1829.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



685 



liimself is a student at Oraatz — of course 

 one of the subliraer burschen, and equally, 

 of course, coupled with the Tugend-bund, 

 and a pupil of transcendentalism, which is 

 but another word for rebellion and atheism. 

 The father of the youth is a rich burgher of 

 Trieste, whose house is the chief scene of 

 the story. Into this family is introduced a 

 .very fascinating girl, French educated, the 

 daughter, apparently, of one who is going 

 professedly to join the Greek pariots, but, in 

 reality, is connected with the Carbonari, at 

 whose head is a ruined and profligate Nea- 

 politan prince. The purpose of this intro- 

 duction is, through her, to obtain the 

 earliest intelligence of the measures of the 

 Austrian government — the father of the 

 Mystic being one of the chief magistrates 

 of the town — and, moreover, to secure the 

 affections of the youth for herself, and his 

 co-operation with the conspirators. The 

 young lady, however, has too much honour 

 and spirit to play so common a tool, but not 

 alacrity or tact enough to save tlie young 

 Mystic from falling into other traps laid for 

 him by the terrible Neapolitan prince. He 

 is precipitately entangled, and with his su- 

 perfine notions, irrevocably. The honest 

 father liimself, by the cunning of the chief, 

 gets implicated — is arrested on suspicion, 

 and loses his reason from a feeling of indig- 

 nity, and sorrow for the lapses of his son. 

 The repenting, but still unflinching son, in 

 a desperate attempt to save his father, com- 

 mits a miuder, and finally fidls in a melee 

 with the Austrian troops. 



The hero of the second tale is, on the 

 other hand, a " Rational" — a gentleman 

 who eschews mystery and defies delusion. 

 A young lady contrives, however, to mystify 

 him by a series of clumsy, and even imprac- 

 ticable expedients, but well enough for the 

 girl who employs them, and the noodle she 

 deludes. 



The third is a longer tile, called the 

 " Treasure Seeker," and the reader expects 

 the story to concern those who are still, it 

 is represented, engaged in searching for 

 treasures, supposed to have been buried in 

 the Hungarian mountains, by the Goths, in 

 their flight after Alaric's death, and which 

 they left there for safety during their subse- 

 quent excursions into Lombardy and Spain, 

 where they all perished, and, of course, none 

 were left to go and dig them up again. But 

 no sucli thing— a Treasure Seeker is indeed 

 introduced towards the fag end of the story, 

 but for a very subordinate purjiose. The 

 pith of the story is this — a Hungariari 

 prince of a boundless extent of desert, is at 

 Vienna, without a penny, where he, never- 

 theless, wins the heart of a German countess 

 with mines of wealth ; but he is too delicate 

 to Incur the suspicion of marrying for gold, 

 and she sufficiently fine to sympathize with 

 his delicacy, and both are consequently 

 miserable to their heart's content. Tlic 

 difficulty, however, is finally surmounted by 

 persuading a good-natured uude to give 



him a competent fortune. This mancruvrc 

 a cousin, who had looked to this uncle's suc- 

 cession, views with a jealous eye, and, to 

 prosecute his desire of revenge, murders the 

 said uncle, and denounces his too happy 

 cousin as the murderer. The princess plays 

 I/avalette's wife, and he escapes, by flying 

 to his own desolate estates, where the cou- 

 sin, now a chief of banditti, is seized by 

 him, and thrown into his own prison. The 

 princess is quickly released, for her hus- 

 band's innocence is speedily proved — pines 

 for his absence some time, and at last is 

 seduced by false representations to go to 

 Hungary, where her husband is stated to be 

 confined by a broken leg. This, however, 

 is but a trick of the cousin to get her into 

 his own hands ; but, just as his plan of ven- 

 geance is on the point of completion, he 

 is intercepted by some Austrian dragoons 

 — the prince is released, and all ends felici- 

 tously. 



More stories are yet to come, but they 

 will appear under the appropriate title of 

 " Stories of Wedded Life in the Upper 

 Ranks !" 



Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, ly Griffiths 

 and others. Part XXI. — The editors of 

 this superior performance — certainly the best 

 of the kind, now in course of publication, 

 beyond all comparison — prosecute their la- 

 bours with unhalting diligence. The pre- 

 sent fasciculus completes the Older of the 

 Gallinas, and embraces, besides, nearly the 

 whole of the Grallae, or Wading Birds. Of 

 the Gallinse the most extended account is 

 naturally that of ihe domestic cock and hen 

 — so much better known as they are — in the 

 course of which the very curious process of 

 Egyptian mechanical hatching is minutely 

 described, as is also, another matter equally 

 curious, the mode of converting the capon 

 into a nurse, according to Reaumur's^sug- 

 gestions, to accompUsh the same purpose 

 without the cruelty previously practised. 

 The change in the self-bearing of the bird, 

 on his becoming again of importance, 

 though not according to his original in- 

 stinct, is worth attention. 



Instead of being melancholy, abashed, 

 and humiliated, he assumes a bold, lofty, 

 and triumphant air ; and such is the in- 

 fluence of audacity over all animals, that 

 tliis borrowed courage completely imposes 

 on the cocks and hens, and prevents them 

 from disturbing liim in tlie fulfilment of his 

 charge. At first he is a little awkward in 

 the exercise of his office. His ambition of 

 imitating, in his gait, the majesty and dig- 

 nity of the cock, makes him carry liis head 

 too stiff, and prevents him from seeing the 

 chickens, which he sometimes thus inad- 

 vertently tramples imder foot. But expe- 

 rience soon teaches him to avoid such 

 mishaps, and accidents of the same kind do 

 not occur again. As his voice is not so 

 expressive as tliat of the lien, to engage the 

 chickens to follow and assemble near him. 



