Chapter XXI: Part 21

The first regular naval battle fought between the English and the French was conducted by the former after the fashion above mentioned. It was during the reign of Henry III., when Louis of France, by the destruction of his army at “the fair of Lincoln,” was shut up in London, and depended on the exertions of his wife, Blanche of Castile, for his release. Blanche sent eighty large ships, besides many smaller vessels, from Calais, under a piratical commander, the celebrated Eustace Le Moine. Hubert de Burgh had only forty vessels wherewith to proceed against this overwhelming force; and on board of these the English knights proceeded, under protest and with a world of grumbling, at being compelled to fight on the waters when they had no sea-legs, and were accustomed to no battles but those on land. No heed was taken of protest or grumbling; the forty vessels were loosened from their moorings, and away went the reluctant but strong-boned land sailors, all in shirts of mail in place of Guernsey jackets, to contend for the first time with a French fleet. The English ships contrived to get between Calais and the enemy’s vessels, and fell upon the latter in their rear. The English bowmen handled their favorite weapons with a deadly dexterity; and as soon as their vessels were made fast to those of the French, out flew the quick-lime, flung by the English, and carried by the wind into the faces of the French. While these were stamping with pain, screwing their eyes up to look through the lime-dust, or turning their backs to avoid it, the English boarders made a rush, cut down men, hacked away the rigging, and so utterly defeated the French, unaccustomed to this sort of fighting, that of the great French fleet only fifteen vessels escaped. The number of Gallic knights and inferior officers captured was very large. As for Eustace le Moine, he had slunk below to avoid the lime-powder and battle-axes. He was seized by Richard Fitzroy, King John’s illegitimate son. Fitzroy refused to give the recreant quarter, but hewed off his head on the taffrail, and sent it from town to town through England as a pleasant exhibition.

Errant knights in quest of adventure, and anxious to secure renown, less frequently visited England than other countries. They appear to have had a mortal dislike of the sea. This dislike was common to the bravest and greatest among them. I may cite, as an instance, the case of the Duke of Orleans and his cavaliers, captured at Agincourt, and brought over to England, from Calais to Dover, by the gallant and lucky Henry. The latter walked the deck during a heavy ground swell, with as much enjoyment as though he had been to the matter born. The French prince and his knights, on the other hand, were as ignorant of the sea and as uneasy upon it as a modern English Lord of the Admiralty. They suffered horribly, and one and all declared that they would rather be daily exposed to the peril of battle, than cross the straits of Dover once a month.

Nevertheless, stray knights did occasionally brave the dangers of the deep, and step ashore on the coast of Kent with a challenge to all comers of equal degree. We have an instance of this sort of adventurer in Jacques de Lelaing, whose story is told in this volume. We hear of another in the nameless knight of Aragon, who in the reign of Henry V. set all London and many a provincial baronial hall in commotion by his published invitation to all knights of the same rank as himself, to come and give him a taste of their quality in a bout at two-edged sword, axe, and dagger.

The challenge was promptly accepted by stout Sir Robert Cary. Sir Robert was a poor knight, with nothing to lose, for his sire had lost all he possessed before Sir Robert’s time, by being faithful to poor Richard II., a virtue, for the exercise of which he was punished by forfeiture of his estates, decreed against him by Henry IV. The disinherited knight, therefore, had a chance of winning land as well as honor, should he subdue the arrogant Aragonese. The two met in the then fashionable district of Smithfield, and the Devonshire swordsman, after a bloody and long-enduring fight, so thoroughly vanquished the Spaniard, that the king, who delighted in such encounters, and who was especially glad when victory was won by the side he most favored, not only restored to Sir Robert the forfeited paternal estates, but he also authorized him to wear the arms of the much-bruised knight from beyond sea.

At a later period knightly estates went in the service of another king. Sir Henry Cary risked life and property in the cause of Charles I., and while he preserved the first, he was deprived of nearly all the latter. The head of the family, no longer a knight, if I remember rightly, was residing at Torr Bay, when the Old Chevalier was about to attempt to regain the three crowns which, according to no less than a French archiepiscopal authority, James II. had been simple enough to lose for one mass. At this period, the English king that would be, sent the Duke of Ormond to the head of the Cary family, and not only conveyed to him an assurance that his services to the Stuarts had not been forgotten; but, by way of guarantee that future, and perhaps more than knightly honors should be heaped upon him, in case of victory declaring for the Stuart cause, the chevalier sent him the portraits of James II., and of that monarch’s wife, Mary of Modena. Similar portraits are to be found among the cherished treasures of many English families; and these are supposed to have been originally distributed among various families, as pledges from the giver, that for swords raised, money lost, or blood shed in the cause of the Stuarts, knighthood and honors more substantial should follow as soon as “the king” should “get his own again.”

To revert to Charles I., it may be added that he was not half so energetic in trying to keep his own as his grandson was in trying to recover what had been lost. An incident connected with the battle of Rowton Heath will serve to exemplify this. Never did king have better champion than Charles had on that day, in the able knight Sir Marmaduke Langdale. The knight in question had gained a marked advantage over his adversary, the equally able Poyntz. To cheer the king, then beleaguered in Chester Castle, with the news, Sir Marmaduke despatched Colonel Shakerley. He could not have commissioned a better man. The colonel contrived to get into Chester after crossing the Dee in a tub, which he worked with one hand, while he towed his horse after him with the other. He delivered his message, and offered to convey an answer or instructions back to Sir Marmaduke, and by the same means, in a quarter of an hour. The king hesitated; some sanction required for a certain course of action proposed by Sir Marmaduke was not given, and Poyntz recovered his lost ground, defeated the royal horse, and thus effectually prevented Charles from obtaining access to Scotland and Montrose.

I have given some illustrations of the means by which knighthood was occasionally gained: an amusing illustration remains to be told. Dangeau, in his memoirs, speaks of two French peeresses who lived chiefly upon asses’ milk, but who, nevertheless, became afflicted with some of the ills incident to humanity, and were ordered to take physic. They were disgusted with the prescription, but got over the difficulty charmingly by physicking the donkey. It was not an unusual thing in France for very great people to treat their vices as they did their ailments, by a vicarious treatment. Catherine de Medicis is one out of many instances of this. She was desirous of succeeding in some great attempt, and set down her failure to the account of her sins. She instantly declared that she would atone for the latter, provided her desires were accomplished, by finding a pilgrim who would go from France to Jerusalem, on foot, and who at every three steps he advanced should go back one. The wished-for success was achieved, and after some difficulty a pilgrim was found, strong enough, and sufficiently persevering to perform the pilgrimage. The royal pledge was redeemed, and there only remained to reward the pilgrim, who was a soldier from the neighborhood of Viterbo. Some say he was a merchant; but merchant or soldier, Catherine knighted, ennobled, and enriched him. His arms were a cross and a branch of palm tree. We are not told if he had a motto. It, at all events, could not have been _nulla vestigia retrorsum_. They who affirm that the pilgrim was a merchant, declare that his descendants lost their nobility by falling again into commercial ways--a course which was considered very derogatory, and indeed, degrading, in those exclusive days.

I may mention here that Heraldry has, after all, very unfairly treated many of the doers of great deeds. No person below the degree of a knight could bear a cognizance of his own. Thus, many a squire may have outdone his master in bravery; and indeed, many a simple soldier may have done the same, but the memory of it could not go down to posterity, because the valiant actor was not noble enough to be worthy of distinction. In our English army, much the same rule still obtains. Illustrious incompetence is rewarded with “orders,” but plain John Smith, who has captured a gun with his own hands, receives a couple of sovereigns, which only enable him to degrade himself by getting drunk with his friends. Our heraldic writers approve of this dainty way of conferring distinctions. An anonymous author of a work on Heraldry and Chivalry, published at Worcester “sixty years since,” says--“We must consider that had heraldry distributed its honors indiscriminately, and with too lavish a hand, making no distinction between gentry and plebeians, the glory of arms would have been lost, and their lustre less refulgent.”

But it is clear that the rule which allowed none to bear cognizance who was not of the rank of a knight, was sometimes infringed. Thus, when Edward the Black Prince made the stout Sir James Audley, his own especial knight, with an annuity of five hundred marks, for gallant services at Poictiers, Audley divided the annuity among his four squires, Delves, Dutton, Foulthurst, and Hawkeston, and also gave them permission to wear his own achievements, in memory of the way in which they had kept at his side on the bloody day of Poictiers.

The fashion of different families wearing the same devices had, however, its inconveniences. Thus, it happened that at this very battle of Poictiers, or a little before it, Sir John Chandos reconnoitring the French army, fell in with the Seigneur de Clerment, who was reconnoitring the English army. Each saw that the device on the upper vestment of his adversary was the same as his own, blue worked with rays of gold round the border. They each fell to sharp, and not very courteous words. The French lord at length remarked that Sir John’s claim to wear the device was just like “the boastings of you English. You can not invent anything new,” added the angry French knight, “but when you stumble on a pretty novelty, you forthwith appropriate it.” After more angry words they separated, vowing that in next day’s fight, they would make good all their assertions.

As the general rule was, that squires could not bear a cognizance, so also was it a rule that knights should only fight with their equals.

For knights are bound to feel no blows
From paltry and unequal foes;
Who, when they slash and cut to pieces,
Do all with civilest addresses.

It is in allusion to this rule that Don Quixote says to Sancho Panza: “Friend Sancho, for the future, whenever thou perceivest us to be any way abused by such inferior fellows, thou art not to expect that I should offer to draw my sword against them; for I will not do it in the least; no, do thou then draw and chastise them as thou thinkest fit; but if any knight come to take their part, then will I be sure to step in between thee and danger.”

Knights, as I have said, have had honor conferred on them for very strange reasons, in many countries, but in none for slighter reasons, perhaps, than in France. We may probably except Belgium; for there is a living knight there, who obtained his order of chivalry for his pleasant little exhibition of gallantry in furnishing new-laid eggs every morning at the late queen’s table, when every hen but his, in the suburban village of Laecken had ceased to lay!

Dumas, in his “Salvandire,” satirically illustrates how knights were occasionally made in the days of Louis XIV. The hero of that dashing romance finds himself a captive in the prison of Fort l’Evêque; and as the king will not grant him permission to leave, he resolves to leave without permission. He makes the attempt by night, descends from the window in the dark, is caught by the thigh on a spike, and is ultimately carried to a cell and a bed within his prison-walls. The following day the governor waits upon him, and questions him upon the motives for his dangerous enterprise. The good governor’s curiosity is founded solely on his anxiety to elicit from the prisoner, that the desire of the latter to escape was not caused by his dissatisfaction with any of the prison arrangements, whether of discipline or diet. The captive signs a certificate to that effect, adding, that his sole motive for endeavoring to set himself free, was because he had never done anything to deserve that he should be put under restraint. A few days after, the governor announces to the recluse that the certificate of the latter has had an excellent effect. Roger supposes that it has gained him his liberty; but the governor complacently remarks that it has done better than that, and that the king, in acknowledgment of the strict character of the governor’s surveillance, has created him chevalier of the order of St. Louis. If all the prisoners had succeeded in escaping, as nearly as Roger, the governor would probably have been made Knight of the Holy Ghost! The king of France had many such faithful servants; but history affords many examples of a truer fidelity than this; particularly the old romances and legendary history--examples of faithfulness even after death; but, though there may be many more romantic in those chronicles, I doubt if there is any one so touching as the proof of fidelity which a knighted civilian, Sir Thomas Meautis, gave of his affection for Lord Bacon, to whom that ancient servant of the great lawyer, erected a monument at his own cost. Hamond Lestrange relates a curious incident, to show that these two were not divided even after death. “Sir Thomas,” says Lestrange, “was not nearer to him living than dead; for this Sir Thomas ending his life about a score of years after, it was his lot to be inhumed so near his lord’s sepulchre, that in the forming of his grave, part of the viscount’s body was exposed to view; which being espied by a doctor of physic, he demanded the head to be given to him; and did most shamefully disport himself with that skull which was somewhile the continent of so vast treasures of knowledge.”

Other knights have been celebrated for other qualities. Thus, Sir Julius Cæsar never heard Bishop Hackett preach without sending him a piece of money. Indeed, the good knight never heard any preacher deliver a sermon without sending him money, a pair of gloves, or some other little gift. He was unwilling, he said, to hear the Word of God, gratis.

Other knights have cared less to benefit preachers, than to set up for makers or explainers of doctrines themselves. Thus the Chevalier Ramsay held that Adam and Eve begot the entire human race in Paradise, the members of which fell with their procreators; and in this way the chevalier found in an intelligible form “the great, ancient, and luminous doctrine of our co-existence with our first parents.” The Chevalier deemed that in teaching such doctrine he was rearing plants for a new Paradise; but he was not half so usefully engaged as some brother knights who were practically engaged as planters. We may cite Sir John St. Aubyn, who introduced plane-trees into Cornwall in 1723; and Sir Anthony Ashley, the Dorchester knight, who enjoys the reputation of having introduced cabbages into England about the middle of the sixteenth century.

In contrast with these useful knights, the person of the once famous Chevalier de Lorenzi seems to rise before me, and of him I will now add a few words, by way of conclusion to my miscellaneous volume.

It is perhaps the tritest of platitudes to say that men are distinguished by various qualities; but it is among the strangest if not most novel of paradoxes, that the same man should be remarkable for endowments of the most opposite quality. The eccentric knight whose name and title I have given above, is, however, an illustration of the fact; namely, that a man may be at once stupid and witty. It was chiefly for his stupidity that Lorenzi was famous, a stupidity which excited laughter. I must, nevertheless, say in behalf of the brother of the once celebrated minister of France at the Court of Florence, in the days of Louis XV., that his stupidity so often looks like wit, as to induce the belief that it was a humor too refined for his hearers to appreciate.

Acute as Grimm was, he seems to have undervalued the chevalier in this respect. That literary minister-plenipotentiary of the Duke of Saxe Gotha could only see in the chevalier the most extraordinary of originals. He acknowledges, at the same time, Lorenzi’s high feeling of honor, and his frank and gentle spirit. The chevalier was crammed with scientific knowledge, but so confusedly that, according to Grimm, he could never explain himself in an intelligible way, or without exciting shouts of laughter on the part of his hearers. Madame de Geoffrin, when comparing the chevalier with the ungraceful M. de Burigny, said that the latter was awkward in body, but that Lorenzi was awkward in mind. As the latter never spoke without, at least, an air of profound reflection, and had therewith a piquant Florentine accent, his mistakes were more relished. I do not think much of his misapprehension when introduced, at Lyons, to M. de la Michaudière, in whose company he dined, at the residence of the commandant of the city. The gentleman was addressed by an old acquaintance as Le Michaudière, and Lorenzi, mistaking this for L’Ami Chaudière, persisted in calling the dignified official by the appellation of Monsieur _Chaudière_, which, to the proud _intendant_ of Lyons, must have been as bad as if the chevalier had certified that the _intendant’s_ father was a brazier.

He was far more happy, whether by chance or design, I can not say, at a subsequent supper at M. de la Michaudière’s house. At the table sat M. le Normant, husband of Madame de Pompadour, then at the height of her brilliant infamy. Lorenzi hearing from a neighbor, in reply to an inquiry, that the gentleman was the consort of the lady in question, forthwith addressed him as Monsieur de Pompadour, which was as severe an infliction as husband so situated could well have endured.

This honorable chevalier was clearly not a religious man--but among knights and other distinguished personages in France, and elsewhere, at the period of which I am treating, the two terms were perfectly distinct, and had no necessary connection. Accordingly, a lady who had called on Lorenzi one Sunday morning, before eleven o’clock, proposed, at the end of their conversation, to go with him to mass. “Do they still celebrate mass?” asked the chevalier, with an air of astonishment. As he had not attended mass for fifteen years, Grimm gravely asserts that the Florentine imagined that it was no longer celebrated. “The more,” adds the epistolary baron, “that as he never went out before two o’clock, he no longer recollected that he had seen a church-door open.”

The chevalier, who was Knight of the Order of St. Stephen of Tuscany, and who had withdrawn from the French Army, with the rank of colonel, after the conquest of Minorca, had a great devotion toward the abstract sciences. He studied geometry and astronomy, and had the habit, says Grimm, to measure the events of life, and reduce them to geometrical value. As he was thoughtful, he more frequently, when addressed, made reply to abstruse questionings of his own brain than to persons who spoke to him. Grimm, after saying that the Knight of St. Stephen was only struck by the true or false side of a question, and never by its pleasant or amusing aspect, illustrates his saying by an anecdote, in which many persons will fail to find any remarkable point. Grimm encountered him at Madame Geoffrin’s, after his return from a tour in Italy. “I saw him embroiling his senses with the genealogies of two ladies in whose society he passes his life, and who bear the same name, although they are of distinct families. Madame Geoffrin endeavored to draw him from these genealogical snares, observing to him:--‘Really, chevalier, you are in your dotage. It is worse than ever.’ ‘Madame,’ answered the chevalier, ‘life is so short!’” Grimm thought he should have done rank injustice to posterity if he had not recorded this reply for the benefit of future students of laconic wit. And again:--Grimm shows us the chevalier walking with Monsieur de St. Lambert toward Versailles. On the way, the latter asked him his age. “I am sixty,” said the knight. “I did not think you so old,” rejoined his friend. “Well,” replied the chevalier, “when I say sixty, I am not indeed quite so old, just yet; but--” “But how old are you then, in reality?” asked his companion. “Fifty-five, exactly; but why may I not be allowed to accustom myself to change my age every year, as I do my shirt?”

One day, he was praising the figure of a lady, but instead of saying that she had the form of a nymph, he said that her shape was like that of Mademoiselle Allard. “Oh!” cried Grimm, “you are not lucky, chevalier, in your comparison. Mademoiselle Allard may be deservedly eulogized for many qualities, but nobody ever thought of praising her shape.” “Likely enough,” said Lorenzi, “for I do not know, nor, indeed, have I ever seen her; but as everybody talks about Mademoiselle Allard, I thought I might talk about her too.”

If there was satire in this it was not of so neat a quality as that exhibited by him at Madame Greffon’s, where he was spending an evening with Grimm and D’Alembert. The last two were seated, and conversing. Lorenzi stood behind them, with his back to the chimney-piece, and scarcely able to hold up his head, so overcome was he by a desire to sleep. “Chevalier,” said Grimm, “you must find our conversation a horrid bore, since you fall asleep when you are on your legs.” “Oh, no!” exclaimed the chevalier, “you see I go to sleep when I like.” The naïveté with which he insinuated that he liked to go to sleep rather than listen to the small talk of a wit and a philosopher, was expressed with a delicious delicacy.

Of his _non-sequential_ remarks Grimm supplies several. He was once speaking disparagingly of M. de St. Lambert’s knowledge of chess. “You forget,” said the latter, “that I gained fifteen louis to your thirty sous, during our campaign in Minorca.” “Oh, ay,” answered the knight, “but that was toward the end of the siege!”

It was at this siege that he used to go to the trenches with his astronomical instruments, to make observations. He one day returned to his quarters without his instruments, having left them all in the trenches. “They will certainly be stolen,” said a friend. “That can’t be,” said Lorenzi, “for I left my watch with them.”

And yet this “distraught” knight was the cause, remote cause, of the death of Admiral Byng. He discovered, by mere chance, in his quarters at Minorca, a book of signals as used by the English fleet. He hastened with it to the Prince de Beaubeau, who, in his turn, hastened to place it before the Marshal de Richelieu. The commanders could scarcely believe in their good fortune, but when the naval combat commenced it was seen that the English observed this system of signals exactly. With this knowledge it was easy to anticipate all their manœuvres, and they were obliged to withdraw with disgrace, which Byng was made to expiate by his death. The chevalier never thought of asking for a reward, and his government entirely forgot to give him one.

When about to accompany M. de Mirepoix, who was appointed embassador to London, he packed up his own things and that so perfectly that it was not till he had sent them off that he discovered he had left himself nothing to travel in but the shirt and robe-de-chambre which he wore while employed in thus disposing of the rest of his wardrobe.

He lived in a small apartment at the Luxembourg, as persons of like rank and small means reside in the royal palace at Hampton Court. One day, on descending the staircase he slipped, and broke his nose. On looking round for the cause of his accident, he observed a whitish fluid on the steps; and, calling the porter, he rated him soundly for allowing this soapy water to remain on the staircase. “It is _barley_ water,” said the porter, “which a waiter from the café spilled as he carried it along.” “Oh! if that be the case,” replied the chevalier, in a mild tone, and with his hand up to his mutilated nose, “if that be the case, it is I who am in the wrong.”

Grimm adds, in summing up his character, that he was richer in pocket handkerchiefs than any other man. As his apartment was just under the roof of the palace, and that he, almost every day on going out, forgot to take a handkerchief with him, he found it less trouble to buy a new than to ascend to his room and procure an old one. Accordingly, a mercer in his neighborhood had a fresh handkerchief ready for him every day.

The history of eccentric knights would make a volume of itself. Here, therefore, I will conclude, grateful to the readers who may have honored me by perusing any portion of the miscellaneous pages which I have devoted to illustrations of chivalry, and, adding a remark of Johnson, who says, touching the respect paid to those who bear arms, that “The naval and military professions have the dignity of danger, and that mankind reverence those who have got over fear, which is so general a weakness.”

THE END.

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Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres; or, Reminiscences of a Merchant’s Life. By VINCENT NOLTE. 12mo. Price $1 25. (Eighth Edition.)

Men and Women of the Eighteenth Century. By ARSENE HOUSSAYE. With beautifully-engraved Portraits of Louis XV. and Madame de Pompadour. 2 vols., 12mo, 450 pages each, extra super-fine paper. Price $2 50.

Philosophers and Actresses. By ARSENE HOUSSAYE. With beautifully-engraved Portraits of Voltaire and Madame Parabère. 2 vols., 12mo. Price $2 50.

Life of the Honorable William H. Seward, with Selections from his Works. Edited by GEORGE E. BAKER. 12mo, cloth. Portrait. Price $1 00.

The History of Texas, from its Settlement in 1685 to its Annexation to the United States. By H. YOAKUM, Esq., of the Texas Bar; with Portraits, Maps, and Plans. 2 vols., 8vo, cloth or sheep. Price $5 00. [In Press.]

The History of Louisiana--Spanish Domination. By CHARLES GAYARRE. 8vo, cloth. Price $2 50.

The History of Louisiana--French Domination. By CHARLES GAYARRE. 2 vols., 8vo, cloth. Price $3 50.

The Life of P. T. Barnum, written by himself; in which he narrates his early history as Clerk, Merchant, and Editor, and his later career as a Showman. With a Portrait on steel, and numerous Illustrations by Darley. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 25.

A Memorial of Horatio Greenough, consisting of a Memoir, Selections from his Writings, and Tributes to his Genius, by HENRY T. TUCKERMAN, Author of “Sicily, a Pilgrimage,” “A Month in England,” &c., &c. 12mo, cloth. Price 75 cents.

Minnesota and its Resources; to which are appended Camp-Fire Sketches, or Notes of a Trip from St. Paul to Pembina and Selkirk Settlements on the Red River of the North. By J. WESLEY BOND. With a New Map of the Territory, a View of St. Paul, and one of the Falls of St. Anthony. 1 vol., 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

The Private Life of an Eastern King. By a Member of the Household of his Late Majesty, Nussir-u-deen, King of Oude. 12mo, cloth. Price 75 cents.

Doran’s Queens of England. The Queens of England, of the House of Hanover. By Dr. DORAN, Author of “Table Traits,” “Habits and Men,” &c. 2 vols., 12mo, cloth. Price $2 00.

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.

The U. S. Japan Expedition. Japan and Around the World. An Account of Three Visits to the Japanese Empire, with Sketches of Madeira, St. Helena, Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Ceylon, Singapore, China, Loo Choo, &c., 1852 to 1855. By J. W. SPALDING, Captain’s Clerk of the Flagship “Mississippi.” 1 vol., 12mo, with Illustrations. Cloth. Price $1 25.

Cosas de España. (Strange Things of Spain.) Going to Madrid via Barcelona. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

A Month in England. By HENRY T. TUCKERMAN, Author of “Sicily, a Pilgrimage,” “The Optimist,” &c. 12mo, cloth. Price 75 cts.

Sicily, a Pilgrimage, by Henry T. Tuckerman, Author of “A Month in England,” &c., &c. 12mo, cloth. Price 75 cents.

A Tennessean Abroad; or, Letters from Europe, Asia, and Africa. By RANDALL W. MCGAVOCK, A. M., L. L. B., Member of the Nashville Bar. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

Life in the Mission, the Camp, and the Zenana. By Mrs. COLIN MACKENZIE. 2 vols., 12mo, cloth. Price $2 00.

The Russian Shores of the Black Sea, with a Voyage down the Volga, and a Tour through the Country of the Cossacks. By LAURENCE OLIPHANT, Author of “A Journey to Nepaul.” Fourth Edition. 12mo, cloth. Two maps and eighteen cuts. Price 75 cents.

A Year with the Turks; or, Sketches of Travel in the European and Asiatic Dominions of the Sultan. By WARRINGTON W. SMYTH, A. M. With a colored Ethnological Map of the Turkish Empire. Third Edition. 12mo, cloth. Price 75 cents.

Russo-Turkish Campaigns of 1828 and 1829. With a View of the Present State of Affairs in the East. By Colonel CHESNEY, R. A., D. C. L., F. R. S., Author of the Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris. With an Appendix, containing the Diplomatic Correspondence of the Four Powers, and the Secret Correspondence between the Russian and English Governments. 1 vol., 12mo, cloth; Maps. Price $1 00.

White, Red, and Black. Sketches of American Society, during the Visits of their Guests. By FRANCIS and THERESA PULSZKY. 2 vols., 12mo, cloth. Price $2 00.

The Blackwater Chronicle: A Narrative of an Expedition into the Land of Canaan, in Randolph County, Virginia, a Country flowing with Wild Animals, such as Panthers, Bears, Wolves, Elk, Deer, Otter, Badger, &c., &c., with innumerable Trout, by Five Adventurous Gentlemen, without any Aid of Government, and solely by their Own Resources, in the Summer of 1851. By “THE CLERKE OF OXENFORDE.” With Illustrations from Life by Strother. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

SCIENCE AND ART.

Griscom on Ventilation. The Uses and Abuses of Air; showing its Influence in Sustaining Life, and Producing Disease, with remarks on the Ventilation of Houses, and the best Methods of Securing a Pure and Wholesome Atmosphere inside of Dwellings, Churches, Workshops, &c. By JOHN H. GRISCOM, M. D. 1 vol., 12mo. Price 75 cents.

Bronchitis, and Kindred Diseases. In language adapted to common readers. By W. W. HALL, M. D. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 00.

Bodenhamer on the Diseases of the Rectum. Practical Observations on some of the Diseases of the Rectum, Anus, and Continuous Textures; giving their Nature, Seat, Causes, Symptoms, Consequences, and Prevention; especially addressed to non-medical readers. By W. BODENHAMER, M. D. Second edition, with plates, &c. In 1 vol., 8vo, cloth. Price $2 00.

Comparative Physiognomy; or, Resemblances between Men and Animals. By J. W. REDFIELD, M. D. 1 vol., 8vo, with several hundred Illustrations. Price $2 00.

Episodes of Insect Life. By ACHETA DOMESTICA. In three Series:--1. Insects of Spring. 2. Insects of Summer. 3. Insects of Autumn. Beautifully Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, $2 00 each. The same beautifully colored after Nature, extra gilt, $4 00 each.

Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, from the most Authentic Sources. By THOMAS WRIGHT, A. M., &c. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 25.

The Night-Side of Nature; or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers. By CATHARINE CROWE. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 00.

Art and Industry, as represented in the Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, New York. Showing the Progress and State of the various Useful and Esthetic Pursuits. From the “New York Tribune.” Revised and Edited by HORACE GREELEY. 12mo, cloth, fine paper, $1 00. Paper covers, 50 cents.

Chapman’s American Drawing-Book. The American Drawing-Book, intended for Schools, Academies, and Self-Instruction. By JOHN G. CHAPMAN, N. A. Three Parts now published. Price 50 cents each. [Part IV. in Press.]

The History and Poetry of Finger-Rings. By CHARLES EDWARDS, Esq., Counsellor-at-Law. With Illustrations, 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

BELLES-LETTRES.

=Revolutionary Tales=, by WM. GILMORE SIMMS, Esq. New and Revised Editions, with Illustrations by Darley.

The Partisan; A Romance of the Revolution. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

Mellichampe; A Legend of the Santee. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

Katharine Walton; or, The Rebel of Dorchester. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

The Scout; or, The Black Riders of the Congaree. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

Woodcraft; or, The Hawks about the Dovecote. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

The Forayers; or, The Raid of the Dog-Days. A New Revolutionary Romance. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

Eutaw. A New Revolutionary Romance. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

=Simms’s Border Romances of the South=, New and Revised Editions, with Illustrations by Darley. Uniform with SIMMS’S REVOLUTIONARY TALES.

I. Guy Rivers. A Tale of Georgia. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

II. Richard Hurdis. A Tale of Alabama. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

III. Border Beagles. A Tale of Mississippi. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

IV. Charlemont. A Tale of Kentucky. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

V. Beauchampe; or, The Kentucky Tragedy. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

VI. Confession; or, The Blind Heart. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

The Yemassee; A Romance of South Carolina. By WM. GILMORE SIMMS, Esq. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

Southward, Ho! a Spell of Sunshine. By WM. GILMORE SIMMS, Esq. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

The Noctes Ambrosianæ. By Professor WILSON, J. G. LOCKHART, JAMES HOGG, and Dr. MAGINN. Edited, with Memoirs and Notes, by Dr. R. SHELTON MACKENZIE. In 5 volumes. Price $5 00.

The Odoherty Papers; forming the first portion of the Miscellaneous Writings of the late Dr. MAGINN. With an Original Memoir, and copious Notes, by Dr. R. SHELTON MACKENZIE. 2 vols. Price $2 00.

The Shakespeare Papers, and the Homeric Ballads; forming Vol. III. of the Miscellaneous Writings of the late Dr. MAGINN. Edited by Dr. R. SHELTON MACKENZIE. [In Press.]

Bits of Blarney. By Dr. R. SHELTON MACKENZIE, Editor of “Sheil’s Sketches of the Irish Bar,” “Noctes Ambrosianæ,” &c. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

Table Traits. By Dr. DORAN, Author of “Habits and Men,” &c. 12mo, cloth. $1 25.

Habits and Men. By Dr. DORAN, Author of “Table Traits,” “The Queens of England under the House of Hanover.” 12mo. Price $1 00.

Calavar; The Knight of the Conquest. A Romance of Mexico. By the late Dr. ROBERT MONTGOMERY BIRD, Author of “Nick of the Woods;” with Illustrations by Darley. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

Nick of the Woods, or the Jibbenainosay. A Tale of Kentucky. By the late Dr. ROBERT MONTGOMERY BIRD, Author of “Calavar,” “The Infidel,” &c. New and Revised Edition, with Illustrations by Darley. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

The Pretty Plate; A New and Beautiful Juvenile. By JOHN VINCENT. Illustrated by Darley. 1 vol., 16mo, cloth, gilt. Price 50 cents; extra gilt edges, 75 cents.

Vasconselos. A Romance of the New World. By FRANK COOPER. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

A Stray Yankee in Texas. By PHILIP PAXTON. With Illustrations by Darley. Second Edition. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

The Wonderful Adventures of Capt. Priest. By PHILIP PAXTON. With Illustrations by Darley. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

Western Characters; being Types of Border Life in the Western States. By J. L. M’CONNEL, Author of “Talbot and Vernon,” “The Glenns,” &c., &c. With Six Illustrations by Darley. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

The Master-Builder; or, Life at a Trade. By DAY KELLOGG LEE. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 00.

Merrimack; or, Life at the Loom. By DAY KELLOGG LEE. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 00.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Complete in three volumes. With a Portrait; a Memoir by James Russell Lowell; and an Introductory Essay by N. P. Willis. Edited by RUFUS W. GRISWOLD. 12mo. Price $3 50.

The Cavaliers of England; or, The Times of the Revolutions of 1642 and 1688. By HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 25.

Knights of England, France, and Scotland. By HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 25.

The Chevaliers of France, from the Crusaders to the Mareschals of Louis XIV. By HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT. Author of “The Cavaliers of England,” “Cromwell,” “The Brothers,” &c., &c. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 25.

Marmaduke Wyvil; An Historical Romance of 1651. By HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, Author of “The Cavaliers of England,” &c., &c. Fourteenth Edition. Revised and Corrected. Price $1 25.

The Forest. By J. V. HUNTINGTON, Author of “Lady Alice,” “Alban,” &c. 1 vol., 12mo. Second Edition. Price $1 25.

Alban; or, The History of a Young Puritan. By J. V. HUNTINGTON. 2 vols., 12mo, cloth. Price $2 00.

Isa: a Pilgrimage. By CAROLINE CHESEBRO’. 1 vol., 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

The Children of Light. By CAROLINE CHESEBRO’, Author of “Isa, a Pilgrimage,” “Dream-Land by Daylight,” &c., &c. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

Dream-Land by Daylight: A Panorama of Romance. By CAROLINE CHESEBRO’. Illustrated by Darley. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 25.

Clovernook; or, Recollections of Our Neighborhood in the West. By ALICE CAREY. Illustrated by Darley. First and Second Series. Fourth Edition. 2 vols., 12mo. Price $2 00.

Hagar; A Story of To-Day. By ALICE CAREY, Author of “Clovernook,” “Lyra, and Other Poems,” &c. 1 vol., 12mo. Price $1 00.

Cap-Sheaf, a Fresh Bundle. By LEWIS MYRTLE. 1 vol., 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

The Youth of Jefferson; or, A Chronicle of College Scrapes at Williamsburg, Va., 1764. Cloth. Price 75 cents.

Tales and Traditions of Hungary. By THERESA PULSZKY. With a Portrait of the Author. 1 vol. Price $1 25.

The Lion Skin and the Lover Hunt. By CHARLES DE BERNARD. 12mo. Price $1 00.

Easy Warren and his Cotemporaries: Sketched for Home Circles. By WILLIAM TURNER COGGESHALL. Price $1 00.

You Have heard of Them: being Sketches of Statesmen and Politicians, Painters, Composers, Instrumentalists and Vocalists, Authors and Authoresses. By Q. With Portraits on Steel of Horace Vernet and Julia Grisi. 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

Satire and Satirists. By JAMES HANNAY. 12mo, cloth. Price 75 cents.

Full Proof of the Ministry. By the Rev. JOHN N. NORTON. 12mo, cloth. Price 75 cents.

=Dickens’s Little Folks=, in a Series of 18mo Volumes, with Illustrations, Neatly Bound in Cloth. Price 38 cents.

1. Little Nell. 4. Florence Dombey.
2. Oliver and the Jew Fagin. 5. Smike.
3. Little Paul. 6. The Child Wife.

This is a series of volumes which has been undertaken with a view to supply the want of a class of books for children, of a vigorous, manly tone, combined with a plain and concise mode of narration. The writings of Charles Dickens have been selected as the basis of the scheme, on account of the well-known excellence of his portrayal of children, and the interests connected with children--qualities which have given his volumes their strongest hold on the hearts of parents. With this view the career of LITTLE NELL and her GRANDFATHER, OLIVER, LITTLE PAUL, FLORENCE DOMBEY, SMIKE, and the CHILD-WIFE, have been detached from the large mass of matter with which they were originally connected, and presented, _in the author’s own language_, to a new class of readers, to whom the little volume will, we doubt not, be as attractive as the larger originals have so long proved to the general public.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Works of the Honorable William H. Seward, with a Memoir, Portrait and other Engravings on steel. 3 vols., 8vo. Price per volume, cloth, $2 50; half calf, $3 75; full calf, extra, $4 50.

The Study of Words. By R. C. TRENCH, B. D., Professor of Divinity in King’s College, London. 1 vol., 12mo. Price 75 cents.

On the Lessons in Proverbs. By R. C. TRENCH, B. D., Author of the “Study of Words.” 12mo, cloth. Price 50 cents.

The Synonyms of the New Testament. By R. C. TRENCH, B. D., Author of the “Study of Words,” “Lessons in Proverbs,” &c., &c. Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 12mo, cloth. Price 75 cents.

English, Past and Present. By Rev. RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, B. D. 12mo. Price 75 cents.

Macaulay’s Speeches. Speeches by the Right Hon. T. B. MACAULAY, M. P., Author of “The History of England,” “Lays of Ancient Rome,” &c., &c. 2 vols., 12mo. Price $2 00.

Meagher’s Speeches. Speeches on the Legislative Independence of Ireland, with Introductory Notes. By THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER. 1 vol., 12mo, cloth. Portrait. Price $1 00.

Lectures and Miscellanies. By HENRY JAMES. 1 vol., 12mo, cloth. Price $1 25.

Characters in the Gospel, illustrating Phases of Character at the Present Day. By Rev. E. H. CHAPIN. 1 vol., 12mo. Price 50 cents.

Ballou’s Review of Beecher. The Divine Character Vindicated. A Review of the “Conflict of Ages.” By Rev. MOSES BALLOU. 1 vol., 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

Maurice’s Theological Essays. Theological Essays. By FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE, M. A., Chaplain of Lincoln’s Inn. From the Second London Edition, with a New Preface, and other Additions. 1 vol., 12mo, cloth. Price $1 00.

The Pictorial Bible; being the Old and New Testaments according to the Authorized Version; Illustrated with more than One Thousand Engravings, representing the Historical Events, after celebrated Pictures; the Landscape Scenes, from Original Drawings, or from Authentic Engravings; and the Subjects of Natural History, Costume, and Antiquities, from the best sources. 1 vol., 4to, embossed binding. Price $6 00.

Life under an Italian Despotism!

LORENZO BENONI,

OR

PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF AN ITALIAN

_One Vol., 12mo, Cloth--Price $1.00._

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

“The author of ‘Lorenzo Benoni’ is GIOVANNI RUFFINI, a native of Genoa, who effected his escape from his native country after the attempt at revolution in 1833. His book is, in substance, an authentic account of real persons and incidents, though the writer has chosen to adopt fictitious and fantastic designations for himself and his associates. Since 1833, Ruffini has resided chiefly (if not wholly) in England and France, where his qualities, we understand, have secured him respect and regard. In 1848, he was selected by Charles Albert to fill the responsible situation of embassador to Paris, in which city he had long been domesticated as a refugee. He ere long, however, relinquished that office, and again withdrew into private life. He appears to have employed the time of his exile in this country to such advantage as to have acquired a most uncommon mastery over the English language. The present volume (we are informed on good authority) is exclusively his own--and, if so, on the score of style alone it is a remarkable curiosity. But its matter also is curious.”--_London Quarterly Review for July._

“A tale of sorrow that has lain long in a rich mind, like a ruin in a fertile country, and is not the less gravely impressive for the grace and beauty of its coverings ... at the same time the most determined novel-reader could desire no work more fascinating over which to forget the flight of time.... No sketch of foreign oppression has ever, we believe, been submitted to the English public by a foreigner, equal or nearly equal to this volume in literary merit. It is not unworthy to be ranked among contemporary works whose season is the century in which their authors live.”--_London Examiner._

“The book should be as extensively read as ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ inasmuch as it develops the existence of a state of slavery and degradation, worse even than that which Mrs. Beecher Stowe has elucidated with so much pathos and feeling.”--_Bell’s Weekly Messenger._

“Few works of the season will be read with greater pleasure than this; there is a great charm in the quiet, natural way in which the story is told.”--_London Atlas._

“The author’s great forte is character-painting. This portraiture is accomplished with remarkable skill, the traits both individual and national being marked with great nicety without obtrusiveness.”--_London Spectator._

“Under the modest guise of the biography of an imaginary ‘Lorenzo Benoni,’ we have here, in fact, the memoir of a man whose name could not be pronounced in certain parts of northern Italy without calling up tragic yet noble historical recollections ... its merits, simply as a work of literary art, are of a very high order. The style is really beautiful--easy, sprightly, graceful, and full of the happiest and most ingenious turns of phrase and fancy.”--_North British Review._

“This has been not unjustly compared to ‘_Gil Blas_,’ to which it is scarcely inferior in spirited delineations of human character, and in the variety of events which it relates. But as a description of actual occurrences illustrating the domestic and political condition of Italy, at a period fraught with interest to all classes of readers, it far transcends in importance any work of mere fiction.”--_Dublin Evening Mail._

Memoirs of a Distinguished Financier.

FIFTY YEARS IN BOTH HEMISPHERES;

OR, REMINISCENCES OF A MERCHANT’S LIFE.

By VINCENT NOLTE. 12mo. Price $1.25. [Eighth Edition]

The following, being a few of the more prominent names introduced in the work, will show the nature and extent of personal and anecdotal interest exhibited in its pages:--