Here ended the interrogatories; the judges retire, and the scene changes once more. Instead of leading the prince back to his dungeon, he is established in the council-chamber, the only lodgeable room in the prison, which is fitted up commodiously for his use. For the enormous heap of chains, sufficient to bear down an elephant, is substituted a polished iron ring, round his ankle, of about three ounces weight. He is supplied with paper and ink for his amusement, (for he was not allowed to send letters to any body,) and also with books, and drawing pencils. They place a special guard in the prison on his account, commanded by a captain and a lieutenant of infantry, and these officers are established permanently near his person, and are searched with the greatest severity whenever they leave his apartment. In the meantime, the people of his suite are interrogated respecting the pretended project of exciting the colony to insurrection; they answer by shrugging up their shoulders, and immediately, without further process, without re-examination, or confrontation, the principal personage is condemned to the gallies, or hard labour in Africa, and his followers are banished the territory of Spain. The details of the sentence were stated to Garnier in his prison by the clerk of the court, a Frenchman by birth, and whom the former had inspired with a friendship for him. The clerk, when telling what had passed, added, " all this is very extraordinary; I cannot understand it.”*

* On Garnier's inquiring of this clerk, what could have given rise to the idea of exciting a revolt in the colony, he informed him that it originated with the French court, where the pretended prince was accused of such a project. We have already stated that the marquis of Caylus, by way of excusing his weakness and folly, had declared his apprehension, that the colony would reyolt; but the French minister despised this accusation; and the pretended actors in this pretended insurrection of the prince's adherents, who had been arrested by the marquis's orders, were liberated very soon afterwards, without any trial. Nadau alone was ordered to France, to give the account of his conduct; but M. de Caylus dying about this time, nobody took any interest in the prosecution of Nadau, the family of Penthiévre took no part against him; so that he got well out of the scrape, and returned to Martinique, probably less persuaded of the story, than he had been on setting out, but still supporting the same opinion. As for Dr. Garnier, he retained the same sentiments to the last. The marquis d'Eragny, who had gone to France, was rather less firm in the faith. The others have been lost sight of

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Before the sentence could be carried into execution, the prince, who remained in prison, had found means to open a correspondence with his friends. He informed them that his table was well served, that he was well treated, in short that he wanted nothing except wine and snuff which were refused him. He had won the hearts of the officers who guarded him. These gentlemen carried away his notes rolled up between their fingers, and as they were not searched, when they came in, they brought back in their pockets the wine and snuff, which were furnished them by Garnier, Ferol and d'Eragny, who were also in prison but less closely watched.

It was now time to set off for Cadiz, where the convicts destined to the king's works at Ceuta, in Africa were assembled. A coach with six mules appeared at the door of the prison, the whole garrison of Seville was under arms. The prince came down, dressed in a handsome scarlet coat, his head well powdered, leaning on the arm of the captain who guarded him, and supporting with a rose colored ribbon, the little fetter which embarrassed him when walking. He was helped into the carriage by the captain and the lieutenant, and these officers followed him into it. They set off escorted by the little troop to whom the guard of the prince was entrusted, and were driven through Seville between two rows of infantry who lined the streets.*

On the prisoner's arrival at Cadiz, he was conducted to the fort de la Caragna, which commands the harbour. The commandant of the fort was informed that he should be answerable

* It has been said that an insurrection in his favor was apprehended. It is most certain that people's imaginations were singularly excited on the occasion, there were bets laid in Spain to the amount of sixty thousand dollars, on the question whether it was or was not the prince of Modena. The court forbade any wagers to be made; and this appeared the most extraordinary circumstance of all. The betters went in quest of the true prince; they were a long time without finding him. He was at that time neither at Modena, nor at Reggio, nor at Massa Carrara. It was said he was at Venice; but four public notaries certified that he had not appeared there. One would have thought that he hid himself on purpose to keep up the uncertainty, and to give the usurper of his name, time to lay aside in Africa, the title he had assumed in America and brought with him to Europe,

"

for him; but the order mentioned at the same time that he was to be treated con maniera, with attention and respect. This officer was a Frenchman, named Devan, who had risen to his present rank by his merit: when I make myself answerable for a man, body for body, answered in French, this old soldier, after reading the order, I know but one maniera of treating him, which is to put irons on his hands and feet. Then the intendant, who had also received orders, caused the prince to be transferred to the ordinary prison, where an apartment was handsomely fitted up for his accommodation. He excited an extreme curiosity in all the inhabitants of Cadiz; but nobody was allowed to see him. The intendant wished to make an exception in favour of his own sons; the prince refused to receive their visit, and even caused them to be dismissed in a humiliating manner.

When the time arrived for the convicts to set out for Ceuta, he was put on board of a separate vessel from the other galley slaves. Just as they were setting sail, a secretary of the intendant made his appearance; he brought with him what remained of the proceeds of the sale of his equipage, out of which had been deducted the amount of the expenses incurred for and against him. The sum was from seven to eight hundred rials.* "Ah! Ah!" said he, "the intendant chooses to make me his almoner!” then, raising his voice, "sailors, the intendant is very generous, here is some money which he makes you a present of." He distributes the money among them in presence of the secretary, and away they sail.

Nadau, on his return to Martinique, received a present of a gun and a pair of pistols of Barcelona manufacture and of exquisite workmanship. This present was accompanied by a letter from the prince, in which, after some excuses for the trouble he had caused this officer, he informed him that he was at Ceuta in the Cordelier convent, where he was kindly treated and enjoyed sufficient liberty. He pretended to have . been visited by Aly-Obaba, brother to the emperor of Morocco, who had offered him forty thousand men and artillery in proportion, to attack the Spaniards, but being restrained by motives of honour and religion, he had refused the proffered service. The interview had however gone off very well. Aly-Obaba had given

* About 200 livers.

him a rich pelisse, and he had returned this present by giving him two Lyons waistcoats, which he had just received. He concluded with informing Nadau that he had had a letter from Louison, a mulatto, one of the two valets-de-chambre, who followed him to Europe; that the poor fellow had complained to him that he was out of employment, and attacked with a disorder which required an expensive treatment, he had therefore caused him to be put under the care of a skilful surgeon at Cadiz, whom he had paid for the purpose, and had at the same time forwarded to Louison, money sufficient to get back to Martinique. He in this manner, by actions, as well as by words, supported the character he had assumed, and this is assuredly not the least remarkable part of his history.

Liewain received also a letter, but it contained only civilities. He condoled with him on the losses he had suffered on his account, and gave him hopes that he should indemnify him for them, at some time or other. These letters were both the first and last from him. It appears that tired of his confinement, however commodious it had been rendered, the young man found means one day to make his escape. A merchant ship anchored about this time in the road of Gibraltar. The captain who was an Englishman, went ashore and told the commanding officer that he had on board his vessel the person so famous throughout the country by the name of the prince of Modena, and that he asked leave to come on shore. "Let him take care how he does so," answered the commandant; I would treat him con maniera, in the English style, and he should be imprisoned immediately."* The captain took his word for it; he set sail

*The above conversation took place in the presence of a French officer of engineers in the service of the East India company. The commandant added some circumstances relative to the manner in which the pretended prince had lived at Ceuta. He was served in plate by the monks, and treated with great respect. As he was passionately fond of riding on horseback, and the enclosures of the convent did not afford a sufficiently large field for this exereise, he had caused a wall which separated a couple of orchards to be taken down, and here he used to hunt deer, wild or tame, which were procured for the purpose. It was thought the monks tired of their guest; had favoured his

escape.

again, and with him disappeared for ever this extraordinary individual, leaving no other trace of his existence behind him; but the remembrance of an enigma which is probably inexplicable.

Note by the editors of the Archives Literaires, from which the above is translated.

The account we have here laid before our readers appears to us to unite the interest of a novel with the precision of history. It is extracted from an authentic Memoir, sent some years ago to one of the ministers of Louis the 15th; who gave a copy to one of our associates. We have done no more than abridge the Memoir, and amend its style, which is very incorrect, but no alteration whatever in the facts has been admitted. We have even thought proper to preserve some trifling details, the unimportance of which attests, in our opinion, the fidelity of the narrative.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

A COMPARISON BETWEEN HOMER AND THE SACRED WRITINGS.

THERE is, as has often been remarked, a chastity, sublimity, and eloquence, in the sacred writings, beyond the ability of uninspired mortals to rival. Although this proposition has often been broadly asserted, it may not be uninstructive to examine it somewhat in detail, and to establish it by incontrovertible examples. And first, when we introduce the example of that tremendous Being whom we worship, let it not be thought that we cite such awful instances to amuse the literary indolence of our readers; that we mean to festoon his holy altar with the flowers of criticism, as a worthy substitute for that homage of the heart, which he enjoins as the test of our fealty and allegiance. Longinus, who felt a reverence for Homer little short of idolatry, and who, in his Treatise on the Sublime and Beautiful, made his writings the standard of illustration, with all the contempt of his nation for the Jews, prostrated his prejudices, and paid his literary adoration to that Divinity, who spoke the fountain of light into existence. The mind of this great critic was probably at that time torn by two conflicting sensations, his contempt for the Jews, and his reverence for the writings of Moses.