He left a Corsair's name to other times,

Link'd with one virtue, and a thousand crimes.

8 That the point of honour which is represented in one instance of Conrad's character has not been carried beyond the bounds of probability, may perhaps be in some degree confirmed by the following anecdote of a brother buccaneer in the year 1814 :"Our readers have all seen the account of the enterprise against the pirates of Barrataria ; but few, we believe, were informed of the situation, history, or nature of that establishment. For the information of such as were unacquainted with it, we have procured from a friend the following interesting narrative of the main facts, of which he has personal knowledge, and which cannot fail to interest some of our readers :Barrataria is a bay, or a narrow arm of the Gulf of Mexico; it runs through a rich but very flat country, until it reaches within a mile of the Mississippi river, fifteen miles below the city of New Orleans. The bay has branches almost innumerable, in which persons can lie concealed from the severest scrutiny. It communicates with three lakes which lie on the south-west side, and these, with the lake of the same name, and which lies contiguous to the sea, where there is an island formed by the two arms of this lake and the sea. The east and west points of this island were fortified, in the year 1811, by a band of pirates, under the command of one Monsieur La Fitte. A large majority of these outlaws are of that class of the population of the state of Louisiana who fled from the island of St. Domingo during the troubles there, and took refuge in the island of Cuba; and when the last war between France and Spain commenced, they were compelled to leave that island with the short notice of a few days. Without ceremony they entered the United States, the most of them the state of Louisiana, with all the negroes they had possessed in Cuba. They were notified by the Governor of that State of the clause in the constitution which forbade the importation of slaves; but, at the same time, received the assurance of the Governor that he would obtain, if possible, the approbation of the General Government for their retaining this property.-The island of Barrataria is situated about lat. 29 deg. 15 min., lon. 92. 30.; and is as remarkable for its health as for the superior scale and shell fish with which its waters abound. The chief of this horde, like Charles de Moor, had, mixed with his many vices, some virtues. In the year 1813, this party had, from its turpitude and boldness, claimed the attention of the Governor of Louisiana; and to break up the establishment he thought proper to strike at the head. He therefore, offered a reward of 500 dollars for the head of Monsieur La Fitte, who was well known to the inhabitants of the city of New Orleans, from his immediate connection, and his once having been a fencing-master in that city of great reputation, which art he learnt in Buonaparte's army, where he was a captain. The reward which was offered by the Governor for the head of La Fitte was answered by the offer of a reward from the latter of 15,000 for the head of the Governor. The Governor ordered out a company to march from the city to La Fitte's island, and to burn and destroy all the property, and to bring to the city of New Orleans all his banditti. This company, under the command of a man who had been the intimate associate of this bold Captain, approached very near to the fortified island, before he saw a man, or heard a sound, until he heard a whistle, not unlike a boatswain's call. Then it was he found himself surrounded by armed men who had emerged from the secret avenues which led into Bayou. Here it was that the modern Charles de Moor developed his few noble traits; for to this man, who had come to destroy his life and all that was dear to him, he not only spared his life, but offered him that which would have made the honest soldier easy for the remainder of his days, which was indignantly refused. He then, with the approbation of his captor, returned to the city. This circumstance, and some concomitant events, proved that this band of pirates was not to be taken by land. Our naval force having always been small in that quarter, exertions for the destruction of this illicit establishment could not be expected from them until augmented; for an officer of the navy, with most of the gun-boats on that station, had to retreat from an overwhelming force of La Fitte's. So soon as the augmentation of the navy authorised an attack, one was made; the overthrow of this

banditti has been the result: and now this almost invulnerable point and key to New Orleans is clear of an enemy, it is to be hoped the government will hold it by a strong military force."—American Newspaper.

In Noble's continuation of "Granger's Biographical History," there is a singular passage in his account of Archbishop Blackbourne; and as in some measure connected with the profession of the hero of the foregoing poem, I cannot resist the temptation of extracting it. "There is something mysterious in the history and character of Dr. Blackbourne. The former is but imperfectly known; and report has even asserted he was a buccaneer; and that one of his brethren in that profession having asked, on his arrival in England, what had become of his old chum, Blackbourne, was answered, he is Archbishop of York. We are informed, that Blackbourne was installed sub-dean of Exeter in 1694, which office he resigned in 1702; but after his successor Lewis Barnet's death, in 1704, he regained it. In the following year he became dean; and in 1714 held with it the archdeanery of Cornwall. He was consecrated Bishop of Exeter, February 24, 1716; and translated to York, November 28, 1724, as a reward, according to court scandal, for uniting George I. to the Duchess of Munster. This, however, appears to have been an unfounded calumny. As archbishop he behaved with great prudence, and was equally respectable as the guardian of the revenues of the see. Rumour whispered he retained the vices of his youth, and that a passion for the fair sex formed an item in the list of his weaknesses; but so far from being convicted by seventy witnesses, he does not appear to have been directly criminated by one. In short, I look upon these aspersions as the effects of mere malice. How is it possible a buccaneer should have been so good a scholar as Blackbourne certainly was? He who had so perfect a knowledge of the classics (particularly of the Greek tragedians), as to be able to read them with the same ease as he could Shakspeare, must have taken great pains to acquire the learned languages; and have had both leisure and good masters. But he was undoubtedly educated at Christ-church College, Oxford. He is allowed to have been a pleasant man; this, however, was turned against him, by its being said, he gained more hearts than souls.'"

"The only voice that could soothe the passions of the savage (Alphonso III.) was that of an amiable and virtuous wife, the sole object of his love; the voice of Donna Isabella, the daughter of the Duke of Savoy, and the grand-daughter of Philip II. King of Spain. Her dying words sunk deep into his memory; his fierce spirit melted into tears; and, after the last embrace, Alphonso retired into his chamber to bewail his irreparable loss, and to meditate on the vanity of human life."-Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works, vol. iii., p. 473.

ᏞᎪᎡᎪ

INTRODUCTION TO LARA.

In the Dedication to "The Corsair" (Jan. 2, 1814), Lord Byron announced that he should publish nothing further for several years. For a time the resolution increased in strength, and in the April following he came to the most extraordinary decision that ever entered the mind of a successful author, which was not only to write no more in future, but to recall every line he had already penned. He sent Mr. Murray a draft for the sum which had been paid for the copyrights, and an appeal to his good nature from the publisher, alone prevented the execution of the scheme. While Europe rang with his fame, the hisses of envy, batred, and malice made themselves heard amid the loud applause. His friends, who acknowledged that no one wrote so well, feared he would write too much; and he himself doubted the solid worth of what he wrote so fast. Under the united influence of these impressions he resolved to lay by, and meant perhaps, in the interval, to gather himself up for a mighty spring, when the appetite of the public was increased by abstinence. But he might have determined not to breathe with an equal chance of keeping his vow. Before the end of May "Lara" was begun, and was carried on chiefly while the author undressed after balls and masquerades. It was published, anonymously, in August, in the same volume with the "Jacqueline" of Rogers, a conjunction too unnatural to last beyond the hour. An acquaintance of Lord Byron, who was reading the book in the Brighton coach, was asked by a passenger the name of the author, and on replying that they were two, "Ay, Ay,' rejoined the querist," a joint concern, I suppose,-summot like Sternhold and Hopkins." The "vile comparison" delighted Lord Byron, always pleased with any ludicrous absurdity which struck at literary fame. It is evident that the tale is the sequel of "The Corsair"-that Lara is Conrad; Kaled, Gulnare, and that Medora was snatched from Sir Ezzelin and fled with her lover to the Pirate's Island. A few months after the appearance of the poem Lord Byron pronounced that it was "his most unpopular effervescence, being too little narrative, and too metaphysical to please the majority of readers." The continuation is certainly tame in comparison with "The Corsair." The character of Lara-in which Lord Byron drew again from his personal history-is rather tediously minute; and, with much fine verse, there is not the former living language, and hurrying action, to bear us onward with breathless haste. George Ellis objected that the mysterious vision, which appears to Lara in his antique hall, was an excrescence on the poem, and it is now obvious that the connection was not with the story, but with the author's recollections of his own old haunted Gothic Abbey. The skull, too, placed beside Lara's book was part of the cherished furniture of Newstead; and, at one period of Lord Byron's history, the woman, disguised like a page, was also there, to complete the picture. The conclusion of the second canto, commencing from the sixteenth section, is full of spirit and pathos, and many of the elegant and elaborate descriptions only disappoint from the inevitable contrast with the more brilliant "Corsair." Lord Byron fancied he had varied the couplet of "Lara" from that of its predecessor, but, except that the latter is more antithetical, we have not been able to detect the difference. Seven hundred pounds was the price of the copyright.