Far prick'd the boy, nor slack'd his courser's pace,
Nor wist that he was single in the chase,

Till day was well nigh spent; then, heartless, laid
His limbs beneath an oak's embowering shade;
Bent, with the morrow's early dawn, once more
The forest's devious mazes to explore.

Rous'd by the lark, he strives to measure back
His homeward way; but, weetless of the track,
Still by the same o'er-ruling spell misled,
Worse than afore the gentle valet sped.
"Twas eve; when from afar was heard the roar
Of hollow billows, bursting on the shore
And from those wilds forth issuing on the strand,
He view'd a bark fast anchor'd by the land.
Gay was the hull, and seemly to behold;
The flag was sendal, purfled o'er with gold.
Scarce might he climb the deck, with toil foredone,
But in the shallop living wight was none.
While long and sore he mus'd, a gentle gale
Blew, rustling from the shore, and swell'd the sail.
Self-steer'd, o'er sparkling waves the vessel flew ;
The shore, receding, lessen'd from his view.'

After some melancholy thoughts on the awkward situation in which he is placed, our hero goes to sleep; but, waked by the noontide sun,' he finds himself in a spacious port, by the side of which stands a castle, of marvellous extent and beauty. It is well described in the following lines.

Fast by the margin of the tumbling flood,

Crown'd with embattled towns, a castle stood.
The marble walls a chequer'd field display'd,
With stones of many-colour'd hues inlaid.
With that ('twas wrought of fayery) so dight,
The workmanship did pass the substance bright.
Flank'd with protecting towers, a league of ground
The far extending girt encompass'd round.
Within, trim garden, mead, and fruitful vale,
gay confusion lay, and passing tale-

In

Fit ornaments to grace a rich domain;

Huge garners to bestow the golden grain;
Tall mills, with crystal streams encircled round,
And villages, with rustic plenty crown'd.
These, fading in the distance, woods were seen,
With gaily glittering spires, and battlements between.

• Beneath the porch, in rich mosaic, blaze
The sun, and silver lamp that drinks his rays.
Here stood the symbol'd elements pourtray'd,
And nature all her secret springs display'd.

Here

Here too was seen whate'er of earlier age,
Or later time, had grac'd the historic page;
And storied loves of knights and courtly dames,
Pageants and triumphs, tournaments and games.

We have then an enumeration of some of these romantic stories, represented on the walls. Moses and the children of Israel (for they too make a figure in these tales), Tristrem and Guenever, and Sir Lancelot, and Arthur. This description is not in the original romance; but strikes us as a very elegant imitation of similar episodes in Virgil, Ariosto and other poets.

These wonders duly surveyed, Partenopex enters a hall, where an excellent repast is set out. What surprizes him, however, is, that he sees neither waiter, nor musician, nor priest. The first, however, could the better be dispensed with, as every thing was, to use a vulgar phrase, in apple-pye order; and a hungry man, we may imagine, could in those days dine without music, and even without hearing grace. While he was pausing at this exhibition, an invisible harp is touched, and a song is sung, which, though not very lively, might, if he listened to it, seem to express some consolatory hints. This ended, he begins to think of making free with the banquet; when, anticipating his wishes, the good-natured meats come to him in turn, of their own accord and a cup of gold fills itself with the best of wine, which, in spite of his frequent attacks, is never below the brim.

Young as Partenopex was, he could not well help suspecting that all this was out of the usual course of things; and this surmise was not lessened, when a party of wax candles walked before him into a bed-chamber, or, in Mr Rose's language, medii avi, a bower;

where stood a bed,

With milk-white furs of Alexandria spread :
Beneath, a richly broider'd vallance hung;
The pillows were of silk; o'er all was flung

A rare-wrought coverlet of phoenix plumes,

Which breath'd, as warm with life, its rich perfumes.
Here the quaint elves the wondering child undrest,
And on the snow-white ermine laid to rest. '

Before he can fall asleep, he hears a soft foot-fall,' and perceives that some one is coming into the very place of his repose. The predicament is certainly become embarrassing he is plainly an intruder, though without his own fault; and who can guess the real owner of his bed?

Melior in sooth it was, the sovereign fay,

The wardress of that keep and garden gay.
She on the bed her dainty limbs down-laid,
Then started'.

:

Perhaps

Perhaps our readers have gone before us in the progress of this story. Melior, the fairy, had secretly loved Partenopex; had contrived, by magic sleight, that he should be conveyed to her castle; and prepared the banquet for his regale. Thus far her sprites had obeyed her will exactly; but whether it was that fees de chambre, like their types on earth, are sometimes impertinent enough to guess more of their mistress's intentions than is communicated, or from whatever other cause suspicious persons may conjecture, these heedless elves' had made a strange mistake, and ushered Partenopex into the very bed of the young queen. What an unlucky adventure! An eclaircissement of course ensues; but the circumstances are critical

Lordings, the rest is better guess'd than told. ' Told, however, it was, not to lordings only, but to ladies, who, in those matter-of-fact times, were not at all disposed to take such subjects upon conjecture. In Le Grand's translation of the romance, we find a parley between Partenopex and the lady, somewhat resembling, except in tediousness, Crebillon's dialogue of La Nuit and Le Moment. We should laud more highly Mr Rose's sense of propriety in passing over these details, had he not invoked the aid of Mr Smirke's pencil in a print, which, we must own, might be expected to call the eyes of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, were we not aware that those magnanimous friends of virtue confine their inquisition to wooden cuts, and their preventions to the poor.

Though blest in the possession of Melior, the heir of Blois found something wanting; and was naturally enough disappointed that every sense was gratified, save that of sight. The invisible musicians, the moving tapers, the self-replenished goblet, might pass; but he had an irresistible curiosity about the face of his bride. In this, however, he could not be gratified. She informs him of her history; that she is queen of the country, but may not marry any but a knight: a beardless boy would be scorned by her vassals.

Content, for a while, with this plea, Partenopex lived right merrily with his Melior; who carefully provided him with hounds and hawks, the only visible company he was permitted to keep; till, growing weary of this pastime, he began to hanker after former friends in his own country. The fairy (quis fallere possit amantem?) perceived the alteration of his mind; and, more generous than Calypso, trusted him on board the magic sloop, which was in a few hours safely moored in the Loire. Here he found a mother, who, half knowing, half ignorant of his secret, concluded that he was enthralled to some amorous demon. If any should think little better of Melior, we give them to know,

that

that hers was magia alba, an innocent art, which by no means hurt her interest with the most fastidious saint in Paradise. Appearances, indeed, were against her; and we cannot much blame the Countess of Blois for setting up a flesh and blood rival in the person of her niece. This young lady, however, had a spice of the magician about her also; and trusted not only to her beauty, but to a certain enchanted brewing, which had a surprizing effect upon Partenopex. His faithful fay was forgotten. Indeed his cousin came off indifferently with her stratagem; for, though Mr Rose glosses it over, he had certainly carried his infidelity au comble, when she unluckily mentioned, in contempt, the name of Melior. At once the charm was broken: he burst from her arms, and never slackened his speed, till, on the banks of the Loire, he found his fairy sloop, which darted with him back t● the invisible queen.

He re

She, who had certainly no right to play the prude, easily forgave his infidelity; and another period of love and hunting ensues, till he once more longs to visit his mother. This absence ends worse than the first. With the help of a bishop, the dowager persuades him that he cannot, in justice to his soul, live any longer with a female whose face he has not seen. turns to Melior; and, the very first night, raises the lamp to behold her countenance. It was a masterpiece of beauty: but he, alas! had little leisure to gaze upon it; for her bosom was sud denly heaved with convulsions, and in a moment, she seemed to lye dead before his eyes. Her awakening from this trance brought him no comfort ;-she bitterly reproached his perfidy, and explained secrets which were as yet unknown. Melior was the empress of Constantinople, early schooled by her father in the arts of magic. But, so imperfect is la féerie, that though she could build a castle, and direct a magic ship, she could not prevent, after this unseasonable discovery of her person, the entrance of knights and damsels innumerable, who would view a stranger in her pseudo-virgin bed. Sore sobb'd the boy;' but the day came on, and, as the fay prophesied, in came the whole bevy of Constantinopolitan courtiers! They turn their eyes with scorn on Partenopex, who is expelled disdainfully from the palace; and, like a dismissed lacquey, finds his old hunting clothes ready for him, instead of the gorgeous raiment in which Melior had bedizened his person. The women, however, all look on him with pity, and half envy their frail sovereign; but Uraque alone, the empress's sister, leads him through a malignant crowd to the ship, which, as before, is in its duty, and lands him safely in his native country.

It was a melancholy life that poor Partenopex led in this exile from

from all that he loved. His mother, we may be sure, met with no good words from him; and indeed he had no resource left but dying. But le moyen d'y parvenir ! Bullets there yet were none; hanging was an ignominious, and drowning an obscure death. He bethought himself, accordingly, of repairing to the forest of Ardennes, which in those times was remarkably full of lions and tigers. In the middle of this woody solitude, one of the latter breed appeared. Nothing could be more opportune: but, as the fairies would have it,

The sullen beast, with half averted eye,

Glar'd fiercely on the child, and pass'd him by.' An idea now struck Partenopex, that his horse had terrified the monster, and prevented the desirable consummation of his personal deglutition. He dismounts, and sits down in expectation of the tiger: but, surprizing to say, it leaps instantly upon the horse, which darts away, having thrown off its load, into the for rest. It chanced, that a lady travelling that way, saw this horse without a rider, and was induced by humanity to seek for, and succour Partenopex. Who was that courteous fair one?—who, but the faithful Üraque, who, half for her sister, and half for herself, nursed the penitent lover to his recovery of health, though not of happiness.

Melior was still inexorable, spite of all Uraque's endeavours to palliate the crime of Partenopex; when her barons, impatient of a female reign, resolve that she shall wed, perforce, the conqueror in a grand tournament. Partenopex, we may guess, found his way thither; and, concealed in his armour, received from Melior's hand the accolade of chivalry. The preparations for this tournay are described in spirited language by Mr Rose.

The sun had clombe the sky, and drunk the dew,
When merrily to field the bugles blew ;

And trooping fast from camp or castle round,
(So swarm the mustering gnats with drowsy sound),
Rode paladins and dukes of princely mien,

And kings, whose tissued housings fir'd the green;
With bucklers wrought about with bone of Ind,
And banderols that rattled in the wind.

What knights of worship came were long to tell,
Grecian or Gaul, baptiz'd or infidel.

Yet may I briefly touch their steeds of price,
And banners gay with many a rich device;

How some the mace, and some the faulchion whirl,
Their reins encrusted o'er with shell and pearl;
How music, various as the weeds they wore,
Blew, loud and long, the jolly troops before;
How strove the trumpet with the clarion's song,

Sackbut