1830.] The Eve of Saint Simon, in Colombia. 167 



ing three days, a prey to all the horrors of remorse, he died imlarriented, 

 and was interred in the aisle of the small church of Achaquas with 

 all the pomp of military and masonic honours ! 



The vile and detesteid Trayner, scouted by his countrymen (with the 

 rank of lieutenant-colonel conferred upon him by Paez in reward of his 

 meritorious services), joined a native corps and accompanied it to a dis- 

 tant province. In an action which took place some time after, he was 

 wounded, and with the Creole colonel ("Penango"), deserted by his 

 men, left upon the field of battle, writhing with pain, and parched with 

 thirst, he was found by the Spaniards, and by the order of their 

 general, (the savage Morales), unresistingly butchered, thus affording a 

 terrible example of Divine retribution ! 



Several of the personages mentioned in my tale still, I believe, exist. 

 Years may revolve, and various be the vicissitudes of their fortune, yet 

 memory will never cease to associate in its reminiscence, with the town 

 of Achaquas, or the name of the Colombian " Liberator," a recollec- 

 tion of the horrors that resulted from the sanguinary festival of the Eve 

 of Saint Simon ! G. B. H. 



SINGULAR SMITH 



Is an individual of the genus Smith, a cognomen of so multitudinous 

 an import, so wide- embracing an universality, as would render it no 

 easy task to point out the Smith intended, were it not for the distin- 

 guishing epithet, Singular. Hah ! I perceive, gentle reader, by the puz- 

 zled expression on your brows, and the effort you are making, as you 

 run through the catalogue of five hundred and fifty persons of that name 

 whom you know intimately well, to fix upon c f one bright particular" 

 Smith, that you do not know my John Smith. Give him up at once, for 

 he is a riddle you cannot solve, a conundrum you cannot guess. If you 

 knew him, you would be in no dolderum as to which is he ; you would 

 have picked him out at once, as a shepherd selects a particular sheep 

 from a flock of five hundred. The Smith I shall here illustrate stands 

 out, from the vast majority of Smiths, a truly remarkable Smith ; and 

 you know him not, but shall, or there is no painting by the pen. 



John Smith was born in the humble walks of life, in Leather-lane, 

 from whence the greatest geniuses have generally sprung. His father 

 maintained a very large family of little Smiths, by bringing together 

 unconnected pieces of thick and thin cordovan, in which the lieges of 

 Leather-lane and its liberties contrived to amble. His mother was the 

 " sole daughter of the house and heart" of Mrs. Selina Shred, the 

 respectable widow of Mr. Samuel Shred, piece-broker of Hatton Wall. 

 Mr. Samuel Shred, born, like his grandson, under the influence of 

 Saturn, had a natural predilection for the elegiac muse, and was, if 

 rumour is to be believed, the immortal author now no more of those 

 true and touching lines, which have since taken root and flourish in 

 every churchyard throughout England, 



" Afflictions sore 



Long time I bore, 

 Physicians were in vain," &c. 



It is, therefore, very reasonably to be inferred that our hero derived his 

 tendencies and talents, as well as his birth and being, by the mother's 



