236 



Monthly Review of Literature. 



[AuG. 



readily acknowledged. To prevent a mo- 

 ment's unnecessary suspense, a copy of the 

 reprieve is despatched by a confidential ser- 

 vant, and he himself follows, accompanied 

 by the sister, a few hours after. This ser- 

 vant has been some time in the hero's 

 service ; he is a surly, dogged sort of fel- 

 low, but apparently of the most faithful 

 and attached caste. He had been picked 

 up under extraordinary circumstances, and 

 seemed bound up inseparably with his mas-, 

 ter's interests. He, however, turns out a 

 thorough-paced villain he is, in short, the 

 fellow-clerk, who had all but accomplished 

 his ruin by involving him in gambling 

 transactions. Revenge was the object for 

 which this demon lived by the hero he 

 had been struck, and by the friend he had 

 been baffled. In his service, on the pre- 

 sent occasion, he had an opportunity of kill- 

 ing two birds with one stone he destroyed 

 the reprieve, and by his contrivance his 

 master reached the scene of execution an 



hour too late. The sister lost her senses, 

 and the hero's happiness seemed marred for 

 ever. Nothing, however, could detach him 

 from the unhappy lady ; for two years he 

 sedulously watched over her, and, at last, 

 removing her to the south of France for 

 change of air and country, he encountered 

 his sullen and vengeful servant. A scene of 

 violent recrimination ensued ; the hero 

 turned away in disgust the wretch rushed 

 after him with a knife the poor and appa- 

 rently insensible lady uttered a scream the 

 hero turned at the sound the blow thus 

 missed its object, and the assassin fell against 

 the trunk of a broken tree and dashed his 

 brains out. The shock restored the lady's 

 intellects, and by slow degrees she recovered 

 her health, and bliss finally repaid her sor- 

 rows. The wind-up is not only invested 

 with interest, but told with deep pathos, 

 presenting a brilliant proof of executive 

 powers, of which the outset certainly gave no 

 promise. 



FINE ARTS' EXHIBITIONS. 



THE long-expected print, from Mr. Mar- 

 tin's Fall of Nineveh, is at length before 

 the public. The praise that we are inclined 

 to bestow upon this extraordinary produc- 

 tion (and it is praise of a very high order) 

 is, that it is the finest of all his works. We 

 are at a loss to conceive any thing in the 

 form of a print more magnificent than this 

 engraving. Mr. Martin has in this picture 

 concentred every thing that his genius had 

 previously created. All that he has hitherto 

 accomplished of the vast, the beautiful, the 

 grand, and the sublime in art, is here brought 

 together all massed, as if by supernatural 

 power, in the vastness, the beauty, the gran- 

 deur and sublimity that are displayed, in 

 wild and wonderful profusion, in the Fall 

 of Nineveh. The picture is no doubt fa- 

 miliar to most readers. The moment of 

 the event represented is that in which Sar- 

 danapalus is proceeding with his concubines 

 to the pile which he had himself caused to 

 be raised for their destruction. His city is 

 on fire ; not lit by human hands, but by 

 heaven ; and the oracle that had foretold 

 the fall of his kingdom seems to be fulfilled. 

 The enemy is pouring through the crum- 

 bling walls and he devotes himself and 

 his beautiful females to the flames. The 

 hour is supposed to be soon after sun-set : 

 the moon is faintly struggling with the 

 strong glare of the distant fires, and with 

 the lightning, whose broad flash is spread 

 over the front of the picture. The immense 

 space of the city, with its splendid archi- 

 tecture, partaking of the Egyptian and the 

 Indian, seems more immense from the my- 

 riads that are thronging tumultuously in on 

 every side. Elephants, flanked by chariots 

 and horse, are trampling down the routed 

 Ninevites. On the left hand is the funeral 



pile heaped with treasures ; on the right, 

 the hanging gardens, from which the people 

 are looking in terror upon the approaching 

 ruin. In the centre of the foreground stands 

 Sardanapalus, surrounded by his concu- 

 bines. The grouping of the figures here is 

 very beautiful ; their forms are reflected by 

 the lightning in the bright transparent 

 marble. Warriors are taking leave of their 

 wives and children some of the slaves are 

 pilfering the treasures, others are revelling 

 in riot. Immediately in front stand the 

 rulers of the state, denouncing the king as 

 the cause of the city's destruction. In the 

 print the effect is even more striking than 

 in the picture : in the one, the light is ne- 

 cessarily glaring; in the other, it is sub- 

 dued into an extended and unbroken cha- 

 racter of gloomy grandeur and magnificent 

 desolation. In a picture like this the figures 

 themselves are of less consequence than the 

 manner in which they are introduced; other- 

 wise we could wish that some few of them 

 had been more perfect, or that the features 

 had received an expression which, on a scale 

 like this, in a mezzotint engraving, it would 

 be impossible to give. Mr. Martin has 

 done wonders ; and we gladly and grate- 

 fully add our voice to the loud peal of praise 

 which this performance cannot fail to call 

 forth. 



Either we are much deceived, or the pub- 

 lication of A Series of Views in the West 

 Indies, engraved from Drawings taken in 

 the Islands, will effect some little change 

 in the opinions entertained in this country 

 respecting those islands and their inhabi- 

 tants. We have rarely seen a set of views 

 so pleasantly poetical, and yet so apparently 

 faithful in their delineation both of places 

 and persons of the beauties of nature, and 



