DECEMEER, 1834. The same circumstance which has already struck me as most remarkable about the society of this side of the Alleganies, continues to surprize and delight me the farther I proceed. On this head, I have already noted my impressions of Of Louisville, I have also much to say. Cincinnati. Concerning Judge RowAN, Mr. PRENTICE, Mr. MARSHALL, the Reverend Mr. CLARK, and numbers of Sailor. Why, what the dickens should it be?- others in this most hospitable city, I need observe no That's a jacket, to be sure.

But there is one person whom I am bound to mention with especial emphasis for the delight he made me experience in an acquaintance, which I hope, I may be permitted to call a friendship.

I had ceased to be astonished at the multitudes of fine minds and at the remarkable courtliness of manners, I had so often met with in these regions which we are taught by the caricaturists in travel books and plays, to regard as demi-savage, when a new wonder came upon me. I had been introduced to a gentleman by the name of KEATS. He was mentioned to me as a merchant of Louisville, thriving and much respected; a resident there for many years and by birth an Englishman. Mr. KEATS called upon me. I was at his house. I have attended few parties in better taste. It is rare to find cordiality and unpretending elegance more attractively blended than in the parties given by Mr. and Mrs. KEATS.

There was no ostentation of literature, no attempt at conversational parade about Mr. KEATS; he was manly, but modest; and rather disclaimed the least pretension to any regard, excepting as a mere man of business, and a person deeply devoted to the best interests of his adopted country. It was not until some time that I discovered, and that from a third person, that he was the brother of JOHN KEATS, the Poet of England; and when I conversed with him upon the subject, I found him ardently attached to the memory of the gifted but ill-starred enthusiast, of whose relationship the Mr. KEATS of Louisville, both in taste and talent seems entirely worthy.

How fortunate it is that these new cities of our Western country, should have been favored, among their earliest inhabitants, with persons of high endowments, and capable of giving the best tone to manners as well as to mind!

"He is a loss to our literature; his fragment of 'Hy-
perion' seems actually inspired by the Titans, and is as
sublime as Eschylus." But I must not forget the
sonnet, here it is:-

UNPUBLISHED SONNET ON FAME,
BY JOHN KEATS.
Fame, like a wayward girl will still be coy
To those who woo her with too slavish knees,
But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy,
And dotes the more upon a heart at ease.
She is a gipsy-will not speak to those,

Who have not learnt to be content without her;
A jilt, whose ear was never whispered close,
Who think they scandal her who talk about her ;
A very gipsy is she, Nilus born,

Sister-in-law to jealous Potiphar.

Ye love sick bards, repay her scorn for scorn,
Ye love-lorn artists, madmen that ye are,
Make your best bow to her and bid adieu,

Then, if she likes it, she will follow you.
Mr. KEATS Copied for me another unpublished sonnet
by his brother; which, in the letter containing it, is
preceded by the following beautiful note:

"The fifth canto of DANTE pleases me more and more; it is that one in which he meets with Paulo and Francesca. I had passed many days in rather a low state of mind, and in the midst of them, I dreamt of being in that region of Hell. The dream was one of the most delightful enjoyments I ever had in my life. I floated about the whirling atmosphere as it is described, with a beautiful figure, to whose lips mine were joined, as it seemed, for an age; and in the midst of all this cold and darkness, I was warm;even flowery tree tops sprung up, and we rested on them, sometimes with the lightness of a cloud, till the wind blew us away again. I tried a Sonnet upon it. There are fourteen lines, but nothing to what I felt in it. O! that I could dream it every night!" UNPUBLISHED SONNET,

BY JOHN KEATS.

As Hermes once took to his feathers light

When lulled Argus, baffled, swoon'd and slept,
So, on a delphic reed my idle spright,

So play'd, so charm'd, so conquer'd, so bereft
The dragon world of all its hundred eyes;
And seeing it asleep, it fled away:
Not to pure Ida, with its snow-cold skies,
Nor unto Tempe, where Jove griev'd that day,
But to that second circle of sad hell,
Where, in the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw
Of rain, and hailstones, lovers need not tell

I do not know when I have enjoyed a greater treat than I did one evening at the house of Mr. GEORGE KEATS, when he indulged me with a glance at the private correspondence, including much of the unpublished poetry, of his distinguished brother. Nothing which has yet appeared from the pen of JOHN KEATS, can give any idea of his genius and the gentleness and the affectionate earnestness of his feelings, in the least comparable with the testimonials afforded by these manuscripts. Mr. GEORGE KEATS was pleased with my plan of the Belles-Lettres Journal of the Two Hemispheres; he exerted himself strenuously to seek patrons for me; and he promised that he would still further promote my views, by enabling me to enrich my work with portions of the invaluable papers of which I speak. He has left me, in my Album, a very precious remembrancer, in an inscription of his own, conveying some of these same unpublished treasures of his brother's poetry. The first of them which I shall transcribe, cannot be read without emotion by any one who recollects that it to the unkindness of the awarders of literary fame in England, that the untimely death of the author has been ascribed: that he burst a blood-vessel on reading a savage attack on his 'Endymion' in the London I have a specimen of one of these unpremeditated Quarterly Review, and died at Rome of a decline pro- casions, in the handwriting of JOHN KEATS, just scribduced in consequence. Even Byron, who had taken Lled as if playing with his pen, in lines sometimes some prejudice against him; confessed after the decease crooked, sometimes straight, and sometimes with a row of poor KEATS, that he had done him injustice and added, of words blurred out with his finger, before the ink was

was

Their sorrows.-Pale were the sweet lips I saw Pale were the lips I kissed, and fair the form I floated with about that melancholy storm. The two gems I have here preserved, and all the others I saw, seem to have been brought out without an effort; as if, in the rapid scribbling of a letter, the writer's mind had unconsciously and involuntarily flowed into poetry; and then he would rein back his powers, and proceed with the ordinary jog trot of this working day world-not in the least aware that he had just given forth treasures which might last as long as "his land's language."

dry. There is no title given to the scrap, no explanation of its bearing. I have not his printed poems by me, but I do not remember any such lines among them. His brother gave them to me as unpublished; and, although they were merely preserved as a literary curiosity, they will afford pleasure for their wild beauty. Hither, hither, love

"Tis a shady mead-
Hither, hither, love!

Let us feed and feed!
Hither, hither, sweet-
"Tis a cowslip bed-
Hither, hither, sweet!
"Tis with dew bespread!
Hither, hither, dear,

By the breath of life,
Hither, hither, dear!-

Be the summer's wife!
Though one moment's pleasure
In one moment flies-

Though the passion's treasure
In one moment dies;-

Yet it has not passed

Think how near, how near!

And while it doth last,

Think how dear, how dear!

Hither, hither, hither

Love this boon has sent

If I die and wither

I shall die content!

For a song and for a charm,
See, they glisten in alarm,
And the moon is waxing warm,

To hear what I shall say.

Moon, keep wide thy golden ears-
Hearken, stars-and hearken, spheres-
Hearken thou eternal sky!

I sing an infant's lullaby,
A pretty lullaby!

Listen, listen, listen, listen,
Glisten, glisten, glisten, glisten,
And hear my lullaby!
Though the rushes that will make
Its cradle, still are in the lake;
Though the linen then that will be
Its swathe, is on the cotton tree;
Though the woollen that will keep
It warm, is on the silly sheep-
Listen, starlight! listen, listen-
Glisten, glisten, glisten, glisten,
And hear my lullaby!

Child, I see thee-Child, I've found thee
Midst of the quiet all around thee-
Child, I see thee-Child, I spy thee,
And thy mother sweet, is nigh thee-
Child, I know thee. Child no more
But a poet evermore.

See, see-the lyre, the lyre

In a flame of fire

Upon the little cradle's top
Flaring, flaring, flaring
Past the eye-sight's bearing!
Awake it from its sleep
And see if it can keep
Its eyes upon the blaze!
Amaze, amaze!

It stares, it stares, it stares,
It dares what no one dares,-

It lifts its little hand into the flame
Unharm'd, and on the strings
Paddles a little tune, and sings
With dumb endeavor sweetly.
Bard art thou completely!-
Little Child

The most precious to me, however, of all those treasures, is the one which I found Mr. GEORGE KEATS the most reluctant to yield, merely because it related to himself; and he always appeared to me as if really distressed even at the possibility that he might be suspected of any ambition, beyond that of a merchant and useful private gentleman. Nevertheless, the verses in question ought not to be lost. They seem to me the most striking, perhaps, among all the productions of their extraordinary author. To us, who know how much in poetry we have to be proud of, it may excite astonishment that so well stored a mind as that of JOHN KEATS should not have counted among its sources of delight, some knowledge of what rare morceaux our bards have occasionally sent forth to the world; but the truth is, America has been much better known to England within these last four or five years, than she was at the time when JOHN KEATS wrote. Hence we may account for his not being aware that we had ever possessed a poet; and for his revelling in the dream that the son of his own brother might become the first poet How glorious were the early hours, when first our infant Earth,

of the land which that beloved brother had adopted as his own. It is obvious that the verses were given without premeditation and on the spur of the moment. They run on, in the letter, after a remark in these

words :

"If I had a prayer to make for any great good, next to Tom's recovery, it should be that one of your children should be the first American poet. I have a great mind to make a prophecy, and they say prophecies work out their own fulfilment."

"Tis the witching time of night:
Orbed is the moon, and bright-
And the stars, they glisten, glisten,
Seeming with bright eyes to listen
For what listen they?
23

O' the western wild
Bard art thou completely!-
Sweetly with dumb endeavor
A Poet now or never
Little Child

O' the western wild

A Poet now or never.

Original.
CREATION.

H. P.

From midst the gloom of darkness void, was called into birth.
The smiling fields were all arrayed in Nature's robe of green,
And sunlight showed the beauties rare of that enchanting scene.
Upon the hills, the merry flocks, in gayest mood did play,
The feathered songsters of the grove, were vocal through the

day;

And all the countless tribes that fill the earth, and sea, and air,
Fresh from their Maker's hand were seen-the objects of His

care.

And last was formed majestic Man, and of this wide domain,
The rule and sway were given him, till all is dust again;
And when he saw the mountain bold, the plain, and crystal flood,
He knew it was a pleasant world, and all around was good.
But soon these stirring scenes to him lost all their joyous tone,
For though within a Paradise, he found himself alone,
Nor saw the beauty of the morn, or day's bewitching close,
Until, in perfect loveliness, his partner, WOMAN rose!

OR,

Original.

GABRIEL DE GLOWR;

THE FORTALICE OF FALASIDE.

"I do remember well the artless homage,
Which the fond Scotehman to his country paid,
Smiling and weeping, hanging to her bosom-
As if his only hope of joy on earth,
Was deeply twined in her prosperity,
Those fond endearments which seek no return,
Which even error sanctifies and strengthens."

de Glowr and his little band, proclaimed in the hearing of friend and foe, their allegiance to Scotland's rightful King, and swore by the glittering point of a clansman's steel, that David Bruce should recover his heirdom, or their carcasses manure the highlands of their nativity; and the oath of a faithful Scot, whether sworn by his plumes, his helmet, his sword or his country's rights, is as sacred to him, as the worshipped fire of the vestal's lamp, to the religious devotee whose life is sacrificed to GLOWRING GIBLEY, or Gabriel de Glowr, as his name the holy purpose of perpetuating the eternal flame-and has been more modernly interpreted, was one of those time soon told how venerated were the vows of the Barons, and how dear to their hearts were the oaths they bold and daring outlaws who, in the days of David had sworn, and recorded upon the battlements of the Bruce, so annoyed the English usurper of Scottish rights Fortalice. by repeated ambush skirmishes, that not unfrequently The patriots of Scotland were scattered England's army, with her commanding King at its front, upon a hundred hills, each company with its chosen was compelled to fly before a contemptible band of fugi- slightest hope of prospering was held out, and hunted leader, sallying forth to desperate conquest when the tive warriors, whose only hope of success against their back to their hiding-places by their pursuers, whose powerful opponents consisted in wily stratagem, and ever and aron a desperate encounter with the over-cient to have dismayed any but the bosoms of determinsuperiority in numbers and battle equipage, was suffiwhelming force of their oppressors. The Fortalice of " Falaside, a huge misshapen relic of ancient Scottish resolved to restore their country to its wonted freedom. ed loyalists, leagued for the rights of their King, and grandeur, was the residence of the outlawed chieftain; a residence well adapted to the name and title of its The situation of these outlawed champions was deslord and master, an occupant well becoming his perate in the extreme; they were exposed alike to the rough and hidden home, that frowned from the midst of relentless fury of the disciplined army of Edward, and an immense and overgrown forest, a rude embrasured the deliberate inveteracy, and hidden malice of tory castle of the feudal times, whose tall towers were rearpartisans, whose treacherous souls cowered at the feet ed and fortified to bid defiance to the lawless attacks of of the puissant pretender, acknowledging the power ravaging banditti. In this place, secured from the asthey despised, because they envied the elevation of some saults of foes without, a band of self-styled Barons, with of their countrymen more distinguished than themthe renowned Gabriel at their head, assembled often, selves, or expected a reward for their humility and and in their self-constituted judiciary, adopted measures submission-a degradation which seldom fails to obtain to effect their country's release from the thraldom and the supreme contempt of the authority to which they power of the tyrant, and consulted each other in regard bow, and the deserved contumely of almost all the world to making honorable additions to the land they already beside. In view of these disheartening circumstances, held in possession. The Fortalice stood a considerable there were many undaunted heroes prepared to contend distance from the high-road upon the highest hill be- for every foot of ground upon the Scottish side of the tween the Tweed and Musselburgh, a town as honest as border, and their devotion to the cause they had so the times, not far from the Border, and famed in history bravely espoused was fully manifested in the hardships for one inglorious and unchivalric specimen of unwar- and privations they so willingly and triumphantly endulike enterprise which occurred between its would-be red; dispersed as they were over the whole country, Knightly inhabitants and the distinguished proprietor of living in dens and caves, their only subsistence consisted Falaside, and which, for ever, in the opinion of true in what they could with difficulty procure upon the barScottish clansmen, stamped infamy upon the name and rens they were forced to inhabit. There was scarcely character of a Musselburgher. Among every people, and a hill in Scotland, but what at some time or other was in every age, have been and are still to be found, dis- lighted by the fires of those persevering patriots, who loyal, restless spirits, whose views of right and wrong, were prepared to give up life rather than wear the galdirected solely by interest, are in opposition to those ling yoke of an oppressor. Scattered in this manner of the " powers that be," in the important prerogative among the cliffs and crags of their country, inured to of wielding the gubernatorial sceptre, and the end and toil, and seasoned to fatigue, though little skilled in disaim of whose ambition is to effect the overthrow of the ciplined warfare, they harrassed the veteran army of the government they cannot control, and the downfall of the invaders, and by their repeated random fires, sent many men who have been appointed to administer its delibera- a Southron to render his account before the equable ted regulations. Patricides! they are whose proudest altar of retributive expiation, and when a favorable opexultation, would be in throwing the last faggot upon portunity was afforded, by some well known signal the their country's funeral pyre, forgetting, while they view-numerous clans were soon concentrated, forming an aled the attenuated blaze, that their own death pile was most invulnerable phalanx, and presenting a formidable illumined by its flame. Such were the men of Mussel-appearance before their haughty opposers-then, with burgh, and deep and deadly was the hate they bore the a chosen leader, they would march forward in defiance Barons of the Fortalice, whose only pride was in the of the proud conqueror to a pitched battle, in which execution of the high-born purpose of wresting their they were seldom unsuccessful. home from the grasp of the usurper, and their muchloved soil from the tread of an invading foe. Gabriel

Gabriel de Glowr was less renowed for his skill in regular military arrangement for open warfare, than

selburgh, and the final result of which, as it stands prominently recorded upon the annals of the Fortalice, was the total sacking of Musselburgh and the complete triumph of the Barons.

CHAPTER II.

"By torch, and trumpet fast array'd,
Each warrior drew his battle blade,
And furious every charger neigh'd,
To join the dreadful revelry."

The project of the invasion of England was started, and the forces of Scotland called together; the horizon of almost every hill was lighted up by the fire of some warrior clan, as from cliff to cliff the signal for the concentration of the scattered clans was displayed: the summons was quickly obeyed, and David Bruce mar

the plains of Durham-the attack was made, the city carried by assault, and sacked by the Scottish soldiery. The appearance of Edward, however, at the head of a numerous army, soon compelled the conquerors to fly, which they did in excellent order, bearing away the rich spoils of their conquest. The possessions of the palatine city of Durham were extensive, and every Scot equally shared in its plundered wealth. Bruce in his retreat ventured an assault upon Werk Castle, defended by Joan Plantagenet, who, in the absence of her husband, boldly stood up encouraging her men, and prevented by her valor the overthrow of the Castle. Bruce had not time sufficient to continue the siege, for Edward was close behind him. But when the English King arrived well into Scotland he found no foe with which to contend, for the Scottish clansmen were upon a thousand hills, secure in their hiding-places, and waiting to annoy the Southron army as it should pass the different places of their concealment.

were the leaders of some of his neighboring clansmen, but it ever an enterprise was started, that required deep laid stratagem and cunning manoeuvre, Gabriel was the man; and he scarcely ever attempted an adventure, however difficult or dangerous, but his success was paramount to his expectations. He aspired to nothing more than the government of his thirty-three Barons, and when elected to the command of an expedition in which several clans were combined, he accepted the authority with diffidence. The superstitions of the day, and the miraculous tales of the Fortalice, screened the gaunt home of Gabriel from the vengeance of his immediate neighbors, for hundreds there were about the Tweed who not only favored the pretensions of the usurper in the expression of their sentiments, but who were willing at any moment to take up arms in his cause, and probe deeper the wounds of their already bleeding country.tialled thousands of his countrymen in battle array upon They had long envied Gabriel his success, and, though "flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone," they longed heartily for the hour when the Fortalice of Falaside should be held in possession by another incumbent; but the current history of the day contained too many mysticisms concerning Falaside for an attempt to be made to wrest it from the hand of Gabriel, and the Barons were assiduous in their endeavors to obtain credence for every mystic relation that was propagated concerning their residence, as they were well convinced that their safety principally depended upon the fear that pervaded their invidious neighbors. There were many who suspected strongly the rights of the Barons to the immense lands attached to the rough, unchristian-like edifice, and fain would they have often made it a matter of discussion, but a seal appeared to be upon their lips, and though they could converse freely about every thing else, even the bartering away of their own liberties, yet, when a hint was made of Falaside they shrunk with dismay from the expression of a single syllable otherwise than respectful of Gabriel, his men, or their dwelling. Possession was all the title that Gabriel could produce, and that in the eye of his band was the cap sheet of the law, and sufficient with the assistance of their weapons to be made as formidable as the parchment with the crown-seal of Great Britian and the signature of the Prime Minister. Gabriel had long been secretly regarded by the men of Musselburgh as an intruder, and as he grew every day more and more powerful by his con-⠀ever, after some debate among themselves, concluded to tinued success, and the spoils of his numerous victories, they began to be somewhat alarmed lest he should overrun the whole district, and assume the supreme prerogative of unlimited jurisdiction. It was the policy of the diplomatic chieftain not to increase the number of his followers. He knew his present band was faithful, and he was careful not to admit among them a stranger, for he was aware if the seeds of disunion were once sown, the ruin of his company would have been the consequence; and as he could, at almost any time, command into his service nearly every man from Musselburgh to the Tweed, it was not absolutely necessary that the number of his Barons should be enlarged. In the course of time some of the Musselburghers, more daring than the rest, ventured to speak harshly of Gabriel, and proceeded on from one degree to another until the circumstance transpired that placed eternal enmity between the followers of Gabriel de Glowr and the men of Mus

Gabriel de Glowr and his Barons had passed the Tweed, and were approaching the Fortalice, groaning beneath the weight of "gold and silver store" that they had brought from the plundered city, when they were met by the men of Musselburgh, headed by their worthy Burgomaster, on their way to the assistance of the English army, and to partake of the residue of the plunder: when they heard of the termination of the assault and return of the Scottish forces, they, how

relieve the Barons of their share of the spoil, and retire to their homes as contented as if they had been troubled with their burthen all the way from Durham. Gabriel de Glowr was somewhat surprised at the unreasonable demand of the Musselburghers, but he knew resistance was in vain, for they outnumbered his little company, five to one. After some hesitancy on the part of Gabriel and the preparation for battle on that of the Burgher's, a council being held on both sides, a stipulation was entered into perfectly satisfactory to the Burghers, and more so to the Barons than if they had been compelled to deliver up all their hard-earned booty. The agreement was, that the Barons should sign over to the dignitaries of Musselburgh one half the trophies of their victory, to be distributed among the people as their wisdom might direct, after they had satisfied themselves for the trou ble it required to make the regular and equal division; after which, the Barons thought, there would be very