THOMAS CAMPBELL. BORN, 1777; DIED, 1843. Principal Works.-Pleasures of Hope, Gertrude of Wyoming, Theodric, Pilgrim of Glencoe. THE BATTLE OF HOHENLINDEN. ON Linden, when the sun was low, But Linden show'd another sight, To join the dreadful revelry. Then shook the hills, with thunder riven; But redder still these fires shall glow, The combat deepens: On, ye brave! And charge with all thy chivalry! Shall be a soldier's sepulchre. SUPERSTITION. DURING the last war between Austria and Turkey, a Baron was sent with recruits to the Austrian army, which was then near Orsowa. Close to the camp, in a village on the road, lived a gipsey suttler, to whom the soldiers applied to have their fortunes told, and the baron, ridiculing their superstition, in a jeering manner held out his hand to the oracular sybil. "The twentieth of August!" said she, and in a manner so peculiar and impressive, that she was urged to explain what was meant; but she would only repeat the same words, bawling after the baron, "the twentieth of August!" About a week before the twentieth of August, the gipsey dame entered the baron's tent, and begged he would leave her a legacy, in case he should take his departure from the world on the day mentioned; offering, on the contrary, that should he live to claim it, she would compliment him with a hamper of tokay, with which to drink his kind remembrance to her. "The gipsey," said the baron, in his after relation of the adventure, "seemed to me to be mad; for though a soldier is always in danger of dissolution, I certainly had not supposed mine so near as the twentieth of the current month. I therefore consented to the bargain; I pledged two horses, and two hundred ducats against the old woman's tokay; and the paymaster of the regiment laughed heartily while writing the contract, which was regularly signed, sealed, and delivered.” The twentieth of August arrived. It was the baron's regiment which had to furnish a piquet for the night. Of the two officers who preceded in command, the senior was on a sudden taken extremely ill; the other, in mounting his horse, was thrown by the animal, and had his leg fractured in the fall. The duty therefore necessarily devolved upon the baron, who, with two hundred men, proceeded to his post, which was a mile distant, in front of the army, and protected by a marsh covered with rushes, where, with swords drawn and carbines ready, they waited the approach of day. was silent till three quarters past one o'clock, when shouts of "Allah! Allah!" were heard, and in an instant the whole of the first rank were overthrown. All The baron received eight wounds from a sabre, and his horse was shot dead, and in falling, fixed under him the leg of his .rider. In a short time, the whole of the Austrians had fallen, and as the victors were to receive a ducat for each head, they frequently advised each other not to leave any one behind, but a convulsive start of the horse liberating the leg of the baron, he succeeded in reaching the marsh, where, sunk to his knees in mire, he fainted from loss of blood, and lay senseless for several hours. At length, however, he reached the advanced posts, and was thence conveyed to the camp, where, in about six weeks, he recovered and joined his regiment, and on his arrival, the gipsey brought him the tokay. The matter seemed "passing strange," but the mystery was explained by the desertion to the Austrians, of two Christians of Servia, who, upon sight of the prophetess, declared that she often visited the Turk ish camp by night to report the movements of the Germans; that they had heard her describe their various positions, and that a Turkish cypher was her passport, which cypher being found upon her, she was condemned to death as a spy, and on being interrogated previous to execution, she gave the following detail of her predictions. She confessed, that by her double office of spy, she had learned many things from both parties; that from those who came privately to consult her on their future fortune, she had obtained a variety of secret particulars; and that she was not without some obligations to chance. That as to what immediately concerned the baron, she had fixed on him, in order to make him a striking example, and to confirm her authority by having predicted his fate so long before hand. At the approach of the time appointed, she had excited his enemy to attempt on the night of the twentieth of August, an attack against the post of his regiment. Her knowledge of the officers enabled her to ascertain their rank in the service; she had sold wine to his commander which had produced his illness; and the moment before the second was setting off, she had approached, as if to sell him something, and had, unperceived, found means to slip up the nostrils of his horse a piece of lighted amadou or vegetable tinder, which had occasioned his unusual violence. THOMAS MOORE. Principal Works.-Irish Melodies, Lalla Rookh, Poems, and Songs JERUSALEM. FALLEN is thy throne, O Israel! Thy children weep in chains. Lord, thou didst love Jerusalem! Till evil came and blighted Thy long-lov'd olive tree, Then sank the star of Solyma, Then pass'd her glory's day; Where once the mighty trod, Where Baal reign'd as God! 'Go," said the Lord, "ye conquerors! O'er kindred bones shall tread; Shall hide but half her dead." |