his great astonishment, he finds that his tormentor is no other than his mistress, the lively Anne Tennison, who has deprived him of his liberty, in order to prevent his siding with the rebels. Notwithstanding this, he afterwards escapes and joins Monmouth, but, before the battle, is dismissed for having shot a presbyterian. After the Duke's defeat, however, he meets with him again; but while he goes to seek assistance, a party of his pursuers come up and make the noble fugitive their prisoner, and Fletcher himself escapes with difficulty. Monmouth's execution, and the parting scene preceding it with Lady Harriet, terminate this portion of the work. In the third volume Dean Tennison makes a conspicuous figure in several of the early chapters: a rather awkward incident introduces him to James, who, struck by the charms of his niece, accedes to her petition, and grants a pardon to the proscribed Fletcher. The monarch's impolitic measures, in the meanwhile, accelerate the impending storm; and the imprisonment of the Bishops, which gives rise to a well-depicted historical scene, serves only as the prelude to greater disturbances. But we must pursue the dean and his niece, who on that eventful day quit London, and are benighted in a wood during a violent storm. Here they fall in with a party of covenanters, at the head of whom is Sandy, whose fanaticism since the dreadful death of his daughter has attained such a height, that he vows to sacrifice the dean to his resentment, as a conspicuous member of that church which he holds in utter abhorrence. The dignitary is rescued from this perilous situation by the arrival of a messenger from Sunderland to Sandy, as one of the leaders of the Presbyterians, promising to restore them to their rights, on condition of their making common cause with the Catholic party against the church. Fletcher, in the meanwhile, who regards himself as the murderer of Sandy's daughter, having killed her bridegroom, and thereby been the cause of her distraction and death, filled with horror and remorse, has turned quaker, and refuses to listen either to Sunderland himself or to Lady Harriet, each of whom attempts to gain him over to their respective parties. Raleigh, who has been sent to the Tower, on suspicion of disloyalty at the battle of Sedgemoor, and of having favoured Monmouth's escape from the field, is at length liberated by his sovereign, when the latter finds himself deserted by most of the nobles on whose co-operation he relied. The arrival of the Prince of Orange, accompanied by the statesmen who had gone to invite him over, hastens the crisis of affairs. In spite of all his injuries, still faithful to his sovereign, Raleigh marches at the head of a troop of the king's forces against the Protestant party; and here he encounters Lady Harriet, who has taken up arms, and, like another Joan of Arc, is determined to fight for the

rights of her country. In vain does she implore him to lay down the sword he has drawn in an ill-advised cause, and come over to her side. Loyalty proves stronger than affection, and the gallant cavalier fights till the fortune of the field declares in favour of Orange. He yields up his sword to the prince, but is permitted to be the bearer of the sad tidings to the unfortunate James. He afterwards assists the queen in her escape to France; and likewise follows the king on his flight from Whitehall, but is treacherously stabbed by a sailor in the boat while crossing the river. Lady Harriet attends on him in his last moments, and receives his parting breath after which she embraces the Catholic religion, and retires to a convent in France. Fletcher, with less desert, is more fortunate, for after three years' abjuration of all worldly vanities, he is reconverted by his mistress, and rewarded with her hand.

Such are a few of the leading incidents of this tale: nor have we here room either to notice any of the other events we have passed over, or to enter into any observations on the merits of the work.

To those who have watched the progress of Danish literature, Mr. Ingemann is already known as an elegant dramatic poet. The work now before us is, we believe, his first romance.

Valdemar the Second flourished in the first half of the thirteenth century, and was dignified with the title of the Victorious, which, in the later years of his reign, he changed for one more noble, though less pompous-that of the Legislator. The story commences with the year 1204, and is opened by a conversation between four of the learned men of that period;-the Archbishop Andreas Suneson of Lund, author of an old Latin poem on religious subjects, called Hexaëmeron; the learned monk, Gunner of Roeskild; the royal physician, Henrik Harpestraeng, and the old historian Saxo-Grammaticus, who is surprised by the three former in the cell of his cloister at Soroe, while engaged in compiling his history of Denmark. The archbishop delivers to Saxo's care and tuition an orphan boy, Karl de Riese, who, in the course of the romance, fills a principal character near King Valdemar. The incidents soon multiply, and the reader's attention is well engaged by vivid description and striking delineations of character. Among others, we have the bold and gloomy Count Albert of North Albingia, one of Valdemar's most distinguished generals; the Lady Helena, who employs her fascinations on the king; and, lastly, the King himself. At a banquet, on beholding her portrait, he becomes enamoured of Margaret, daughter of the King of Bohemia, and sends Strange, one of his Knights, to solicit her hand. This mission is, of course, fatal to the ambition of the Lady Helena, who loses her intellects with her hopes of royalty, and for the rest

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of the romance dwindles into a wandering Witch. Strange succeeds in his mission to the Bohemian court, and stands as his master's proxy during the marriage. We may here mention the two ceremonies which followed the royal marriages of that period. The first is, that the bridegroom played at chess with the bride, and the latter was required to lose thrice. The second we give in the author's own words. The bride, being invited to proceed to the bridal chamber, goes through the ceremony, which is thus related: "The knight rose, respectfully presented his arm to the Princess, and followed by the whole court, led her to the magnificent bridal chamber, where she had to recline on the nuptial couch in her full wedding robes. The knight then sat down on a chair beside her, and, having first carefully wiped his boot of Morocco leather, placed his right foot on the side of the bed, but on the extreme edge, and so lightly, that his golden spurs made not the smallest rent in the royal linen. This ceremony was observed with great grace and decorum, and the knight, having gently touched the sheet with his boot, replaced his foot upon the carpet, and then both arose. The knight then respectfully saluted the young queen and left the bridal chamber, accompanied by all the guests and witnesses.'

But while this ceremony was performing at Prague, the fickle Valdemar fell in love with the fair but haughty Princess Berengard of Portugal, whom he had met while on a visit to Count Schwerin the Black. Under the influence of this new attachment, he dispatched a messenger to the Bohemian court, desiring his proxy, Strange, to proceed no further in his mission: but the marriage had been already solemnized. The meek temper of Margaret soon won the affectionate esteem of Valdemar, and the enthusiastic veneration of the people. Her Bohemian name, Dankmar, was changed by her subjects into Dagmar, signifying Aurora, the mother of day. The memory of the Princess Berengard was fresh in Valdemar's recollection; and to divert his growing melancholy, he engaged in a Crusade against the Pagans of Livonia, and appointed Queen Margaret to the regency during his absence. On the return of the king she procured the release of Bishop Valdemar, who had been a close prisoner for several years; but the artful Ecclesiastic employed his liberty in rekindling old animosities against the king. The second volume is principally filled with descriptions of the wars in which Valdemar was engaged. It also relates the death of Queen Dagmar, an event which occurred shortly after the birth of the Prince Valdemar, and then the king's marriage with the Princess of Portugal was quickly effected.

Among the old ballads of that period, the popular hatred is strongly expressed against this Queen. Valdemar continued a victorious career against Otho, Emperor of Germany, (who had

formed

formed an alliance with Henry the Black and Bishop Valdemar :) but Otho dies, and Valdemar is victorious, and captures Hamburgh, and again engages in a grand Crusade against the Pagans of Livonia. Here, though his army consisted of seventy thousand veteran soldiers, he was in great danger, and, according to the old songs and chronicles, was delivered by the especial interposition of heaven; for an enchanted standard is said to have fallen from the clouds. The author's favourite hero, Karl de Riese, is bearer of the celestial standard, and the Christians are victorious. The Crusade concludes with the baptism of the Livonians, and Valdemar returns in triumph. But the Queen's haughty bearing promotes discontent, and she falls by a bow shot from an unknown hand. Valdemar spent three years in seclusion, till, being visited by his reconciled foe, Henry the Black, in the island of Lyoe, he was by him treacherously seized in his sleep, and taken prisoner. The people endeavoured to effect his release by force of arms, but in vain; and at length procured it by paying an enormous ransom. The public feeling on this occasion was expressed in the following old verses, taken from the songs of the warrior's Kæmpevisen:

Thanks, noble maids and ladies fair!
Whose kindness sav'd your king;
Ye gave

the gold that deck'd your hair,

And costly chain and ring.
Right glad were all the Danish men
Their king was freed from woes,
As joyful as the angels when

Their Lord from death arose.

Tak have ædle Jomfruer og Fruer!

De vare deres herre saa huld,

De sparte for hannem ei Linde eller Kjæder,
Og ikke deres hovedguld.

Saa glade vare alle de danske Mænd
Deres herre var læst of Mode,
Som Englone vare Paaskemorgen
Vor herre stod op of Dode.

On regaining his liberty, the King devoted himself to the restoration of internal order, which had necessarily been interrupted during his absence. He had taken an oath, previously to his liberation, not to resent the insult of Count Henry, nor to seek reparation for the losses which he had sustained. Being, however, absolved from this obligation by a papal bull, he proceeded against his enemy, and lost the battle of Bornhæved through the backwardness of the Dithmarses, after having been wounded, and left on the field, when he was taken prisoner by his mortal enemy, Count Adolph of Holstein. This hero, however, disguised himself and led the king to Kiel, where he delivered him over to his friends. On being asked by the King who he was, and why he liberated him, he refused to answer the former question, and to the latter, replied with the words, 'forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others.'

After this defeat the King never more drew his sword in ambitious projects, but employed himself solely in promoting the peace and happiness of his subjects, to whom he gave various useful

institutions,

institutions, and a code of laws which obtained for him the title of the Legislator.'

The reader will probably be of opinion that the materials are abundant; in truth we think so too: but the author has managed them with great skill. His style is uniformly excellent. The amatory scenes, (for these are grand staple commodities in all novels,) though they have not been his principal care, yet are described with taste and feeling. The astrological dissertations, however, are tiresome; and the witchcraft, the presentiments and prophecies are cumbrous pieces of machinery, and could have been well spared.

ART. X.-I Lombardi alla prima Crociata, Canti 15 di Tommaso Grossi. 3 vols. 8vo. Milano. Ferrario. 1826.

IN N order that our readers may better judge of our observations upon this poem, (hitherto unknown in England,) we deem it necessary to give a short analysis of its contents.

When the Crusaders, who set out after the council of Clermont, held in 1095, were on their way to the siege of Antioch, they were compelled to traverse a steep and broken mountain, described, by contemporary historians, in terms of unfeigned terror.* The poem opens, at one of the Passes, where, secluded in a cavern called the 'Bocca delle Prede,' lived a hermit, who beholds the army of the Cross filing its ranks along a narrow path, and recognises among them his own countrymen, the Lombards. With these advanced a lady of dazzling beauty, who is nearly precipitated by accident into the gulph below, when a young knight adventures for her safety, and rescues her. But he becomes the victim of his own daring, and would have been dashed to pieces, had he not been supported by some underwood-and, finally, carried by the hermit into his cavern, where he expends on the knight's wounds all his saving powers of medicament.

Shortly after arrives an Armenian, from whom they learn tidings of the Sultan's measures. With this Armenian for his guide, the knight determines to rejoin the Crusaders. Before his departure, however, he informs the hermit that he is Gulfiero, the son of Arvino, chief of the Lombards, and relates the principal events of the Crusade. Among other particulars, he adds, that he is the brother of one Reginaldo, the principal Croisé chief

Jacob Bongarsius, in his 'Gesta Dei per Francos,' &c. calls this mountain 'Dia bolicam Montanam.' The above work was published in 2 vols. in folio, at Hanover, 1611.

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