It was like a thunder-stroke-I instantly slipped my hand into my pocket, and hastily gave her therefrom a five-shilling piece. Thanks, my bonny one," said the woman; and setting up a shout of contemptuous laughter, she bounded down Caroline Street, into Russel Street, singing, or rather yelling, a joyous song. Ellis did not speak during this scene; he pressed my arm tightly, and we quickened our pace. We said nothing to each other till we turned into Bedford Street, and the lights and passengers of Tottenham Court Road reassured us. "What do you think of that?" said Ellis to me. "SEEING IS BELIEVING," was my reply. I have never passed that dark corner of Bedford Square in the evening since. SEARCHING AFTER GOD. [Thomas Heywood, died 1649. Although, as he himself tells us, he had "either an entire hand, or at the least a main finger in two hundred and twenty plays," scarcely anything is known of his life. His most notable production was, A Woman Killed with Kindness, which has been highly commended by Schlegel and other critics.] I sought thee round about, O thou my God, I said unto the Earth "Speake, art thou He?" "I am not."-I enquired of creatures all, In generall, Contain'd therein;-they with one voice proclaime, That none amongst them challenged such a name. I askt the seas, and all the deeps below, My God to know. I askt the reptiles, and whatever is In the abysse; Even from the shrimpe to the leviathan Enquiry ran; But in those deserts which no line can sound The God I sought for was not to be found. I askt the aire if that were He? but lo! I from the towering eagle to the wren, If any feather'd fowle 'mongst them were such? But they all, much Offended with my question, in full quire, I askt the heavens, sun, moon, and stars, but they Said "We obey The God thou seek'st." I askt, what eye or eare Could see or heare; What in the world I might descry or know -With an unanimous voice, all these things said, "We are not God, but we by him were made." I askt the world's great universal masse, Which with a mighty and strong voice reply'd, "I am not He, O man! for know, that I By him on high Was fashion'd first of nothing, thus instated, And sway'd by him, by whom I was created." A scrutiny within myself I, than, "O man, what art thou?"-What more could I say, Than dust and clay? Fraile, mortal, fading, a meere puffe, a blast, That cannot last; Enthroned to-day, to-morrow in an urne; Form'd from that earth to which I must returne. I askt myself, what this great God might be That fashion'd me? I answer'd-The all-potent, solely immense, Surpassing sense; Unspeakable, inscrutable, eternall, Lord over all; The only terrible, strong, just, and true, Who hath no end, and no beginning knew. He is the well of life, for he doth give To all that live, Both breath and being: he is the Creator, Earth, aire, and fire. Of all things that subsist He hath the list; Of all the heavenly host, or what earth claimes, And now, my God, by thine illumining grace, Thy glorious face, (So far forth as it may discover'd be), Methinks I see; And though invisible and infinite, To human sight Thou, in thy mercy, justice, truth, appearest; In which to our weake senses thou com'st nearest. O make us apt to seeke, and quicke to finde, Give us love, hope, and faith in thee to trust, Remit all our offences, we entreat; Most Good, most Great! Grant that our willing, though unworthy quest Answer'd-"To finde thy God thou must look higher." May, through thy grace, admit us 'mongst the blest MASANIELLO, THE FISHERMAN OF NAPLES.1 Tomaso Anello, or, as he is more generally called, Masaniello, was the son of a fisherman of Amalfi, where he was born about the year 1623. He followed the occupation of his father, was clad in the meanest attire, went about barefoot, and gained a scanty livelihood by angling for fish, and hawking them about for sale. Who could have imagined that in this poor abject fisher-boy the populace were to find the being destined to lead them on to one of the most extraordinary revolutions recorded in history? Yet so it was. No monarch ever had the glory of rising so suddenly to so lofty a pitch of power as the barefooted Masaniello. Naples, the metropolis of many fertile provinces, the queen of many noble cities, the resort of princes, of cavaliers, and of heroes. Naples, inhabited by more than 600,000 souls, abounding in all kinds of resources, glorying in its strength. This proud city saw itself forced, in one short day, to yield to one of its meanest sons such obedience as in all its history it had never before shown to the mightiest of its liege sovereigns. In a few hours the fisher lad was at the head of 150,000 men; in a few hours there was no will in Naples but his; and in a few hours it was freed from all sorts of taxes, and restored to all its ancient privileges. The fishing wand was exchanged for the truncheon of command, the sea - -boy's jacket for cloth of silver and gold. He made the town be entrenched; he placed sentinels to guard it against danger from without; and he established a system of police within, which awed the worst banditti in the world into fear. Armies passed in review before him; even fleets owned his sway. During the viceroyship of the Duke of Arcos the Neapolitans were much oppressed by heavy taxes on the necessities of life. At length, in 1647, the viceroy mortgaged to certain merchants the duty on fruit, at once 1 From the Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. This once popular periodical was one of the early pioneers of cheap literature, and it ran a very successful career from November, 1822, till 1849. It was first edited by Mr. Thomas Byerly, the Reuben of the Percy Anecdotes (the Percy Anecdotes, by Sholto and Reuben Percy, 20 vols.) At his death it was placed in the hands of a Mr. Ray for six months; then it was entrusted to Mr. John Timbs, who carried it on until 1840. Upon his retirement the editorship passed successively into the hands of Mr. D. M. Aird, Mr. Gaspey, and Mr. J. B. St. John. the luxury and staple of life to the temperate Neapolitans. Masaniello saw with grief his countrymen obliged to sell their beds, and even abandon their offspring, in order to pay the odious impost. At length his sense of the public misery was worked up to the utmost by an outrage on his own family. His wife was carrying a small quantity of contraband flour home for her children when she was seized and dragged to prison; nor was it until he was obliged to sell his furniture, and pay 100 ducats, that he could obtain her release. He now resolved to rescue his country from slavery; he harangued the fruit-dealers in the market-place, urging them not to buy a single basket of the growers until the duty was taken off. He then assembled a number of boys, who went wailing through the streets, and calling out for redress. When remonstrated with by some of his neighbours, and jested with by others, he replied, You may laugh at me now; but you shall soon see what the fool Masaniello can do: let me alone, and give me my way, and if I do not set you free from all your taxes, and from the slavery that now grinds you to death, may I be cursed and called a villain for ever!" In the meantime Masaniello's army of boys amounted to 5000, all active and docile youths, from the age of sixteen to that of nineteen. He armed each with a slender cane, and bade them meet him in the market-place next morning, Sunday, July 7, 1647-a day when a sort of mock fight and storming of a wooden tower used to take place between the Neapolitan youths in the respective characters of Turks and Christians. It was during the confusion occasioned by this custom that Masaniello ran in among the children and the mob and cried out, "No taxes! no taxes!" In vain did the magistrates attempt to quell the mob. Masaniello armed his troops with the plunder of the tower, and harangued them. 'Rejoice," said he, "my dear companions and countrymen, give God thanks, and the most gracious Virgin of Carmine, that the hour of our redemption, and the time of our deliverance, draweth nigh. This poor fisherman, barefooted as he is, shall, like another Moses, who delivered the Israelites from the cruel rod of Pharaoh, the Egyptian king, free you from all gabels and impositions that were ever laid on you. It was a fisherman-I mean St. Peter-who redeemed the city of Rome from the slavery of the devil to the liberty of Christ; and the whole world followed that deliverance, and obtained their freedom from the same bondage. Now another fisherman, one Masaniello-I am the man-shall release the city of Naples, and with it a whole kingdom, from the cruel yoke of tolls and gabels. Shake off, therefore, from this moment the yoke. Be free, if you have but courage, from those intolerable oppressions under which you have hitherto groaned. To bring this glorious end about, I do not care for myself, if I am torn to pieces, and dragged about the city of Naples, through all the kennels and gutters that belong to it; let all the blood in this body flow cheerfully out of these veins; let this head fly from these shoulders at the touch of the fatal steel, and be perched up over this marketplace, on a pole to be gazed at, yet shall I die contented and glorious; it will be triumph and honour sufficient for me to think that my blood and life were sacrificed in so worthy a cause, and that I became the saviour of my country." Masaniello ceased to speak, and the shouts of the multitude attested the spirit that his words had excited. The firing of the toll-house, with all the account-books that were kept there, and many commodities that belonged to the farmers of the customs, was a signal for a general conflagration of all that was rare, precious, and curious throughout Naples. The houses of the nobility were ransacked; their fine furniture and valuable pictures, their libraries, wardrobes, jewels, and plate, were all brought forth into the streets, and thrown into immense fires, which were fed every moment by additions of the most costly fuel that luxury could supply. The house of a man who had originally carried bread up and down the streets of Naples, but becoming a favourite of the viceroy's had been enabled to acquire immense wealth by dealing in the funds, was sought out by the mob with peculiar eagerness. They assembled round his gates with lighted torches in their hands, forced an entrance, and, stripping the rooms as they went along, threw the furniture, books, papers, and everything that they could lay their hands on, out of the windows. Twenty-three large trunks were thus hurled into the streets, and being forced open by the violence of the fall, displayed the richest tissues and embroideries in gold and silver to the eyes of the beholders, who notwithstanding immediately consigned them to the flames, along with a cabinet full of oriental pearls; exclaiming, as they had done before, that they were wrung from the heart's blood of the people, and should perish in flames, as the extortioners themselves ought to do. an interview; Masaniello, in the meantime, organized his forces, which assumed all the appearance of a well-disciplined army, amounting to 114,000 men. While a negotiation was going on with the viceroy, an attempt was made to assassinate Masaniello by some of the viceroy's troops, who discharged a shower of musket-bullets at him, one of which singed the breast of his shirt. Becoming distrustful by this act of treachery, Masaniello issued several sumptuary laws, making every person leave off wearing cloaks or long garments, under which daggers could be concealed. He demanded a treaty from the viceroy, to secure their liberties, which was granted. The treaty was accordingly solemnly read in the cathedral church, amidst countless mul- . titudes of people, and Masaniello afterwards went to pay his respects to the viceroy at his excellency's particular request. He would have gone in his mariner's dress, as usual, but at the persuasion of the archbishop he consented to lay it aside, and appeared on horseback, attired in a white habit, splendidly embroidered, a magnificent plume of feathers waved from his hat, and in his hand he carried a drawn sword; thus accoutred he rode in front of the archbishop's carriage. His brother, also richly habited, rode on his right hand; one of his colleagues, Arpaja, tribune of the commons, on the left; and the other, Julio Genevino, last; followed by a hundred and sixty companies of horse and foot, consisting in all of about fifty thousand men. All eyes were fixed on Masaniello as he passed, all hearts sprang towards him, all voices joined in pronouncing him "the saviour of his country." The way before him was strewed by grateful hands with palm and olive branches, the balconies were hung with the richest silks to do him honour as he passed, and the ladies threw from them the choicest flowers and garlands, accompanying their homage with the most respectful and admiring obeisances. The air was filled with the sweetest music, and Naples, which for three days before was a scene of the most appalling anarchy and tumult, now presented nothing but images of peace and joy. A day was fixed for ratifying the treaty in public; but that day saw a wonderful change in Masaniello; his incessant fatigue and anxiety, his want of rest, and neglect of food, were too much for a frame merely mortal, and his vigorous mind became affected. The viceroy took advantage of this circumstance, proclaimed his authority at an end, and promised a reward The viceroy became alarmed, and solicited of ten thousand ducats to any one who should VOL. I. 19 |