Perform his knavish tricks,

Enter your room as I have done,

Blow out your candles-thus-and thus,
Pocket your silver candlesticks,

And walk off-thus."

So said so done-he made no more remark,
Nor waited for replies,

But march'd off with his prize,
Leaving the gouty merchant in the dark.

THE CAVE OF THE ENCHANTRESS.

· Che trar di sotto a i chiusi marmi
Può corpo estinto, e far, che spiri, e senta :
che al suon de' mormoranti carmi

Fin nella reggia sua Pluto spaventa,
E i suoi Demon negli empj ufficj impiega
Pur come servi; e gli discioglie, e lega.”

TASSO.

PASSING through Calabria last year, on my return from Greece, I found myself near the site of the ancient Apollonia, in whose neighbourhood, according to Plutarch, a sleeping Satyr was once caught, and brought to Sylla as he returned from the Mithridatic war; but as his inarticulate voice, partaking both of the neighing of a horse and the bleating of a goat, prevented him from making any intelligible answer to interrogatories, the Roman spurned from him a creature which seemed to partake more of the bestial than of the human nature. As caves and grottos seldom

disappear, I thought it not unlikely that the one in which this monster was stated to have been discovered might still exist; and on making inquiry of the peasants, I was informed that there was a large subterranean opening into the rocky earth at about four miles distance, which was reported to be of considerable extent, but that no good Christian cared to visit it, because it was haunted by an enchantress, or modern Witch of Endor, who possessed the terrific power of raising up the phantoms of whatever dead persons might be named by her visitants. This superstitious legend, as I deemed it, only making me more anxious to investigate the spot, I procured a guide, with whom I traversed a singularly wild and romantic country in the direction of the sea, much musing whether the being I was to encounter would present herself to me under the appearance of some ancient Pythoness, of the Cumaan Sibyl, the Nymph Egeria, whose subterranean mode of residence she imitated, Circe, Medea, or any other prophetess of the classic ages; whether she would prefer the semblance of Alcina, Melissa, Armida, the fairy Morgana, or some of those enchantresses who figured in the days of chivalry; or whether, finally, she might assume the guise of the Weird Sisters, and so "hold the word of promise to my ear to break it to my hope," or condescend to personate a vulgar witch, and resemble some of those numerous old hags who were condemned to the stake to confirm the treatise upon witchcraft and demonology, written by his most learned and sacred Majesty King James the First. In the midst of these meditations we reached

the entrance of the cave, which my guide contemplated with a profound horror; and as no entreaties would prevail upon him to enter, I took a pistol in each hand, being in sooth somewhat apprehensive of banditti, though perfectly undismayed by any fear of supernatural adversaries, and marched slowly forward into the mouth of the aperture.

From the appearances of the interior, I should conjecture it to have served as a place of refuge for some pious hermit of the early ages, rude seats being hewn out of the rock, and sufficient light admitted by tunnels communicating with the surface to enable a person to read in any part without difficulty. Passing through a narrow passage at the extremity of the first porch I entered a second, where, to my infinite amazement, I beheld a young and beautiful female gazing earnestly upon a large book: her complexion was pale, and her dark hair parting at the top of her head, and falling on each side upon her shoulders, discovered a high and fair forehead, with a finely carved brow, which seemed to be the seat of intense thought. So much was she absorbed in study, that she did not observe my entrance until I intercepted a portion of the light that fell upon the volume, when, without expressing any surprise or alarm, she turned towards me, and said with a gentle voice-" You are a stranger; why do you invade my solitude?" Simple as was the question, I hardly knew what reply to make, stammering out with some hesitation, that I had no excuse for my intrusion but curiosity, excited by the marvellous stories related by the peasants

of the surrounding district; although I assured her that I put no faith in the absurd rumours of her supernatural powers, particularly of her ability to raise apparitions of the dead. "And why not ?" she calmly resumed. "Is not every thing that surrounds you, the earth, the sea, the sky, with their respective tenants, and all the glorious pageant of nature, a mystery and a miracle? Will you believe in innumerable things that are incomprehensible, because they are of frequent occurrence, and refuse to credit one because it is rare? Is it more wonderful that men should reappear than that they should live and die? Speak; name the mortal, either of the past or present times, whom you would wish to behold."

Startled at the determined confidence of her tone, which I attributed to the delusions of some mental hallucinations, rather than to any consciousness of supernatural power, I felt somewhat embarrassed by her command, although resolved to put her assumed magic to the test of proof. Having lately been reperusing Sappho's Hymn to Venus, preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, as well as her celebrated ode, so indifferently imitated by Catullus, and so admirably translated by our Ambrose Phillips, one of those sudden associations of thought for which there is no accounting suggested her at that moment to my mind, and I suddenly exclaimed-" Sappho, the poetess."-"Behold her!" said the female, and quietly resumed her studies.

Turning eagerly round, I observed for the first time that one side of the grotto was covered by a

black curtain, which began slowly to arise; but what words can express the wonder with which I was bewildered and astonished, when, as the mysterious drapery became completely upfurled, I found myself gazing upon the island of Delos, in the Egean Sea, with an intuitive knowledge of the localities that surrounded me, and even of the living personages that figured in the scene. Ancient tradition having asserted that it was a floating island until Jupiter "Immotamque coli dedit, et contemnere ventos," I at first imagined that it had again broken from its rocky moorings and been wafted up to the mouth of the cave; but a moment's observation dissipated this fancy, for I seemed to be standing in the centre of the island, surrounded by a vast multitude of people, who were assembled to celebrate the great quinquennial Festival of Apollo. Before me was the beautiful Temple of that deity, forming the principal ornament of a city, watered by the little river Inopus, behind which rose Mount Cynthus, covered with laurel groves. The sun had not yet risen; but the moon was full, and Diana, as if anxious to show all honour to her brother deity, poured from the heavens a steady and resplendent light, illuminating the whole group of the Cyclades, and diffusing a rippling brightness over the Egean, whose waves laid themselves gently down upon the yellow sands of the island with a hushing sound. The ocean was covered with vessels from the Saronic Sea to the Hermaic Gulf on the west, and from the Icarian Sea to the Hellespont on the east, their white sails alternately catching and losing the moonbeams,