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appearance what fears were to be entertained for her health, the attendant Leonora placed him in the apartments of the ducheffa in a fituation advantageous to his defign.

delicacy. Don Manuel therefore de-
termined to go without her; and a
only that this expedition required to
be immediately undertaken, if poffi-
ble to prevent the nuptials of Loren-
zo, he would have poftponed his in-
tended departure until the return of
Francifco from Madrid, that he
might leave Viola under his protec
tion.

The infant Matilda was then in the arms of her mother, whofe maternal feelings at that moment had conquercd every other. other. She was finging her child to fleep. Her voice, whether in fpeaking or finging, was gifted For the fuccefs of his generous with the power of fafcination; it project, don Manuel knew it would founded now fo piteous, but fo low, be neceffary to conceal his intentions as if the feared the pathos of her from all his affociates, to whom it notes fhould feem like murmurs at threatened danger the most formidathe decrees of Providence.. Her ble; and although don Manuel knew whole appearance was fo touching, the performance of his defign-would fo indicative of filent, uncomplain- be at the peril of his own fafety as ing, deep-felt woe, that don Manuel well as theirs, fo much did he, at was fubdued, and ftarting from his that moment, prize the restoration place of concealment, fell at her feet, of Viola's happiness, that he would imploring forgivenefs for all the have thought it "cheaply purchafed forrows he had ever caufed her, and with his own life and thofe of half folemnly pledging to reftore her to mankind. Orders for his voyage he fame and happinefs, even at the peril therefore iffued, as if for fome piratiof his own life and that of his affoci- cal enterprife, and even to his friend ates, affured her that at the dawn of Garcias he invented a delufive tale, the fucceeding day he would fet fail as a reafon for his intended precipitate for Italy, fee the duca di Manfredo- departure. But wary as the fabile nia, clear her immaculate fame, and Manuel thought himself, the more prove his accufations of the perfidy fubtile Eliridii cruelly proved the of her enemies true, even before the fruftration of his generous purpose. tribunal of the inquifition:' More deeply interested in the fecrets of the castle than any other of the community, it was in Elfridii's pow er to wander over it, an invifible (py, at pleasure, and in one of these unfeen rambles he overheard the confer ence in which don Manuel promised to reftore Viola to fame and to her husband, and haftily communicated this important discovery to his two vile affociates, Garcias and Polydore. The victim of their malice was about to be fnatched from their pow◄ er, and not only their lives, but those of the whole community, facrificed without fcruple, for the happiness of an individual whom they all three hated. They dared not openly oppofe don Manuel, who lived in the hearts of his men; and if they exafperated

For herself, the ducheffa would have rejected even fame and happinefs from the murderer of her father; but affection for her child prompted her gradually to accept his promifes, which he generoufllforbore to tell her, as it teemed with fuch imminent danger to himself. He offered now to take her and Matilda" with him to Manfredonia. But to this propofition the purity of the ducheffa farted infuperable objections: her pride of confcious virtue led her to with to be emancipated from her dreadful captivity by her husband, or his agents; and to return with the very man with whom her fame had been blafted, was incompatible with every precept of prudence, with every feeling of

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him, they knew he could quickly find means of vengeance: they had therefore only to provide for their own fafety by rendering his defign fruitless, and to deftroy fufpicion by diffimulation equal to his own.

her ineftimable mother's approaching fate-Viola kneeling by the fide of her habe, exactly in that employment in which a Chriftian would with to die. She was at prayers when the ruthless Sanguinario entered the room, unfeen, unheard, by the pious. victim, into whose beauteous bofom he plunged the weapon of unmerited vengeance. The lamp which lay upon a table near, at that dreadful moment emitted a brightened ray; it gloomed upon the face of Viola, Sanguinario now beheld her celestial countenance, and for the first time knew who the victim was he had been ordered to immolate. The fatal blow recoiled upon his hitherto callous heart, and defeated the further progrefs of his murderous miffion. Dathing the reeking poniard from his trembling hand, he frantically retreated. So fhaken, fo cone fcious-ftruck, his fenfes fled, never to return, and left him that miferable wretch the difmayed Victoria beheld in the cavern.

Among the wretches devoted to Garcias, was one more diabolical, more fanguinary, than any affaffin in the whole fraternity; and fo much more cruel, more ferocious, was he deemed than all the reft, that even his companions gave him the appropriate name of Sanguinario. This wretch, who had aided Leopold in the murder of the archbishop of Montreal this wretch, who had, while in the fervice of the marchefe of Palermo, met with a dreadful accident, at which time the humanity of Viola led her to fhow him the moft touching kindness-kindness that did touch his heart, for Viola was the only perfon upon earth he had ever felt a particle of philanthropy towards; this wretch was fixed upon as the perpetrator of their attrocious purpofe. It was agreed upon, With her death-blow Viola receivby thefe dæmons of iniquity, that ed the conviction of the cruel hand while Leonora was taking her fup- which ultimately directed it; and per, that night, Sanguinario fhould trembling for the fafety of her child, enter through a private door, the fe- fhe fnatched it from the bed and cret of which Elfridii was to teach although feeling the ftream of life him, into the ducheffa's apartments, faft iffuing from her bofom, the took and there murder the unfufpecting the lamp into the library, where the Viola and her child-and, after the deed was effected, fo to difpofe of the poniard, as to make the horrid cataftrophe appear the work of her diftempered hand and better to colour this fuppofition, conte Vicenza, an adept in the art of forgery, wrote a few unconnected lines, in imitation of the ducheffa's writing, addreffed to don Manuel, and highly expreffive of mental derangement.

At the ufual hour Leonora retired to her fupper, and as ufual the lovely ducheffa was the fole nurse, and tender guard of her Matilda, who lay fleeping in her bed, unconscious of

placed it to light her as with faltering
steps the meatured her way to the
parlour, where the conjectured don
Manuel then was.
With the con-
vulfive hand of death the opened the
room door, where fat don Manuel
with her three murderers, Elfiidii,
Polydore, and Garcias. She ftag-
gered towards the petrified Ambrofio,
put her child into his arms, with a
fupplicating look that conveyed more
than language could have expreffed,
then inftantly funk at his feet, and
clofed her beauteous
eyes for ever.

(To be continued.)

Hilary

three great princes, who happily

Hiftory of Portugal. By Mr. John fucceeded each other, promoted this

Adamfon.

CHAPTER II.

The Portugule the first Navigators. Hiftorical Differtation on the prefent fate of the Marine-particularly that of England.

AFTER the revolution, which divided the Roman empire into fo many different fovereigntics, each of which had its inflitution, its laws, and its forces, the governments of a middling extent, could not expect to increase their dominions. This was the time when it was to be determined whether Portugal fhould remain a finall and poor monarchy; or fhould open to itself a paffage to power and grandeur, by fome remarkable undertaking.

Europe could furnish it with no means of aggrandifement: the court of Lisbon, therefore, made choice of the ocean as the field of its enterprifes. When a government forms a defign to increase its powers by land, it generally has fome knowledge how it hould be conducted; but it is impoffible to fay how it may be managed at fea; every thing is new on this element; its events, its viciffitudes, and even its dangers, may lead to grandeur.

The Portuguese were the firft navigators; for we cannot call by the name of navigation, thofe little voyages made from one coaft to another, without ever being out of fight of land.

This people opened the univerfe, which had been shut up ever fince the creation. They united all the different parts of the globe, which was one of the greatest events that ever happened; not only on account of the influence it had over the feveral fovereigns of kingdoms, but also of the revolutions it occafioned among mankind.

John I. John II. and Emanuel,

general reunion. We muft, however, prefume they were ignorant of the advantages, or difadvantages the difcoveries; for the different enterhuman race would derive from these prifes, which are undertaken, the honour of fuccefs is often given to kings, who were totally inactive, and they are often blamed for misfortunes, in which they never had a hare.

Hiftory does not record a royal project, conceived with fuch boldnefs and fuperiority of genius; the Portugefe had no plan to imitate, they had to build a marine, and open a paffage to India by a route unknown to all the world.

Vafco de Gama, who bad the management of this enterprize, the greatest ever trufted to man, encountered the inevitable dangers and fatigues of a navigation, where experience afforded him no relief, when oppofed to the changes perpetually occurring at sea.

Cma, having failed through unknow feas, arrived at India three months after his departure from Lif bon. This voyage, the longeft and moft hazardous which had been ever undertaken, leads us to reflect, that if any thing demands our attention, it must be the prefent state of the marine. Every thing is new in this department; its origin, its progrefs, and its perfection, bear no refemblance to the other branches of adminiftration; which have been imitated, and often merely copied one from another.

It is certain that an element uninhabitable by man, ought not to be the theatre of his ambition; therefore the marine advanced flower to perfection than the other arts.

The ancients, from whom we have treatifes on all the other sciences, have left us nothing relating to navigation. Rome, that became the mif

trefs

trefs of the world, and Carthage, that human mind can make fuch a change difputed this honour with her, knew in the face of the globe; and that if but the coaft of the Mediterranean; fome acts are productive of much their navies confifted of flat-bottomed good, there are alfo others productive boats, and these answered every pur- of much evil. pose to navigate the narrow freight, which feparates Europe from Africa. This was the only place where fea battles were ever fought; and it is probable that, had not Carthage difputed the empire of the world with Rome, Europe would never have had a marine; and that peace would have been for ever established on an element, influenced by no revolutions, but thofe of its own waves.

Before the rife of navigation, the evils attached to the fcourge of war, were confined to a few continents of the earth, but when the fea alfo became the theatre of warfare, defolation and misfortune were univerfal. After the fall of the Romans and Carthaginians, the only people who had difcoloured the fea with their blood; this element enjoyed a profound peace, during a period of twelve centuries; robberies commit ted by pirates, who never approach ed the fhores but to carry off the inhabitants, cannot be denominated batiles.

The immenfe ocean could not be navigated without a guide, and it was fcarcely poffible that the human mind could imagine it would ever poffefs one, when the compafs was difcovered. It is unknown in Eufope, who was the inventor of this inftrument; the Chinese are fuppof. ed, being an enlightened nation, when the rest of the world was in a state of ignorance; but there is reafon to believe we owe the invention to chance, as also of almost all the deadly inflruments, which have defolated the earth.

It is remarkable, in the events of this world, that we may charge the magnetic needle with the death of one hundred millions of men; fo true it

The only use the compass is of in navigation, is to point out how near they approach to, or how far they are diftant from, the north. This was fufficient for navigation, but not for warfare.

The difcovery of the compafs was the cause of many fea battles; in which the combats were fo much the more deadly, as they announced that revolution, which has overturned the fyftem of the universe.

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The first battle we hear of in modern times was that of Lépanto, in he Mediterranean; in which, for, the first time, about three hundred galleys, belonging to the Turks and Chriftians, were engaged with a fu-` ry, which had never been obferved in battles on fhore. It has been obferved that the fea renders the combatants more fierce, and that their courage appears to increase with the fury of the waves. There is this difference between battles on fhore and fea fights; that the former are fubor➡ dinate to order and military difcipline, which in fome measure diminishes the carnage, while the latter continue wanton in their cruelty. At fea a naval power has no retreat but on the waves, which makes it fight till its force is almost totally extinguithed.

The fecond great battle fought at fea, was that of the invincible armada, fitted out by Philip II. The grandeur and number of his fhips, led to a conjecture, for the first time in Europe, that the lord of the fea might become the fovereign of the whole earth. Yet this undertaking did not fucceed, and Philip faw his vaft

N O T E. * At Leeds Castle, in Kent, is a very

is, that the smallest discovery of the large painting of the battle of Lepanto: the picture is ancient, and very valuable.

vaft project of ruling the waves fruf trated; it was not the nation with which Spain was at war that gained the battle, it was the tempeft which gave the victory; an important leffon to thofe maritime powers, which pught rather to mistrust this element, than depend upon their navies for protection.

The Dutch took the fceptre of the ocean from the hands of the Spaniards, and fince that time have preferved the empire of an element, which for want of land, ferves them for domains. They are the only power of Europe which has eftablithed itfelf on the fea. When a people cannot fubfift on their own element, they naturally look out for another.

The civil wars raging in almost all the kingdoms of Europe, contributed to place the ocean under the dominion of these republicans. It is remarkable in the hiftory of establishments, that fecondary caufes have generally befriended the firft.

In the mean time England, recovered from its domeftic contentions, wifhed, under the ambitious adminiftration of Cromwell, to divide the empire of the feas with Holland, or rather to acquire the fuperiority; for when a kingdom, of more extended empire and greater power, oppofes another inferior in both, it feldom he fitates to impofe laws to it.

The Dutch, that they might not degenerate, fought for a long time with the Englith, for at least a competition, which at fea is looked upon as an equality.

France, which before had confined itself to land, and on which it had become very powerful, afpired to the empire of the feas. Lewis XIV. purchased a navy. This prince did with money, what money before his time could not do; he fupplied, by this metal, what nature had refufed his country, a country fufficiently powerful to defend itfelf by land, but too weak to fight at fea; befides

which, France enjoyed not a commerce flourithing enough to keep up a grand navy; of which mercantile navigation is the fupport, and would have to combat with those nations, which, having no refources but from the ocean, are by nature maritime.

Lewis joined the fea flag to the land ftandard, thinking that the former would ftrengthen the latter; but this prince, at other times enlightened, was deceived in this refpe&t; inftead of itrengthening, it was certain to weaken it. The battle of La Hogue difcovered to the French this important truth, of which, however, they are not thoroughly convinced.

The Romans were alone able to rule over both elements, because they poffeffed a coerceive power, which made every thing fubmit to them: but as power in a general fenfe is divided into as many different branches as there are governments; a nation cannot acquire the dominion of the fea without lofing that of the land, nor augment its power on the one, without weakening itfelf on the other: a fyftem which if it could be adopted by certain nations of Europe, would in a great measure prevent the evils arifing on both elements.

It is evident from the hiftory of maritime powers, that one nation cannot have the fuperiority both at fea, and on fhore At the time that England fent its forces out of its ifland to govern France, it poffeffed fcarcely a thip; becaufe at that time it afphed to be powerful on land; its government was anxious to have foldiers in lieu of failors, and fortifications inftead of fhips: it was not until it loft its influence on hore, that it fought the empire of the ocean.

Its marine may date its rife from the time when the French obliged its forces to repafs the channel, and. when Calais became the frontier of England. To the fmallnefs of the ifland it owes the grandeur of its ma

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