344 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



difficulties beset the way on every side, and nature has surrounded the path with 

 every means of ambush and concealment. 



""Mounted on heavy horses, and loaded with a complete armour of iron, the 

 soldiers of Charlemagne returned from their victorious expedition into Spain, 

 and entered the gorges of the Pyrenees, without ever dreaming that an enemy 

 beset their footsteps. 



" The monarch himself, with the first division of his host, was suffered to 

 pass unmolested ; but when the second body of the Francs, following leisurely at 

 a considerable distance, had entered the wild and narrow valley called the Roscida 

 I'allis (now Roncesvalles), the woods and mountains around them suddenly 

 bristled into life, and they were attacked on all sides by the perfidious Gascons, 

 whose light arms, distant arrows, and knowledge of the country, gave them every 

 advantage over their opponents. 



" In tumult and confusion the Francs were driven down into the bottom of the 

 pass, embarrassed both by their arms and baggage. The Gascons pressed them on 

 every point, and slaughtered them like a herd of deer, singling them out with 

 their arrows from above, and rolling down the rocks upon their heads. Never 

 wanting in courage, the Francs fought to the last man, and died unconquer.ed. 

 Rolando and his companions, after a thousand deeds of valour, were slain with 

 the rest ; and the Gascons, satiated with carnage, and rich in plunder, dispersed 

 amongst the mountains, leaving Charlemagne to seek for immediate vengeance 

 in vain. 



" The battle must have been fierce and long, and the struggle great, though 

 unequal ; for, during the lapse of many centuries, tradition has hung about the 

 spot, and the memory of Rolando and his companions is consecrated in a thou- 

 sand shapes throughout the country. Part of his armour has there given name 

 to a flower ; the stroke of fris sword is shewn upon the mountains ; the tales and 

 superstitions of the district are replete with his exploits and with his fame ; and 

 even had not Ariosto, on the slight basis which history affords, raised up the 

 splendid structure of an immortal poem, and dedicated it to the name of Ro- 

 lando, that name would still have been repeated though all the valleys of the 

 Pyrenees, and ornamented with all the fictions of a thousand years." 



It is the author's intention to follow up the present sketch (a bulky volume !) 

 of the life of Charlemagne, by a series of volumes illustrating the history to 

 France by the lives of her great men. We wish him success in his laborious un- 

 dertaking ; and we think that if he perseveres in the indefatigable industry with 

 which he appears to have consulted and compared his authorities, he will render 

 a great service to literature, and establish no unenviable reputation for himself. 



A RAMBLE OF Six THOUSAND MILES THROUGH THE UNITED STATES OF 



AMERICA. BY S. A. FERRALL, ESQ. LONDON : E. WILSON. 1832. 

 WHEN a man has nothing better to do, or rather, when he finds that he has 

 nothing to do in his own country, he usully takes sail for America, and rambling 

 six thousand miles, returns in six months with his volume, and is thenceforth 

 looked upon by his admiring friends, not only as a great traveller, but also in the 

 light of a most approved author. 



What particular call Mr. Ferrall had to America, we do not know ; but he, 

 doubtless, had many good reasons for his voyage. It is not for us to doubt or 

 to inquire his motives,. 



" He saw a hand we cannot see 

 Which beckon'd him away." 



The reader who expects in this work a second course of that piquant anecdote 

 and invective which, it seems, was found to be so attractive in Mrs. Trollope's 

 work, will be grievously disappointed. Nothing of the kind will be met with 

 here ; and the author honestly apprizes us of that fact in the preface. 



" I have refrained nearly altogether from touching on the domestic habits and 

 manners of the Americans, because they have been treated of by Captain Hall 

 and others," 



