548 TO THE WIND. 



publication, and that, instead of " Courier" Extraordinary, the wora 

 ought to have been Minister, Secretary ', or Chamberlain, at (he least. 



On the same day, however, Isaac's doubts were dispelled ; for, on 

 being sent for to Potsdam, he was clad in the royal livery, and an 

 ivory-headed cane being put into his hand, he was ordered to take 

 his place with three other running footmen in advance of the royal 

 carriage, which he was to precede, at his utmost speed (surrounded 

 by a regiment of tall dragoons), on its passage to Berlin. 



Isaac, overcome by fatigue, covered with sweat and dust, and 

 panting from want of breath, his cheeks suffused with agony and 

 shame, beheld his quondam brethren, the Israelites, flocking to the 

 parade in front of the palace for the purpose of viewing the royal 

 cortege, and to gaze with wonder upon " the man whom the king de- 

 lighted to honour." What, then, were his feelings, when, instead of 

 the fondly anticipated tokens of congratulation, he was greeted with 

 loud shouts of laughter from both Jew and Gentile! Overpowered 

 by amazement, shame, and vexation, he threw himself upon his knees 

 before his Majesty, as he was descending from the carriage, and im- 

 plored him to release him from so degraded, so wretched a situation. 



" Why, my friend Isaac," replied Frederick, " I had hoped that I 

 had hit your taste and abilities to a hair ; for he that could use so 

 much expedition in running/rom one God to another, can surely have 

 no objection to fill the office of running footman to the king of 

 Prussia." 



The poor Jew was mortified to the quick ; for the stifled laughter 

 of his brethren plainly convinced him that Frederick had ordered 

 them to assemble for the purpose of witnessing the merited disgrace 

 of a renegade from the religion of his own and their fathers, in order 

 to embrace one which, in his heart, he despised. 



At the end of a month he was released from his (worse than Egyp- 

 tian) bondage, on condition, however, of bringing forward twenty 

 thousand pistoles, of publicly recanting his new faith, and of humbly 

 begging the king's pardon for the deception which he had practised 

 on his Majesty. He died soon afterwards, broken-hearted by the 

 great sacrifice of his wealth ; and though reconciled to the faith in 

 which he was born and bred, he, until his last hour, bitterly cursed 

 the policy which prompted him to desert it for another. 



TO THE WIND. 



HARPING at midnight with mysterious tone, 



Thou bearest, O Wind ! within thy viewless breast 



A power that wakes, or sweetly lulls to rest 



The spirit sighing o'er the past, and lone. 



Howling and deep, yet mournful ye invoke 



The chords of grief or with low breathing sigh 



Transmute the sad and tearful into love 



Serene and holy, as when first it broke 



Upon the world in paradise. O, could I hie 



Borne with thy zephyrs silently above 



This dusky atmosphere of earthly care ! 



Yet whither ? away from o'er the spicy grove 



To lands more bright amid the starlit air ? 



We pause nor can thy birth nor destiny 



Unseal wrapt in a spirit's agency ! E. W. G. 



