and displeasure, on seeing that this letter is dated from Warsaw? I know that I have acted against the wish of my father, in visiting one of those countries which he had interdicted. I know that I have disobeyed your commands, in ever having, at any period of my life, taken up my arms without an indispensible necessity: but I have nothing to allege in my defence. I fell in the way of temptation, and I yielded to it. I really cannot enumerate all the things which induced me to volunteer with the Russians; Suffice it to say, that I did so, and that we were defeated by the Poles at Zielime: and as heaven has rather rewarded your prayers than punished my imprudence, I trust you will do the same, and pardon an indiscretion that I will never repeat,

"Notwithstanding all this, I must have lost my life through my folly, had I not been preserved,even in the moment when death was pending over me, by a young officer, with whose family I now am. The very sound of their title will create your respect; for we of the Patrition order, have a strange tenacity in our belief, that virtue is hereditary, and in this instance our creed is duly honoured. The

title is Sobieski; the family which bears it, is the only remaining posterity of the great monarch of that name; and the count, who is at its head, is palatine of Masovia. which, next to the throne, is the first dignity in the state. He is one of the warmest champions in favour of the invaded rights of his country; and though born to command, he has so far transgressed that golden law of despotic rulers, Ignorance and subjection' that throughout his territories every man is taught to worship his God with his heart as well as his knees. The understandings of his peasants are awakened to all useful knowledge; he does not put books of science and speculation into their hands vainly to consume their time in idleness. He gives them the Bible, and implements of industry, to afford them the means of knowing, and of practising their duty. All Masovia, around his palace blooms like a garden. The chee: ful faces of the farmers, and the blessings which they implore on the family, as I walk in the fields with the young count, (for in this country, the sons bear the same title with their fathers,) have even drawn a few delightful drops from the eyes of your thoughtless son!' I know, mother, that you think I have nothing sentimental about me; else you would not so often have poured into my not inattentive ears, that it is by the feelings of the heart we are to estimate the pleasures of earth and heaven; shut our eyes against them, and we are nicely constructed speculums, which reflect the beauties of nature, but enjoy none. You see mamma,

that I both remember and adopt your lessons.

"Thaddeus Sobieski is the grandson of the palatine,and the last of his illustrious race. It is to him that I owe the preservation of my life, at Zielime, and much of my hap piness since; for he is not only the bravest, but the most amiable young man in the kingdom; and he is my friend. Indeed, as things happened, you must think that out of evil has come good; though I have been disobedient, my fault has introduced me to the affection of people whose friendship henceforward will prove the greatest pleasure of my days. The mother of Thaddeus is the only daughter of the palatine; and of her, I can only sum

up, that nothing on earth can more remind me of you; she is equally charming, equally tender to your son.

"Whilst the palatine is engaged at the Diet, her ladyship, Thaddeus and myself, with now and then a few visitors from Warsaw, form the most agreeable parties you can imagine. We walk together, we read together, we converse together, we sing together: at least the Countess sings to us; which is all the same and you know that time flies swiftly on the wings of harmony. he has an uncommonly sweet voice, and a taste which I never heard paralleled. By the way, you cannot imagine any thing more beautiful than the Polish music. It partakes much of that delicious languor, so distinguished in the Turkish airs; with a mingling of those wandering melodies, which the now forgotten composers must have caught from the Tartars. In short, whilst the Countess is singing I hardly suffer myself to breathe; and I feel, just what our poetical friend, William Scarsdald, said a twelve month ago, at a concert of yours, I feel as if love sat upon my heart, and flapped it with his wings.'

"I have tried all my powers of persuasion to prevail on this charming Countess to visit our country. I have over and over again told her of you, and described you to her; that you are near her own age; (for this lovely woman, though she has a son near nineteen, is not inore than forty) that you are as fond of your Ordinary boy, as she is of her peerless one; that in fine, you and my father will receive her, and Thaddeus, and the palatine, with open arms and hearts, if they will condescend to visit our humble home, at the end of the war. I believe, that I have repeated my entreaties, both to her ladyship and my friend, regularly every day, since my arrival at Villanow; but always with the same ill success; she smiles and refuses: and Thaddeus 'shakes his ambrosial curls' with a very 'godlike frown' of denial; I hope self-denial in compliment to his mother's cruel and unprovoked negative.

Before I proceed, my dear mother, I must give you some idea of the real appearance of this palace. I recol lect your having read a superficial account of it in the few slight sketehes that have been published in England of Po

land; but the pictures which they exhibit are so faint, that they hardly resemble the original. Pray do not laugh at me, if I begin in the true descriptive style! you know, there is only one way to draw houses, and lands, and rivers; so that no blame can be attached to me as will'e nill'e, I take the beaten path. To commence.

"When we left Zelime, and advanced into the Province of Masovia, the country around Prague rose at every step in fresh beauty. Then numberless chains of gently-swelling hills which encompass it on each side the Vistula, were in some parts chequered with corn-fields, meadows and green pastures, covered with sheep, whose soft-bleatings trilled in my ears, and transported my senses into new regions; so different were my charmed and tranquilized feelings, from that tossing of mind, attendant on the horrors I had recently witnessed. Surely, there is nothing in the rational world short of the most undivided reciprocal attachment, that has such power over the workings of the human heart, as the mild sweetness of nature. The most ruffled temper, when emerging from the town, will subside into a perfect calm, at the sight of a wide stretch of landscape reposing in the twilight of a fine evening. It is then, that the balm of peace settles upon the heart, unfetters the spirit and elevates the soul to the creator. It is then, that we behold the parent of the universe in his works: when we see his grandeur, in earth, sea, and sky; feel his affection, in the emotions which they raise and half mortal, half etherialized, forget where we are, in the anticipation of what that world must be, of which this lovely earth is merely the shadow.

"Autumn seemed to be unfolding all her beauties, to greet the return of the palatine. In one part, the havmakers were mowing the hay, and heaping it into stacks; in another the reapers were gathering up the wheat, with a troop of rosy little gleaners behind them; each of whom might have tempted the proudest Halemon in christendom to have changed her toil into a gentle duty' Such a landscape, intermingled with the little farms of these honest people, whom the philanthrophy of Sobieski had rendered free,(for it is a tract of his extensive domains that I am describing,) gave me sensations that reminded me of