the dark we go out of it. Still, at all times, and in all || and stories, and entertaining ourselves in the best way places, I feel my being to be inter-penetrated with we could. Kafoor, who made coffee like one of the another being of imperishable goodness and beauty; inhabitants of Jinnistan, brought his apparatus near and the consciousness of this communion seems to be us, and prepared endless cups of this delicious beverthe best guarantee of immortality. Towards the in- age, which diffused its fragrance around, like "Sabean finite we always yearn, and then most when we are odours from the spicy shores of Araby the blest, till, deeply dissatisfied with the finite and the perishable. pleased with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiled;" In this faint record I cannot restore life to the feel-joined with this perfume was that of the Gebel Latakia ings which then lived in me. I looked backwards and ||which descended on us like the soft and somniferous forwards to the persons I had known and loved, and dews of Lebanon. to the things I hoped shortly to see. Egypt, with As, however, we made no progress all this while, all its atmosphere of antiquity; its pyramids, its everybody was internally dissatisfied. The Bey hated subterranean palaces, its temples, its chambers of the sea, and used to contrast its wearisomeness with death, its palm groves, its camels, and its deserts, and, the pleasures of travelling on land. "Imagine yourself," above all, its mighty and mysterious Nile, haunted me he said, "arriving at the close of day, on horseback, at perpetually. The very moon I then saw blanch- the gates of a caravanserai. The keeper comes forth ing the waves, rested that instant on the Pyramids to meet you with a salutation of peace, leads your and Lybian sands, rendering them pale and spectral, horse into the court, assists you to alight, gives proand imparting to everything a sort of hieroglyphical || vender to your beast, and, if you have no slave, assists significance. Within a very limited number of days you in preparing your evening meal. Then prayerI should probably be among these objects, which || carpets are spread upon the terraces, and the voices of now-like the matter of the Berkeleyan theory- the faithful ascend to heaven. Palm trees nod over existed for me only in thought. you, and, on the breast of the solid earth, you sink into delicious sleep, such sleep as a man tastes after the fatigue of a long journey, when wrapped in security and repose."

The Bey, being unable to sleep, joined me about midnight, on the deck, where, sitting down together, we leaned against the companion, lighted our pipes, and entered into one of those dreamy conversations which partake more of the nature of sleep than waking. I was glad, I confess, to be delivered from myself, for I had felt a sadness come over me which would not be dispelled. But Ali was not, that night, in the humour to be cheerful. We soon came to talk, I know not how, of the strange objects that must be found paving the bottom of the sea; the treasures of ancient kings, gold and sparkling jewels, and the skeletons, perhaps, of those who owned them. The whole channel of the Mediterranean must be strewed with human bones. Carthagenians, Syrians, Sidonians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans-there they lie, side by side, beneath the eternal waters; and the modern ship that fetches freight from Alexandria sails in its whole course over buried nations. It may be the corruption of the dead that now adds brightness to the phosphorescence of the waves.

Ali told me that in the East they have a superstition on this subject, which represents the spirits of the dead as hovering, whether on land or water, over the spots where the ruins of their earthly tabernacles are found; so that in ploughing the Mediterranean, we sail through armies of ghosts more multitudinous than the waves. These patient spirits sometimes ride on the foam, and at other times repose in those delicious little hollows, which look like excavated emeralds, between the crests of the waves. It is their union and thronging together, say the Orientals, that constitute the phosphorescence of the sea, for wherever there is spirit there is light, and the billows flash with the luminousness of buried generations, that concentrate, as it were, the starlight on their wings.

Presently, one of my English friends joined us; and, by way of variety, we struck up a song. The Bey smoked and smiled, as we sang together the monotonous stanzas of Alice Gray.

The other passengers, in the course of a short time, followed our example; and we held a sort of midnight levee on deck, smoking, laughing, telling anecdotes

We all agreed in praise of the land; but supposing that the feelings of a sailor would be different, I inquired of the mate, who stood musing at some little distance from us, what he thought of the matter.

"If I had my will," he replied, "I would build myself a cottage somewhere in the recesses of the Apennines, where I might never more, during the remainder of my life, by any possibility, catch a glimpse of the sea."

CHAPTER L.

THE STORM AT SEA.

I hate the man who quails and shivers when surrounded by danger and death; but, the moment he escapes from their clutches, smirks and smiles, and affects to have thought nothing of them. I am not a hero of this stamp. Life has always been pleasant to me, and I should be loath to lose it-most of all should I have been loath to lose it then, when a crowd of little urchins, clustering round their mother, prayed nightly for me, unconscious how near we were being parted for ever. Besides, I appeared to be on the point of realising one of the great dreams of my life, visiting the valley of the Nile, and experiencing all those deep and powerful sensations which such a scene must necessarily awaken in me. People with wealth at their command may smile at this, because it would be easy for them to visit Egypt and Nubia if they could muster the courage. But that is what they cannot muster; and if they could, they would still, perhaps, be very far from experiencing the pleasure which I knew I should feel. The world is exactly what you make it for yourself-you carry with you the source of all your joys and sorrows; and, therefore, a peregrinating grandee, with tens of thousands at his command, may not be able to extract from a year's intimacy with Isis and Osiris one thousandth part of the delight it afforded me. To speak the truth frankly, I would not exchange the gratifications of

that journey for all the barbaric pearls and gold || his lips, except to express his surprise that I
which the gorgeous East ever showered on her kings.
I had enjoyed some foretaste of this pleasure ere the
storm commenced, and my imagination unfolded be-
fore me all the rest. Doubly cruel, therefore, did it
seem, to be washed away, like a sea-weed, from the
warm precincts of the cheerful day, when standing, as
it were, on the very threshold of such a harvest of
enjoyment. I called to mind Grey's lines, sublime in
their touching pathos,

"For him no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care;
No children run to lisp their sire's return,

could in

such circumstances think of taking off my wet clothes, and putting on dry ones. "It will be all the same, he said, "in half an hour; why then do you trouble yourself?" In reply, I said, "I feel uncomfortable, and had rather be dry than wet." Invited by the example of Gaetano, who sat silently smoking in a corner, I mechanically lighted a cigar, and followed his example, my mind possessed meanwhile by the most gloomy apprehensions. The Bey and his slave lay like two bales of cotton in their cabin, never uttering a word, or even so much as venturing to smoke. They also had taken their farewell of this world, and were trying to reconcile themselves with the necessity of leaving it.

Or climb his knees, the envied kiss to share." Yet, when the gale began, I thought it grand, and was struck with admiration. Over that very sea old One night, I know not which, as I really lost Odysseus, the much-enduring man, had been driven all idea of time, our last moment seemed suddenly to pell-mell before the tempest. What he suffered seems have arrived. The iron and marble with which the magnificent in poetry; and pious Encas, too, the pale vessel was freighted for the Pasha, during one dreadful copy of him of Ithaca, did he not encounter a storm || lurch, seemed all to have rolled to one side of the hold, somewhere in the neighbourhood? While a man can the partition boards having given way. At the same think of epic tempests he is not much to be pitied. moment there was a fearful cry on deck, and a deathIn fact, while the Mediterranean, during the first pa-like lull, as if the "Black Eagle" had given up the roxysms of its fury, was lashing up its waves, and pre- struggle with the winds, and was now sinking calmly paring to make its appearance in all its terrible gran-through the sea. We looked at each other, pale and deur, L and I amused ourselves with recalling our schoolboy reminiscences of Homer and Virgil.

Thus we went on during the first few hours of the storm; then, however, all its poetical beauty passed away, and the grim, stern, cold reality remained. Sick and dispirited, I crawled on deck, where it was impossible to take a single step without holding by a rope. The sailors were drenched to the skin;|| the muzzles of the guns on the one side under water; the sails, all but one, reefed close; and of the little canvas that was visible, I could only now and then catch a glimpse through the driving spray. The ship's side had been turned to the waves, which the captain assured me would have stayed in the stern in ten minutes. No sea I have ever seen resembled that. The billows in no way equalled those vast swells which in the Atlantic rise like mountains, and roll majestically over its boundless surface. Here the waves were short and broken, churned into a confused mass of foam and spray, boiling, hissing, and seething like a cauldron; while at night the wind howled through the yard-rings like a chorus of devils.

trembling, and expected to see the cabin fill in a moment. Presently, however, we heard the contents of the whole roll back, the "Engle" righted herself, and once more bore away gallantly before the tempest. Then there rose a shout wild and joyous from the sailors, and I endeavoured to force my way upon deck to join them. But the sail was still bound tightly over the stair-head, and there was no exit. I called, but no one heard or heeded. Returning to the cabin, I beheld, by the light of the dim lamp, Gaetano, the blasphemous Neapolitan, kneeling before a little rude picture of the Virgin. His stupid apathy had been subdued by fear. He prayed now, but had never, perhaps, prayed before since he left his mother's lap. It was a melancholy sight. How long he remained in that posture I did not notice, but when my attention was next called to him, he was quietly smoking, as usual.

One of my English friends, who had with him a prayer-book, took it out, and, with something like the "Sortes Virgilianæ," sought to discover what was to become of us, by observing the first verse or sentence on which his eye lighted. Curiously enough, it was this, In the cabin there was a dead blank. We scarcely" And He brought them up safe from many waters." spoke to each other. Every one was wrapped in his This comforted us by directing our thoughts towards own thoughts, preparing, in the best way he could, to the only source of safety or protection. face the king of terrors, whom none of us doubted we should have to face in the course of a few hours. One of my companions, who was so sick that he could not crawl out of his berth, besought me to go on deck, and if possible reckon how long, in such a sea, it would take us to die. In my attempt to ascend, I was washed back by a huge wave, which completely drenched me. A sail was then thrown over the stairhead by the sailors, and lashed tight with a rope, so that there was no exit from the cabin. Had the ship gone down, therefore, we must have been drowned where we were. From the glimpse I had caught, however, of the face of the sea, I felt sure the most powerful swimmer could not live five minutes. My companion thanked God; and, throwing himself back in his berth, during the whole of that day he never again opened

I kept, as I have said, no note of time; but the next morning after this was Sunday. I went into the Bey's cabin, and sat down on his bedside to talk with him. The motion of the vessel had become a little more steady, and secretly all of us now began to hope we had seen the worst of it. Suddenly, while I was speaking, a ray of sunshine descended through the bull's eye into the cabin, upon which, patting the Islamite on the shoulder, I exclaimed, “Inshalla; it is all right." Ali raised himself upon his elbow, and, peering out under his heavy eyebrows, beheld the little golden patch of sunshine on the floor. His very beard seemed now to tremble with joy.

Kafoor said he would get us some coffee. "We have taken nothing for I know not how many days, and we will make a good breakfast now." He then rose, as did

the rest of our companions; and we all went on deck [[ sky. The clouds thickened, the wind increased, but It cleared together. Nothing as yet was in sight but sea and the storm, thank God, did not reach us. sky. The clouds, in ragged and fantastic masses, still away, and we had then a fine view of the coast of arched the firmament from east to west, but here and Peloponnesus from the island of Sapienzo to Cape there there were large rents in them, and through these, || Matapan. floods of sunshine descended on the disturbed waters. If I had on a former day admired the wild, rugged, It was one of the most glorious scenes that could pos- irregular aspect of the Peloponnesian coast, beheld from sibly be beheld at sea. Here and there the cloud- a distance, my admiration was greatly increased on vault was of a lurid black, deepening as it descended drawing near. No two hills seemed to have the same towards the edge of the horizon, and beneath it the form; some were conical; others resembled a vast sea reflected the full depth of its gloom. Contrasted wave driven before the storm; others again, like long with this sombre background, were large fields of unbroken sweeps of forest trees, rising and sinking in laughing light clouds, of fleecy whiteness, and circling a strange, fantastic manner. As we drew nearer still, expanses of bright blue sky. The sun, when disen- we observed that there was no beach, either sandy or tangled as it were from the vapour, looked like the pebbly, but the dark rocks came down close to the "god of this new world," refulgent in golden bright-water, which leaped up, and broke about them in snowness, and infusing life into everything beneath.

CHAPTER LI.

ANY PORT AFTER A STORM.

The captain's brother now came to me, and, reverting to a wish I had formerly expressed, offered to make for some harbour in the Morea, if I would pay the port dues. Of course I immediately consented; and the ship was put about, and went dashing along through the glittering waters towards the glorious country whose interior I so ardently desired to visit. Every sail was unfurled; and, at the rate of eleven knots an hour, we flew gallantly along. Now the "Black Eagle" vindicated her right to the name; her bows ploughing up the waves into one sheet of silver foam, which rose above us in a glittering canopy, and descended midships in a heavy shower.

Ali, who had overheard the mate's proposal, now came up to me, and not only offered to bear his share of the expenses, but insisted that every other passenger should do the same. All cheerfully agreed, and

the sacrifice was thus reduced to a trifle.

white foam. As far as the eye could reach, no traces of vegetation appeared, excepting a few scattered patches of young grass, and a small range of stunted trees along the summits of the nearer and further ranges of mountains, which in this part of the Morea have a character truly Alpine.

As the day advanced, the sky cleared up, the sun burst from behind the clouds, and threw a flood of glory upon sea and land. The blue, misty mountains towered majestically in the distance, blending their summits with the vast ridges of clouds, which rested upon them, and seemed to form a part of their substance. Above these, as daylight passed away, the stars came forth, cresting the peaks of cloud and hill as with a coronet. Such were the appearances of nature as we drew near Navarino. On our right, at a short distance, was Modon, a small town, with the aspect of one extended fortress, running along the shore level with the water. Two great towers, on the right of the town, form its regular defences, and another similar building, rising like a minaret towards the centre, marks the site of the place to those who approach it from the sea.

Towards the afternoon, the aspect of the sky again A lofty conical mountain indicates the position of portended high winds, if not a storm. In the west Navarino, which lies at its foot towards the north-west. the clouds gathered together, and were heaped up into As we drew near the entrance of the harbour, we obmountains, above the edge of the horizon, along which served on the right a spacious cavern in the rocks, extended a narrow belt of light. From these super-into which, when the wind is high, the waves dash incumbent clouds descended numerous dark columns, with a thundering sound. A little further on, a large which seemed to be so many streams of rain, travel-black crag projects from the shore, and is constantly ling rapidly over the ocean before the wind, like surrounded by leaping waves. the sand-columns observed by Bruce in the Nubian Desert; like these, too, they were slightly penetrated by the rays of the setting sun, which flashed, as it were, upon their sides, and produced a magnificent contrast with their dusky metallic centres. Shortly afterwards these clouds clustered together into one dark mass, eclipsing the sun entirely.

For some time the wind had been gradually dying away; Posidon and Eolus having, I suppose, agreed that I, one of the devoutest of their worshippers, should enter their ancient dominions in peace. Many a heroic prow in mythical times had ploughed these waters; but never did god or hero enter the port of sandy Pylos under more agreeable auspices. Overhead, the Next morning I ran upon deck, and certainly ex- sky was studded with stars and constellations, which pected, or I should rather say dreaded, from the ap-gazed, Narcissus-like, at their own beauty, reflected pearance of the heavens, that we should have had from the serene waters. The soft air was not that another terrible storm. To the east the sky was of Italy; there was no languor in it. It was at once lowering, and black streams of rain seemed to be de- balmy and invigorating. With all our sails spread, scending upon sea and land. The wind increased, and we could scarcely woo sufficient wind into them to lew off shore. Presently the sun rose awfully sub-waft us along the Point of Sphacterea into the bay— me. Seen through the mists which hovered over the ea, it presented the appearance of a vast furnace mouth glowing with intense fire; and from this portal streaks of light struggled heavily into the gloom, casting a blood red hue over a large portion of the

and what a bay !-fifteen miles in circumference, and protected completely by the land, from every wind that blows. As we moved up slowly along the island, rendered sacred by Spartan valour, we admired the gigantic natural arch, which, extending through its

whole breadth, afforded us a prospect of the seal withdrawn, and then the Peloponnesian hills and mounwithout.

Woman's smile should meet our eyes,
And gild with love our energies?
This, this, is all the golden spoil
We seek in life's Olympic toil;

And this, through wavering good and ill,
The central power, attracts us still;
We think, we toil, we war, we rove,
And all we ask is-woman's love!

CHAPTER LII.

SANDY PYLOS.

Next morning I was up with the first break of dawn, scrutinizing, by the rapidly growing light, the unfolding features of the scene. The fort, the town -picturesquely scattered on the slope of a hill, and with its white houses relieved against the yellow marly soil-the tranquil waters of the bay, the gently swelling eminences, the blue mountains in the distance, with the rich sky above, blushing with the purple light of the morning-all these formed a prospect of singular magnificence.

cabins three or four times the size of a watchman's box; no streets, no pavement, no regularity; many, perhaps most, of the houses have wooden stairs outside, like the Swiss chalets, or the more ancient houses in Normandy. Two or three were neat and pretty, plastered and whitewashed on the outside, and apparently clean within. On one I observed a series of festoons, painted in bright colours beneath the eaves. There is an hospital, a church, and a large fortress. Four years ago there were few or no houses in the place, that is when the French arrived.

The Greek burying-ground, which is beside the church, has no wall or inclosure of any kind. The graves, in some instances, are marked with rude stones; but the whole space is left open, to be trampled upon by man and beast, and has the appearance of a cemetery in a long-deserted city. The Frank buryingground is enclosed by a wall. There are here many graves. In fact, the French on their first arrival were attacked by a sort of pestilential disorder, supposed to have been caused by the great number of Soon after breakfast we went on shore in the cap dead bodies cast ashore after the battle of Navarino, tain's boat. Of course, the travelled and the wise and left unburied, or only half interred, to fester and will smile, but I must acknowledge my weakness-putrify in the sun. When these had been cleared my object being not to appear philosophical, but to away, or thoroughly decomposed, the place became confess the truth-at every pull of the oar my heart healthy enough. beat more quickly; all the inspiration of my boyish days was upon me. I felt the most devouring impatience to be ashore; and when from the boat's bow I leaped on the beach, and felt myself standing on the soil of Greece, I experienced a thrill of delight equal to that of the long-parted lover when he rushes into the arms of his mistress. It matters not what you love, but if you love it earnestly and honestly, the attainment of it must always give you extraordinary delight. I had loved Greece, since the earliest dawn of memory, as the cradle of republican liberty; and the reader will pardon me if I acknowledge that my eyes were moist with pleasure as I first planted my foot firmly on its breezy shore.

When I attempted to walk, I found myself tottering like a child just escaped from leading-strings-the roll of the ship seemed to be still throwing me from side to side. Everything around appeared to rock and pitch as in a high sea. We went to the custom-house, gave in our names, and were then at liberty to go where we pleased. The Greeks who were here assembled possessed very striking features-in most cases handsome, but savage, with immense mustaches, and long hanging elf-locks. One of these sinister looking gentlemen, who spoke Turkish, accompanied us to the town, conversing with Ali Bey as we went along. It gave me pleasure to see Turk and Greek thus walking side by side, now no longer as tyrant and slave, but on terms of proud equality.

The people of this place, like all other Greeks, are remarkably inquisitive, and came flocking in crowds to stare at us. It was now some time, perhaps, since they had seen a Turkish Bey, and in all probability had never beheld one walking peacefully by their doors, arm in arm with two Englishmen, as Ali now did with L— and me, rather as a timid spectator than as a haughty despot.

The aspect of Navarino is very remarkable. It was quite that of a new settlement in the wilderness. Houses hastily run up with timber, little wooden

The situation itself seems to be particularly salubrious. The soil is rocky, gravelly, and dry, and the houses considerably above the level of the sea. The water used in the fortress is conveyed thither by an ancient aqueduct, constructed by the Venetians. In the public square there is a fountain, which is now quite dry. The inhabitants are said to be supplied with water by other fountains, scattered about the town, which totally escaped my notice; but if these resembled the one above commemorated, the modern Pyleans must occasionally live, like chameleons, on air, unless they choose to make a pilgrimage to the aqueduct provided for them by their old masters, the

Venetians.

The only garden in the whole neighbourhood belongs to a Maltese, who, abjuring the appellation he bore formerly in Malta, Khanina fior del Mondo, now rejoices in the name of Smith. He says this is merely a translation of his original name. No matter whether it is so or not; he is a jolly good fellow, and does honour to the fraternity of the knights. Smith keeps a coffee-house, in the best part of the town, where we had the honour to make his acquaintance. Here, also, our motley company fell in with a group of French officers, among whom there was one of the children of Erin, who having gone to Paris as a medical student, had spent all his allowance in a few weeks, and then entered as a common soldier in the French army. Paddy had now risen, by dint of merit, to be a noncommissioned officer, and expected on that very day to be invested with a pair of epaulettes. He spoke to me a great deal of the vicissitudes through which he had passed, but cheered himself with a hope of being some day, like Murphy, a marshal of France. Whether or not he ever realised this brilliant expectation is more than I can say, but before I left Navarino he enjoyed the extraordinary pleasure-for it evidently was so to him-of showing me the announcement of his promotion to the rank of a commissioned officer,

I have said we breakfasted on board; but what was