heath, by a thicket of bushes, where they took me down almost dead, being sorely bruised with the carriage of the money. When the woman of the house saw that I could neither stand nor speak, she asked them whether or no they had brought a dead man? They answered no, but a friend that was hurt, and they were carrying him to a surgeon; she answered, if they did not make haste, their friend would be dead before they could bring him to one.

There they laid me on cushions, and suffered none to come into the room but a little girl; there we staid all night, they giving me some broth and strong waters; in the morning, very early, they mounted me as before, and on Saturday night they brought me to a place where were two or three houses, in one of which I lay all night, on cushions, by their bed-side; on Sunday morning they carried me from thence, and, about three or four o'clock, they brought me to a place by the sea-side, called Deal, where they laid me down on the ground; and, one of them staying with me, the other two walked a little off, to meet a man, with whom they talked; and, in their discourse, I heard them mention seven pounds; after which they went away together, and about half an hour after returned. The man, whose name, as I afterwards heard, was Wrenshaw, said, he feared I would die before he could get me on board; then presently they put me into a boat and carried me on ship-board, where my wounds were dressed. I remained in the ship as near as I could reckon, about six weeks, in which time I was indifferently recovered of my wounds and weakness. Then the master of the ship came and told me and the rest, who were in the same condition, that he discovered three Turkish ships; we all offered to fight in defence of the ship and ourselves; but he commanded us to keep close, and said he would deal with them well enough; a little while after he called us up, and, when we came on deck, we saw two Turkish ships by us; into one of them we were put, and placed in a dark hole, where how long we continued before we landed, I don't know; when we were landed, they led us two days' journey: and put us into a great house, or prison, where we remained four days and a half: then came eight men to view us, who seemed to be officers; they called us, and examined

us as to our trades and callings, which every one answer ed: one said he was a surgeon, another that he was a broad-cloth weaver, and I, after two or three demands, said, that I had some skill in physic. We three were set by, and taken by three of those eight men that came to view us. It was my chance to be chosen by a grave physician, eighty-seven years of age, who lived near Smyrna, and who had formerly been in England, and knew Crowland, in Lincolnshire, which he preferred to all other places in England; he employed me to keep his still-house, and gave me a silver bowl, double gilt, to drink in. My business was most in that place; but once he set me to gather cotton-wool, which I not doing to his mind, he struck me down to the ground, and afterwards drew his stiletto to stab me; but I, holding up my hands to him, he gave a stamp, and turned from me, for which I render thanks to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who staid his hand, and preserved me. I was there about a year and three quarters, and then my master fell sick, on a Thursday, and sent for me; and, calling me, as he used, by the name of Boll, told me he should die, and bade me shift for myself; he died on the Saturday following, and I presently hastened with my bowl to a port, (about a day's journey distant,) the way to which place I knew. I inquired for a ship for England. I procured one, which landed me at Dover. Yours, WILLIAM HARRISON."

(From Hargrave's State Trials.)

BARBAROUS STRATAGEM OF A MOORISH PRINCE.

HISTORY records a very singular and cruel scheme, projected and executed by Mehemet Almehedi, king of Fez, a prince not less remarkable for his ambition than his refined craft and hypocrisy. He had a long war to maintain against some neighboring nations, who refused to submit to his tyranny. He gained over them several victories, but having afterwards lost a battle, wherein he had exposed his troops with a blind fury, they were so dispirited, that

they refused to go against the enemy. To inspire them with courage he imagined the following stratagem:

Having assembled secretly a certain number of officers, who were best affected to him, he proposed to them considerable rewards, if they would consent to be shut up for some hours in graves, as if they had been killed in battle; that he would leave them a sufficient vent for breathing, and that when, in consequence of a superstitious device he designed cunningly to spread through the army, they should happen to be interrogated, they were to answer, that they had found what their king had promised them: that they enjoyed the rewards of martyrdom, and that those who imitated them by fighting valiantly, and should die in the war, would enjoy the same felicity. The thing was executed as he had proposed. He laid his most faithful servants among the dead, covered them with earth, and left them a small vent for drawing breath. He afterwards entered the camp, and assembling the principal chiefs about midnight, "You are," said he, "the soldiers of God, the defenders of the faith, and the protectors of the truth. Prepare to exterminate your enemies, who are likewise the enemies of the Most High, and depend upon it you will never find so sure an opportunity of being pleasing in his sight. But, as there may be dastards and stupid wretches among you, who do not believe my words, I am willing to convince them by the sight of a great prodigy.

"Go to the field of battle; ask those of your brethren who have been killed this day; they will assure you that they enjoy the most perfect happiness, for having lost their lives in this war." He then led them to the field of battle, where he cried out with all his might, "O assembly of faithful martyrs, make known to us how many wonders you have seen of the most high God!" They answered, "We have received from the Almighty infinite rewards, which the living can have no idea of!" The chiefs, surprised at this answer, ran to publish it in the army; and revived courage in the hearts of the soldiery. Whilst this was transacted in the camp, the king, feigning an ecstacy, caused by this miracle, remained near the graves where his buried servants waited their deliverance; but he stopped up the holes through which they breathed, and sent

them to receive in the other world, by this barbarous stratagem, the reward they had made a declaration of to others.

ASSASSINATION OF HENRY IV. OF FRANCE, AND THE EXE CUTION OF HIS MURDERER.

THE French people are notorious for the assassination of their princes. The Duke de Berri was lately assassinated by Louvel, and the life of Louis XV. was attempted by Damien. Henry III. was killed by a young friar, who, pretending he had a letter to present to his majesty, procured admission; but, instead of the letter, drew a knife from his long sleeve, and thrust it into the king's belly, of which wound he died: but the regicide was cut in pieces in the palace by the nobles. Henry IV. met with the same fate from one Ravaillac, a lay friar. As the king was going in his coach to the Bastile, he was stopped in the narrow street by two carts and a number of people · his majesty leaned himself forward to know the cause; upon which Ravaillac put his foot upon one of the wheels of the coach, and struck the king twice in the side with his knife, passing his arm above the wheel. Upon which the king cried out, "Jesu, suis blesse;" that is, Jesus, I am wounded. Ravaillac was seized, and command given that no violence should be offered him, that he might be reserved to suffer the torture his crime deserved.

Upon his trial he said he was born at Angouleme, and was between thirty-one and thirty-two years of age; that he maintained himself by teaching school, but that his mother lived upon alms. That he had been received as a lay brother at the Feuillants; but, after wearing the habit about six weeks, it was taken from him. That he lodged at the Three Half Moons, in the suburbs of St. James; and afterwards, that he might be near the Louvre, he went to lodge at the Three Pigeons, in the suburbs of St. Honore; from thence he went to take a lodging at an inn near the Quinzevingts, but, there being too many guests there, he was refused; upon which he took up a knife

that lay upon a table, not on account of his being refused a lodging, but because it seemed to him a very fit one for the execution of his design, and kept it for some days, or three weeks, in a bag, in his pocket.

He further said, that, having desisted from his intention, he set out on his journey home, and went as far as Estampes; that, when walking, he broke the point of his knife against a cart near the garden of Chanteloup; and, coming opposite to the Ecce Homo, of the suburb of Estampes, he again took it in his head to kill the king, and, no longer resisting the temptation, as he had done formerly, he returned to Paris with that resolution, because the king did not convert the followers of the pretended reformation, and because he had heard it reported, that the king intended to make war upon the pope, and transfer the seat of the holy see to Paris.

That he sought for an opportunity to kill the king; and that, for this purpose, he sharpened with a stone, the point of the knife, which had been broke, and waited till the queen was crowned, and came back to the city, supposing that there would not be so much confusion in France, if he killed the king after her coronation, as if he had done it before.

That he went to the Louvre, where he had been several times since he had resolved upon killing him; that he went there last Wednesday, and intended to kill him between the two gates, as he was going into his coach: that he followed him as far as St. Innocents, near which he did the act as above related. Adding,

That all which now remained for him to declare was, his intention and earnest desire to free himself from the load of his sins; that the whole nation was, upon his account, led to believe that he had been bribed by the enemies of France to kill the king, or by foreign kings and princes, who were desirous of aggrandizing themselves, as was too common among the kings and potentates of the earth, who do not consider whether their motive for making war was agreeable to the will of God; or else through a covetous desire of appropriating unjustly to themselves the territories of other princes; but that the truth was, he, the prisoner, had not been incited to that