That voice again, St. Mark, and victory!
St. Mark, and victory! the hills reply.
Bursts forth the brazen thunder once again,
And all is still! and where was Anna then?
And where was he, the conqueror, when her sire
Fell with the Christian's last avenging fire?
Where was he then, the master of the field?
When from that fire his veteran chargers reeled?
When baffled from the fight he saw them fly,
Triumphant still the red cross waving high,
And heard the Christian shout, St. Mark, and victory!
XVI.

Coldly she lay-nor even the lips of love
Her peaceful spirit from that sleep could move,
While he, who caused the ruin and the strife,
Then first remembered that she was his wife;
Heard her warm prayer, and then wakened, felt,
Too late to save, that she to him hai knelt,
And knelt in vain! Oh, wherefore might he not,
A moment from the past, a momen blot-
And she shall kneel no longer!-yars of war
Shall come, from Negroponte's wall afar;
But ne'er shall Mahomet, in field, or ower,
Forget the madness of that fatal hour

Ne'er from his breast shall hope of Hories chase,
The living memory of that wild embra
Nor old Erizzo, and his daughter part

From Mahomet, his conscience, and his eart!

XVII.

Such were thy children, Venice? Shame decend,
And Ruin, on thee, for thy baser end!
Why roll the eternal waters to the sea?
Is there no curse to call them back on thee?
Is there no voice, in all thy children's blood
That thou hast shed, to stay the avenging flood?
Oh, why did heaven primeval murder's shriek,
In blood, upon the first-born murderer wreak-
Why sent it down the lightning on the land,
Where for a mark the waveless waters stand;
If thou shalt live, thou sea-born Sodom? Hear,
Ye elements, long-suffering nature's prayer,
Bow, Charentana, down thy forests, bow,"
And shake the eternal winters from thy brow-

Roll, Adria, back thy billows to the shore,
And dance upon thy natal hills once more,
From the wide Adige, to the eastern main,
Bound high and foam ye waters once again,
And ocean reassert thy universal reign.

(a) "Oh! for an hour of blind old Dandolo,

The Octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe."-CHILDE HAROLD. "Henry Dandolo, when elected Doge, in 1192, was eighty-five years of age. When he commanded the Venetians, at the taking of Constantinople, he was, consequently, ninety-seven years old. At this age he annexed the fourth, and a half of the whole empire, of Romania, for so the Roman Empire was then called, to the title and to the territories of the Venetian Doge. Dandolo led the attack on Constantinople, in person. Two ships, the Paradise and the Pilgrim, were tied together, and a drawbridge, or ladder, let down from the higher yards to the walls. The Doge was one of the first to rush into the city. Then was completed, said the Venetians, the prophecy of the Erythean Sybil, 'A gathering together of the powerful shall be made amidst the waves of the Adriatic, under a blind leader: they shall beset the goat-they shall profane Byzantium.' Dandolo died on the first day of June, 1205, having reigned seventeen years, six months, and five days, and was buried in the church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople."-Notes to Fourth Canto Childe Harold.

(b) There is nothing in the most glorious events of Venetian history at all comparable with the obstinate resistance of the Venetian Senate to the Church of Rome. In this alone it may claim a greater admiration than its rival, the Republic of Florence; while these two, through the long era of ignorance and superstition, preserved to Europe, the former, the germ of religious, and the latter, that of political liberty.

(c) Those travellers who were acquainted with the state of the Italian, and more particularly of the Venetian nobility, before and after the subversion of the old institutions, represent the change as having been profound and cruel, beyond belief. A member of one of the most illustrious families of that proud aristocracy, after having dispensed the charities of a noble house, and lavished its treasures upon a crowd of dependants, before the wars of the French Revolution, has been seen in the market-places, avoiding the recog nition of his countrymen, and those who had known him in his prosperity, soliciting alms from the stranger, when the eyes of the multitude were, for a moment, withdrawn from his person.

(d) "There is poetry in the very life of aVenetian, which, in its common course, is varied with those surprises and changes so recommendable to fiction, but so different from the solemn monotony of northern existence. The love of music, and of poetry, distinguishes all classes of Venetians, even among the tuneful sons of Italy.

In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more.

The well-known song of the Gondoliers, of alternate stanzas, from Tasso's Jerusalem, has died with the independence of Venice."-Notes to Childe Harold.

(e) When the name of this celebrated island is written with the final e, it is intended to preserve the Italian pronunciation of the word, which requires that every letter be sounded.

(f) The last Doge of Venice expired in the moment of yielding to the Austrian Commissioners, according to the provisions of the treaty of Campo Formio, the insignia of his office, the last badge of Venetian liberty.

(g) That part of the Alps in which the Brenta rises is called Chiarentana; and when its snows begin to melt, that river is so greatly swollen as to require the construction of artificial banks and mounds, to preserve the country, on its shores,

A SKETCH OF THE DRUIDS AND OTHER
PRETENDERS TO WISDOM.

BY SAMUEL L. KNAPP.

The magicians and astrologers, and all the train of the east, were not the only people who pretended to exalted wisdom, and to the possession of wonderful knowledge. The Gauls and the Britons, and, in fact, all the Celtic nations, had their magicians also. The druids were more remarkable than the wise men of the east. We have some very accurate notices of them, particularly from Julius Cæsar, on his return from Britain. The druids took their name from the methods, or rather from the place of their worship, under the large oaks, in the open air; their temples were roofed only by the heavens; and the worshippers were surrounded, or circumscribed, by a rude, rough, low wall. Their worship was dark, figurative, and enigmatical. It was a jumble of astronomy, astrology, medicine, and mathematics; in a word, all they knew, and all they pretended to know, or believe, was wrapped up in their sacred rites.

The druids were divided into several orders, namely; the Vacerri, who were the priests, and dealt in all the sacrifices, incantations, and matters of religion. Their rites are described as being awful indeed. They not only sacrificed animals, as many other nations did, but they went further; and, in cases of great public calamity, made offerings of human beings, selected for the purpose. To appease an offended deity, according to their creed, human blood must flow; but in this they were not alone. Many nations, bordering on Palestine, were guilty of these "damned rites." The mistletoe, a parasitical plant, that, in their climate, is an evergreen, was held most sacred by them. It generally springs from the crevices of the bark of the oak, some way up the tree, among the branches, where the bark is more loose than on the lower part of the body of the tree. This plant is not found in the oaks of our immediate region; but it is seen, by those who visit Mount Vernon, hanging on the trees that overshadow the sacred relics of Washington, an emblem of a fame that can never die. The mistletoe is there sometimes plucked by purer hands than those of the bloodstained druids-by those of patriots-as a remembrancer of the place, and of the unfading laurels of the father of his country.

The second order was composed of the Bards; they were the historical and genealogical poets of Gaul and Britain. These were the Magi and Sophi of these countries; all the learning of their nation was found among them. They were astronomers and astrologers; and the orators, who spoke to the people on every great event. To them also was confided the healing art. Their name is retained in our language to the present day, and will probably forever remain in it. From these bards, came all those Welch genealogies, which are so minute and extended, and of which the Welch are so proud, down to the present day.

The Lubages formed a third order. These were soothsayers, who probably did what the others told them to do. And the Simnothei were those who were tutors to the young initiates.

The women had a share in these druidical rites. The first class of them resembled the vestal virgins at Rome, and seemed to have the same vow of virginity, and the same influence among the people. Their number was small. The second class of the women were married, but were devotees, who were often from home whole seasons together.

The third class were female servants; and from these came the weird-sisters, and the whole tribe of our vulgar witches; and the word witch was indiscriminately used, both for themselves and husbands. These were spared, when the Romans made such havoc among the other classes, as being too contemptible for a conqueror's sword. They were not sought for, when Edward cut off the few remaining bards that the Romans and the Saxons and the Danes had spared.

Many traditions of the Druids have come down to us; and there are societies of those who call themselves druids, at this day. The association is for poetical, social, and kind purposes, and quite harmless. The initiation brings together many of the rites once practised among the bards. And one of the arts they inculcate and require is improvisatori poetry. If the ceremonies of the druids who now exist, are of modern invention, he must have been a learned man who invented them.

The order of the House of Wisdom, was another body that laid claim to great mysteries. This body of wise men was established at Grand Cairo, in the reign of the sixth Caliph of the Fatemite race. History informs us that it was once the largest school in the world; having had at one time fourteen thousand scholars. They lived in the midst of emulation, and in a blaze of genius. The Caliph lavished on them half his revenue. The robes they assumed have come down to us. The black gown and the professor's cap are among them. This body came nearer to our forms and divisions of the faculties, than that of any former body; or, to speak more correctly, we have taken more from them than

from others. In this school, mixed with other learning, there were taught the occult sciences-astrology, palmistry, and divinations, by mystic characters, and the combination of figures of their own invention. The most chastened and sober Egyptian or Arabian imagination, under literary and scientific excitement, was but little short of the paroxysm of the Pythia, and the boldest of them pushed themselves into the world-unknown, with a species of harmless, but fearless insanity. Their poetry, with true Eastern splendor, had a most metaphysical cast. They spoke of things that were not, except in their imagination, as things existing. They brought their paradise to earth, and carried this world to paradise. The gods and demi-gods of their masters, the Greeks, were all reasoning beings; but these followers of the prophet made their children of earth, or heaven; continually acting under the full force of inspiration, according to their power of bearing it. In process of time, this house of wisdom became dilapidated; and a branch of this society severed from the original stock, fled to the mountains, and set up for themselves. They pretended to have among them the elixir of life; and their founder, Hassan Ben Sabah, was supposed to have drank it, and to have lived for ages. He was called the old man of the mountains. His order was called Assassins. The term, in that day, carried with it a different meaning from what it now does. It has been corrupted, as the words knave, tyrant, villain, bucanier, and many others, have been. Deeds, have given new signification to these words; so did the deeds of the assassins. Some remains of this order are supposed now to be in existence. Many intelligent travellers, at least, think so. All that remains of the house of wisdom at Grand Cairo, is a huge mosque, with many surrounding buildings, in which there is now kept a small and wretched school.

The descendants of the assassins are in every society, but are hunted down by the hue and cry of the virtuous in all communities; and when taken, are branded or destroyed for their deeds of blood; while the sons of the house of wisdom, like the pure streams of waters from our mountains, are too numerous to be distinguished or properly valued. There are other assassins than those who deal in blood-assassins of reputation-the most dangerous, because the most difficult to reach, or to destroy. These prowl through the land; are found in the high-ways, and by-ways of life; and, with a dagger-tongue, leave an incurable wound with every stab. The moral world is more overrun with monsters than the natural. The gibbet is for those who destroy life; but what scaffold of infamy is there for those who destroy reputation? To accept the cold and unmeaning apology of a slanderer, for the injury he has done, is like taking the saliva of a mad dog, venom, and froth and all, to cure the wound he has inflicted with his teeth.