610 



Monthly Renieiv of Literature, 



[DEC. 



tion and this delusion or employment 

 lasting 1 for nearly a couple of centuries, 

 from successor to successor this is a de- 

 mand upon our credulity, which history 

 may indeed make, but which the very fond- 

 ness of fiction can never make us pay. The 

 story of Emir Malek is however rather 

 private than public more concerning him- 

 self than his tribe. He was an Egyptian 

 prince, expelled from his country, and after 

 a variety of marvellous adventures, en- 

 listed among the Assassins, and finally the 

 Souba's lieutenant on the hills of Lebanon. 

 In the execution of his responsible office, 

 he is any thing and every thing to carry his 

 master's views or his own into execu- 

 tion. In his boyhood he was furiously at- 

 tached to his lovely cousin, who from some 

 reason or another was insensible to his 

 fur}\ Like himself, however, this cousin 

 was driven from her country, but falling 

 into the hands of Lusignan, king of Cyprus 

 and Jerusalem, became a convert to Chris- 

 tianity. This conversion explodes her vol- 

 cano cousin, Ilderim ; and the story opens 

 with Vadilah's renunciation of Moslemism 

 in full assembly, in the splendid cathedral 

 of the metropolis of Cyprus. While in the 

 act of repeating her new profession of faith, 

 a voice from the crowd bids her beware, 

 and presently a dagger, forcibly flung, 

 pitches between her and the archbishop. 

 None could see from whence it came 

 Vadilah makes a shrewd guess, but COIHHMJ- 

 nicates not. 



The tumult occasioned by this event is 

 calmed, and even forgotten, by the arrival 

 of Sir Roger de Mowbray and Gilbert de 

 Clare, Earl of Gloucester, on an embassy 

 from Prince Edward of England, then en- 

 camped before Ptolemais, 1271, to invite 

 the new convert to visit the Princess Elea- 

 nor; and before she is ready to embark, 

 De Mowbray, a gallant and youthful knight, 

 falls desperately in love with her and she 

 nothing loath. But this brings Ilderim on 

 the scene in new disguise. His angry feel- 

 ings are now exasperated by jealousy, and 

 he takes a speedy opportunity of planting a 

 dagger by the side of De Mowbray while 

 sleeping, by way of a warning just to 

 prove to him too how easily he could have 

 struck it into his bosom. Vadilah herself 

 has a visit from him his ubiquity and 

 stealthiness are past all comprehension he 

 can creep through a key hole; he com- 

 mands her to return to Moslemism, and 

 upon her refusal, gives her very plain hints 

 that her days will be shortened, and appa- 

 rently is only prevented from finishing 

 them at once, by the approach of stran- 

 gers. 



Vadilah and the ambassadors now set sail 

 for Syria, and land at Tortosa. The hills 

 in the rear of Tortosa were occupied by the 

 Assassins, and extraordinary precautions 

 became necessary. The parties separate 

 the princess under the protection of De 

 Clare, and De Mowbray convoys the pil- 



grims. The princess reaches Edward's 

 camp in safety, but De Mowbray encoun- 

 ters the Maronites, and has a personal con- 

 test with the chief, who proves to be Ilde- 

 rim. Ilderim is getting the worst of the 

 fray, when being suddenly summoned from 

 the field by the peremptory signals of his 

 superior, the Souba, he is forced to with- 

 drawbut not without a pledge to fight it 

 out near Ptolemais. 



These Assassins had become the pest of 

 the country and of all parties, and steps 

 are taken by the hostile Christian and Ma- 

 hommedan princes to extirpate them. The 

 Souba, and his lieutenant Ilderim, whose 

 official name is Malek, determine, in con- 

 sequence, on despatching Edward, as the 

 person whose death was most likely to 

 break up the alarming combination. While 

 at Cyprus, Malek had seduced one Guyon, 

 a bastard of Simon de Monfort's, who was 

 himself intent upon nothing so much as on 

 taking vengeance on Edward for the dis- 

 grace of his father, and readily falls into 

 Malek's views. An English lady, one Eli- 

 zabeth de Rous, of high family and fortune, 

 whose reputation was reported to be a little 

 singed, and who had met with some slights 

 from Edward's belief of the report, is, like 

 the rest, panting for revenge, and she throws 

 herself into the arms of Malek, and stimu- 

 lates him, who scarcely wanted the stimulus. 

 Malek has some conscience his object is 

 to extinguish Christianity and obey his 

 chief, only indulging his own vehement 

 hatreds by the way, and with something 

 like fairness ; but Miss De Rous is a per- 

 fect daemon she not only wishes for the 

 death of Edward for the slights he had put 

 upon her, but stipulates with her paramour 

 for that of Vadilah, simply because she 

 learns Ilderim had loved her. De Guyon's 

 revenge is confined to one object, and very 

 little would probably have diverted him 

 from that, but he was poor, and Edward 

 was the cause of his poverty and no one 

 appeared likely to enrich him. 



Matters arrange themselves thus. De 

 Guyon undertakes to get an interview 

 with Edward aud slab him ; and Miss de 

 Rous, by some manoeuvres of her own to 

 #et Vadilah into her clutches De Guyon, 

 under the guise of a priest, Edward's own 

 confessor, penetrates iiito Edward's apart- 

 ment, and holds a long 1 dialogue with him 

 a very Mathews iu mimickry we must 

 suppose but just as he is grasping his 

 dagger, his arm is caught by an attendant 

 knight, and his purpose frustrated. INJiss 

 De Rous is somewhat more successful- 

 under the character of a Zing-aree, she 

 does get Vadilah into her power aud 

 great difficulty has the poor lady in escap- 

 ing 1 . In the meanwhile, De Mowbray and 

 Malek meet to have out their fight, and 

 Malek is left on the field for dead. He, 

 however, is tenacious of life as an eel, 

 and, though his brains seemed beaten out, 



