amiable and devoted husband, the lot of Beatrix was one of many and deep sorrows. She was the mother of seven sons and three daughters, but of her eldest child, Adrian, she was deprived by death after her heart had been accustomed to cling to him for thirteen years, and all the rest save three died in their infancy. The survivors were, Emanuel Philibert, who succeeded his father, and the princesses Mary and Isabella. By her great talents, still more than by her beauty, Beatrix gained a complete ascendancy over her husband, who was pious, just, accomplished, and a lover and patron of literature, but deficient in moral courage and political abilities. And this ascendancy was fatal to the interests of Savoy, and to the welfare of the Duke and Duchess, for the latter, proud of her connexion with the Emperor, Charles V. (who was the nephew of her mother, and the husband of her elder sister, Isabella) she induced the Duke to espouse the Imperial cause in the wars between the Emperor and Francis I., in consequence of which the French troops overran the territories of Savoy, and the Duke saw himself divested of all, save Piedmont, by

which he and his family were reduced to a state of extreme distress. Beatrix sustained her reverse with a courage and constancy that excited general admiration, and she nobly supported the mind and spirit of her husband till he had the affliction to lose her in 1538, a year doubly disastrous to him. Beatrix died on the 8th of January at Nice, at the age of thirty-four, in the maturity of her beauty, and in the June following the Treaty of Nice was ratified, by which the Duke, deserted by the Emperor for whom he had suffered so much, was despoiled by the French of all that had till then remained to him in Piedmont, being reduced to the possession of Nice alone, where seventeen years before he had received as his bride the lovely young Portuguese, with her magnificent and numerous suite; and at Nice she died, a mother bereaved of nearly all her children, a sovereign princess deprived of her dominions and her court. Charles of Savoy survived his wife fifteen years, but would never entertain the idea of a second marriage. He died in 1553, aged sixty-seven.

M. E. M.

THERE was no resisting the inquisitive curiosity of my companion. The short, dry cough, the little husky "ay," that sounded like anything rather than assent, which followed on my replies to his questions, and, more than all, the keen, oblique glances of his shrewd grey eyes, told me that I had utterly failed in all my attempts at mystification, and that he read me through and through.

"And so," said he, at last, after a somewhat lengthy narrative of my shipwreck, "and so the Flemish sailors wear spurs?"

"Spurs! of course not; why should they?" asked I, in some astonishment. "Well, but don't they?" asked he again.

"No such thing; it would be absurd to suppose it.'

"So I thought," rejoined he; "and when I looked at yer 'honor's' boots (it was the first time he had addressed me by this title of deference), and saw the marks on the heel for spurs, I soon knew how much of a sailor you were."

"And if not a sailor, what am I, then?" asked I; for, in the loneliness of the mountain region where we walked, I could afford to throw off my disguise without risk.

"Ye'r a French officer of dragoons, and God bless ye; but ye'r young to be at the trade. Arn't I right now?"

"Not very far from it certainly, for I am a lieutenant of hussars," said I, with a little of that pride which we of the loose pelisse always feel on the mention of our corps.

"I knew it well all along," said he, coolly; "the way you stood in the room, your step as you walked, and, above all, how ye believed me when I spoke of the spring tides, and the moon only in her second quarter, I saw you never was a sailor anyhow. And so I set a thinking what you were. You were too silent for a pedlar, and your hands were too white to be in the sinuggling trade; but when I saw

your boots, I had the secret at once, and knew ye were one of the French army that landed the other day at Killala."

"It was stupid enough of me not to have remembered the boots!" said I, laughing.

"Arrah, what use would it be?" replied he; "sure ye'r too straight in the back, and your walk is too reg'lar, and your toes turns in too much, for a sailor; the very way you hould a switch in your hand would betray you !"

"So it seems, then, I must try some other disguise," said I, "if I'm to keep company with people as shrewd as you are.

"You needn't," said he, shaking his head doubtfully; "any that wants to betray ye wouldn't find it hard."

I was not much flattered by the depreciating tone in which he dismissed my efforts at personation, and walked on for some time without speaking.

"Yez came too late, four months too late," said he, with a sorrowful gesture of the hands. "When the Wexford boys was up, and the Kildare chaps, and plenty more ready to come in from the North, then, indeed, a few thousand French down here in the West would have made a differ; but what's the good in it now? The best men we had are hanged or in gaol; some are frightened; more are traitors! 'Tis too late-too late!"

"But not too late for a large force landing in the North, to rouse the island to another effort for liberty."

"Who would be the gin'ral?" asked he, suddenly.

"Napper Tandy, your own countryman," replied I, proudly.

"I wish ye luck of him!" said he, with a bitter laugh; "'tis more like mocking us than anything else the French does be, with the chaps they sent here to be gin'rals. Sure it isn't Napper Tandy, nor a set of young lawyers like Tone and the rest of them, we wanted. It was men that

knew how to drill and manage troopsfellows that was used to fightin'; so that when they said a thing, we might believe that they understhood it, at laste. I'm ould enough to remimber the Wild Geese,' as they used to call them the fellows that ran away from this to take sarvice in France; and I remimber, too, the sort of men the French were that came over to inspect them-soldiers, real soldiers, every inch of them. And a fine sarvice it was. Volle-face!" cried he, holding himself erect, and shouldering his stick like a musket, "marche! Ha, ha! ye didn't think that was in me; but I was at the thrade long before you were born."

"How is this," said I, in amazement, "you were not in the French army ?"

"Wasn't I, though? maybe I didn't get that stick there." And he bared his breast as he spoke, to show the cicatrix of an old flesh-wound from a Highlander's bayonet. I was at Fontenoy!"

The last few words he uttered with a triumphant pride that I shall never forget. As for me, the mere name was magical. "Fontenoy was like one of those great words which light up a whole page of history; and it almost seemed impossible that I should see before me a soldier of that glorious battle.

66

Aye, faith!" he added, "tis more than fifty, 'tis nigh sixty years now since that, and I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was in the regiment

Tourville; I was recruited for the 'Wellon,' but they scattered us about among the other corps afterwards, because we used now and then to be fighting and quarrellin' among one an' other. Well, it was the Wellons that gained the battle; for after the English was in the village of Fontenoy, and the French was falling back upon the heights near the wood-arrah, what's the name of the wood? Sure I'll forget my own name next. Aye, to be sure, Verzon-the wood of Verzon.' Major Jodillon-that's what the French called him, but his name was Joe Wellon-turned an eight-pounder short round into a little yard of a farm-house, and, making a breach for the gun he opened a dreadful fire on the English column. It was loaded with grape, and at half musket range, so you may think what a peppering they got. At

last the column halted, and lay down; and Joe seen an officer ride off to the rere, to bring up artillery to silence our guns. A few minutes more, and it would be all over with us. So Joe shouts out as loud as he could, 'Cavalry there! tell off by threes, and prepare to charge.' I needn't tell you that the devil a horse nor a rider was within a mile of us at the time; but the English didn't know that, and, hearin' the order, up they jumps, and we heerd the word passin', 'Prepare to receive cavalry.' They formed square at once, and the same minute we plumped into them with such a charge as tore a lane right through the middle of them. Before they could recover, we opened a platoon fire on their flank; they staggered, broke, and at last fell back in disorder upon Aeth, with the whole of the French army after them. Such firin'-grape, round-shot, and musketry-I never seed afore, and we all shouting like divils, for it was more like a hunt nor anything else; for ye see the Dutch never came up, but left the English to do all the work themselves, and that's the reason they couldn't form, for they had no supportin' colum'.

"It was then I got that stick of the bayonet, for there was such runnin' that we only thought of pelting after them as hard as we could; but ye see, there's nothin' so treacherous as a Highlander. I was just behind one, and had my sword-point between his bladebones ready to run him through, when he turned short about, and run his bayonet into me under the short ribs, and that was all I saw of the battle; for I bled till I fainted, and never knew more of what happened. Tisn't by way of making little of Frenchmen I say it, for I sarved too long wid them for that— but sorra taste of that victory ever they'd see if it wasn't for the Wellons, and Major Joe that commanded them! The English knows it well, too! Maybe they don't do us many a spite for it to this very day!"

"And what became of you after that?"

"That same summer I came over to Scotland with the young Prince Charles, and was at the battle of Prestonpans afterwards! and, what's worse, I was at Culloden! Oh, that was the terrible day. We were dead bate before we began the battle. We were on the march from one o'clock the night

before, under the most dreadful rain ever ye seen! We lost our way twice, and after four hours of hard marching, we found ourselves opposite a milldam we crossed early that same morning; for the guides led us all astray! Then came ordhers to wheel about face and go back again; and back we went, cursing the blaguards that deceaved us, and almost faintin' with hunger. Some of us had nothing to eat for two days, and the Prince, I seen myself, had only a brown bannock to a wooden measure of whiskey for his own breakfast. Well, it's no use talking, we were bate, and we retreated to Inverness that night, and next morning we surrendered and laid down our arms-that is the Regiment du Tournay' and the 'Voltiguers de Metz,' the corps I was in myself."

"And did you return to France?"

"No; I made my way back to Ireland, and after loiterin' about home some time, and not liking the ways of turning to work again, I took sarvice with one Mister Brooke of Castle Brooke, in Fermanagh, a young man that was just come of age, and as great a devil, God forgive me, as ever was spawned. He was a Protestant, but he didn't care much about one side or the other, but only wanted divarsion and his own fun out of the world; and faix he took it, too! He had plenty of money, was a fine man to look at, and had courage to face a lion!

"The first place we went to was Aix-la-Chapelle, for Mr. Brooke was named something—I forget what-to Lord Sandwich, that was going there as an ambassador. It was a grand life there while it lasted. Such liveries, such coaches, such elegant dinners every day, I never saw even in Paris, But my master was soon sent away for a piece of wildness he did. There was an ould Austrian there-a Count Riedensegg was his name and he was always plottin' and schamin' with this, that, and the other; buyin' up the sacrets of others, and gettin' at their sacret papers one way or the other; and at last he begins to thry the same game with us; and as he saw that Mr. Brooke was very fond of high play, and would bet anything one offered him, the ould Count sends for a great gambler from Vienna, the greatest villain, they say, that ever touched a card. Ye may have heerd of him, tho' twas long ago that he lived, for he was

VOL. XXXVII.-NO. CCXIX.

well known in them times. He was the Baron von Breckendorf, and a great friend afterwards of the Prince Ragint and all the other blaguards in London.

"Well, sir, the Baron arrives in great state, with despatches, they said, but sorrow other despatch he carried nor some packs of marked cards, and a dice-box that could throw sixes whenever ye wanted; and he puts up at the Grand Hotel, with all his servants in fine liveries and as much state as a prince. That very day Mr. Brooke dined with the Count, and in the evening himself and the Baron sits down to the cards; and, pretending to be only playin' for silver, they were bettin' a hundred guineas on every game.

"I always heerd that my master was cute with the cards, and that few was equal to him in any game with pasteboard or ivory, but, be my conscience, he met his match now, for if it was ould Nick was playin' he couldn't do the thrick nater nor the Baron. made everything come up just like magic if he wanted a seven of diamonds, or an ace of spades, or the knave of clubs, there it was for you.

He

"Most gentlemen would have lost temper at seein' the luck so dead agin' them, and everything goin' so bad, but my master only smiled, and kept muttering to himself, Faix, its beautiful; by my conscience its elegant; I never saw anybody could do it like that.' At last the Baron stops and asks,

What is it he's saying to himself?' Ill tell you by and by,' says my master, when we're done playing; and so on they went, betting higher and higher, till at last the stakes wasn't very far from a thousand pounds on a single card. At the end, Mr. Brooke lost everything, and in the last game, by way of generosity, the Baron says to him, Double or quit?' and he tuk it.

"This time luck stood to my master, and he turned the queen of hearts; and as there was only one card could beat him, the game was all as one as his

own.

The Baron takes up the pack, and begins to deal. Wait,' says my master, leaning over the table, and talking in a whisper; wait,' says he, what are ye doin' there wid your thumb?' for sure enough he had his thumb dug hard into the middle of the pack.

"Do you mane to insult me,' says

X

knew how to drill and manage troopsfellows that was used to fightin'; so that when they said a thing, we might believe that they understhood it, at laste. I'm ould enough to remimber the Wild Geese,' as they used to call them the fellows that ran away from this to take sarvice in France; and I remimber, too, the sort of men the French were that came over to inspect them-soldiers, real soldiers, every inch of them. And a fine sarvice it was. Volle-face!" cried he, holding himself erect, and shouldering his stick like a musket, "marche! Ha, ha! ye didn't think that was in me; but I was at the thrade long before you were born."

"How is this," said I, in amazement, "you were not in the French army?"

"Wasn't I, though? maybe I didn't get that stick there." And he bared his breast as he spoke, to show the cicatrix of an old flesh-wound from a Highlander's bayonet. I was at Fontenoy!"

The last few words he uttered with a triumphant pride that I shall never forget. As for me, the mere name was magical. "Fontenoy" was like one of those great words which light up a whole page of history; and it almost seemed impossible that I should see before me a soldier of that glorious battle.

“Aye, faith!” he added, "tis more than fifty, 'tis nigh sixty years now since that, and I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was in the regiment 'Tourville;' I was recruited for the 'Wellon,' but they scattered us about among the other corps afterwards, because we used now and then to be fighting and quarrellin' among one an' other. Well, it was the Wellons that gained the battle; for after the English was in the village of Fontenoy, and the French was falling back upon the heights near the wood-arrah, what's the name of the wood? Sure I'll forget my own name next. Aye, to be sure, Verzon-the wood of Verzon.' Major Jodillon-that's what the French called him, but his name was Joe Wellon-turned an eight-pounder short round into a little yard of a farm-house, and, making a breach for the gun he opened a dreadful fire on the English column. It was loaded with grape, and at half musket range, so you may think what a peppering they got. At

last the column halted, and lay down; and Joe seen an officer ride off to the rere, to bring up artillery to silence our guns. A few minutes more, and

it would be all over with us. So Joe shouts out as loud as he could, 'Cavalry there! tell off by threes, and prepare to charge.' I needn't tell you that the devil a horse nor a rider was within a mile of us at the time; but the English didn't know that, and, hearin' the order, up they jumps, and we heerd the word passin', Prepare to receive cavalry.' They formed square at once, and the same minute we plumped into them with such a charge as tore a lane right through the middle of them. Before they could recover, we opened a platoon fire on their flank; they staggered, broke, and at last fell back in disorder upon Aeth, with the whole of the French army after them. Such firin'-grape, round-shot, and musketry-I never seed afore, and we all shouting like divils, for it was more like a hunt nor anything else; for ye see the Dutch never came up, but left the English to do all the work themselves, and that's the reason they couldn't form, for they had no supportin' colum'.

"It was then I got that stick of the bayonet, for there was such runnin' that we only thought of pelting after them as hard as we could; but ye see, there's nothin' so treacherous as a Highlander. I was just behind one, and had my sword-point between his bladebones ready to run him through, when he turned short about, and run his bayonet into me under the short ribs, and that was all I saw of the battle; for I bled till I fainted, and never knew more of what happened. "Tisn't by way of making little of Frenchmen I say it, for I sarved too long wid them for thatbut sorra taste of that victory ever they'd see if it wasn't for the Wellons, and Major Joe that commanded them! The English knows it well, too! Maybe they don't do us many a spite for it to this very day!"

"And what became of you after that?"

"That same summer I came over to Scotland with the young Prince Charles, and was at the battle of Prestonpans afterwards! and, what's worse, I was at Culloden! Oh, that was the terrible day. We were dead bate before we began the battle. We were on the march from one o'clock the night