G62 The Mtimmies at the Carmelite Convent at Brussels, [|Dkc. 



in high official situations by different sovereigns, to whom, without 

 vanity, I may say, I rendered some assistance, and contributed by my 

 efforts to the signing of the peace of Aix la Chapelle in 1G68, and also 

 that of Nimeguen ten years afterwards. At this latter period I becamt 

 acquainted with a respectable man about seventy years of age, — he had 

 been of the Mahommedan religion, but for many years had renounced 

 the errors of the prophet, and embraced the christian faith. From him 

 I learnt most of the particulars of my eai-ly life — he had been one of the 

 persons selected by the sultana to carry off Eudocia — he lamented in 

 bitter terms having been accessaiy to the misfortunes of my mother ; 

 and, in order to compensate me as much as lay in his power, he offered 

 me the hand of his only daughter, then in her twentieth year, and in al] 

 the bloom of beauty. I already loved her. She freely gave her consent 

 to make me happy ; and if happiness be the lot of any mortal upon 

 earth, to the fullest extent of the word, I enjoyed it — but, alas ! for only 

 one brief twelvemonth : she expired in my arms a week after giving 

 birth to a lovely infant, which entered the celestial abode at the same 

 time as the parent. There, holy father, let me pause.- — Pardon, I beg, 

 the tear that blots this paper. I cannot forget — my heart is still along 

 with her. Often, when stern duty orders me to raise my thoughts to 

 the Creator, my mind is absorbed in the recollection of my former 

 happiness, and in lamenting the untimely fate of my angelic and beau- 

 tiful Helen."* 



THEATRICAL AIATTERS. 



Drury-Lane has shared in the pressures of a period in which every 

 man, profession and pursuit, has shared during the last six months. The 

 performers have been in consequence called on, and have, with many 

 handsome and deserved expressions of respect to the manager, agreed to 

 a deduction of a part of their salaries until the arrival of what is consi- 

 dered the full season, or after Christmas. We have no feeling more for 

 one manager than another, but the present lessee of Drury Lane has ful- 

 filled all his engagements hitherto with such punctuality, has exerted 

 himself with such diligence, and has so far succeeded in raising the cha- 

 racter of his establisiiment, that we are anxious to see him receive that 

 public support which is so much his due. 



A great variety of performances once stamped with popularity, have 

 been exhibited since the commencement of the season. J\Iiss Philips is 

 still the tragic heroine, and she is certainly improving. Some nights 

 since she played Belvidcra, and with very striking skill. But this cha^ 

 racter is by no means of an order to admit the finest efforts of the stage. 

 The whole play is a melodrame. Time, the utter scarcity of great tra- 

 gedies, and the memor of the celebrated actresses who have played in 

 " Venice Preserved," have given the play a dramatic rank beyond its 

 merits. The characters are universally forced, extravagant, and inca- 

 pable of inspiring true tragic interest. Jafficr's weakness disgusts the 



• The whole of the latter part of the manuscript, consisting of nearly fifty pages, I 

 have been compelled to reduce to a few lines : it is, however, the most interesting and in- 

 structive of the narrative, and comprises the events in the life of Padre Ottomano, from 

 about the year 1C61, till his entrance into the convent of the AlHiite Friars, some time in the 

 year 1681 or 2. I have by no means done justice to the original ; but should this abridged 

 account meet with approbation, I may be induced to give tlie whole history of a man, 

 whose name is not unknown to those acquainted with tlie annals of the Ottoman empire, 

 and the gallant exploits of the Knights of Malta. 



