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redeemed by the interesting episode of Audley Mandeville, an estimate of the personal and literary character of the celebrated Earl of Shaftesbury, and an eloquent eulogium on Poetry put into the mouth of a school-boy. Though

strictly of a private nature, the tale is so closely interwoven with the history of Cromwell's time as to give to the whole an air of reality. Its express purpose is to show how the concurrence of a variety of causes operates in forming a character; and though Mandeville, depraved in understanding and wayward in temper, would form no enviable companion in real life, whoever can submit to such a course of morbid anatomy will find his thoughts, his hopes, and his fears, portrayed with a skill which supersedes the necessity of searching for his representative in society. The author is so familiar with the darkest passions of the human heart, that he seems to take a pleasure in sporting with the being of his own creating, as if to astonish us by the depth of self-caused wretchedness to which he can reduce him. Although the gloomy style, characteristic of the works already, mentioned, is here employed to an extent which must make it a sealed book to many, yet we meet with occasional descriptions of scenery so beautiful that we pause on them for a time, and glimpses of beings so attractive that we cannot but deplore an aberration of intellect which: disqualified Mandeville for enjoying the society of such a sister as Harriet and of such friends as the Montagues. But wealth, influence, high-birth-all, in short, that the world regards as ensuring happiness-are, by some unhappy alchemy, perverted into the very sources of his discomfort. His fate appears so intimately allied to that of the accomplished and winning Clifford, that he conceives felicity to await him only when he shall have removed the involuntary cause of his misery. By a strange fatality, appearances sometimes favour an erroneous impression that Clifford is actuated by a desire of thwarting the projects and humbling the pretensions of

his self-constituted rival. Thus, after Mandeville had laboured to obtain that envied appointment, Clifford is nominated Secretary to Sir Joseph Wagstaff; and, while thus employed, acts a part in the following adventure related in his own words.

ESCAPE OF A ROYALIST GENERAL.

THE unfortunate issue of the gallant undertaking of Sir Joseph Wagstaff and Colonel Penruddock is sufficiently known. It began under the happiest auspices; but unfortunate differences that arose between the leaders speedily led to the most disastrous reverse.

After our retreat from Salisbury, we halted for a short time at Blandford, and there caused king Charles to be proclaimed in the market-place. This was, however, the last show of prosperity that attended us. We had the good wishes of many; but insurgents that appear to be on the retreat, are not likely to be recruited in their numbers. The characters of Penruddock and Sir Joseph were strongly contrasted with each other: the former had every quality that could do honour to a gentleman, but he was not thoroughly penetrated, as Sir Joseph was, who had learned the rudiments of his art in the wars of Germany, with the principles of the military profession. At Salisbury our principal commander had conceived a plan of proceeding of the most decisive sort, the only one that could have led to a successful termination; and in this he had been counteracted by the humane scruples of Penruddock. As Sir Joseph knew how to take advantage of the tide, when it was at the highest, so the same perspicacity of judgment led him instantly to perceive when the chance of benefit was gone. On our leaving Blandford, and even before, he was thoroughly aware that our case was desperate. He called together the officers, and told them this, earnestly pressing them not to throw themselves away upon a vain point of honour, but to do, as became men engaged in the service of their king, to save their lives from the vengeance of the tyrant, and reserve their zeal and their talents for some occasion, where they might be of substantial advantage. Penruddock, on the contrary, being once engaged, could not endure to throw up the undertaking, and urged that, by going farther westward, we should try

what yet could be done with the gentlemen of Devonshire and Cornwall. Here then the leaders of the expedition di vided; Sir Joseph, and the most distinguished military characters, withdrew, and sought their safety in dispersion. The country-gentlemen and their followers kept together, reached South Molton to the number of about two hundred, and met the reward of their perseverance on the scaffold.

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I continued with Sir Joseph, to whose person I was by virtue of my appointment attached. I will not trouble with any of our adventures, till we came to the house of a Mr Laudseer, near the coast of Devonshire, whose wife was a distant relation of my mother. Laudseer was himself an adherent of the existing government; his wife was strongly attached to the exiled family. It happened that Laudseer had been absent for some years, on a commission which the republicans had given him to one of the northern courts, but was expected on his return in a few weeks. The fugitives from Salisbury were now chased almost from house to house; they were disappointed of a vessel, which they had expected to have found at Lymouth, ready to carry them off; Captain Unton Croke in particular, a man wholly destitute of honour and humanity, was most assiduous in hunting them out from their hiding-places. It happened in one instance, that Sir Joseph, having already nearly exhausted the protection of the loyal houses in the neighbourhood, seemed to be driven in a manner to the last extremity. In this conjuncture it occurred to me to think of Mrs Laudseer, whose house would be less exposed to the jealousy of the military, on account of her husband's being in the employment of the present rulers. On my representation I was commissioned to repair to this lady, and, confident in her loyalty, to propose, without any disguise, that she should receive Sir Joseph Wagstaff into her house, till one of the vessels should be discovered, which were known to be hovering on the coast for the purpose of carrying off the fugitives to France. Mrs Laudseer readily entered into my proposal, and observed, that the most effectual way in which she could serve this gentleman, was to receive him as if he had been her husband. She added, that none of the servants in her house knew Laudseer's person, he having taken with him in his embassy two or three of those that had been longest established in the family. Her house was too small to afford her any means of concealment; but if she received Sir Joseph in this open manner, it would be impossible for any

one to conceive that he was a malignant in disguise. With this proposal, then, I hastened back to my principal, by whom it was accepted without an instant's hesitation. It was further concerted that Sir Joseph should sleep in the house of a neighbouring tenant, on the pretext that the political differences which had arisen between Mrs Laudseer and her spouse, indisposed her, at least for the present, from receiving him with the unreserve and cordiality of a wife.

This was a busy day with us. Sir Joseph was no sooner installed in his new character, than Captain Croke arrived in pursuit of him, satisfied that he was somewhere in this very neighbourhood. Sir Joseph had just had time to put off his travelling disguise, and to equip himself in the habiliments of the person he represented, which were in the highest style of puritanical formality. Among the many convivial qualities of my patron, one was that he was an admirable mimic; and he assumed the drawl and canting language of a thorough Brownist in such perfection, as upon a less critical occasion would have risqued that Mrs Laudseer and myself should have died with laughter. Captain Croke was completely the dupe of the scene. He warmly congratulated the supposed Laudseer on his unexpected arrival; asked him many questions respecting the court he had visited, to all which Sir Joseph, who had seen the world, answered with consummate address; and in fine, earnestly inquired how soon he would set out for London, to give an account to his employers of the success of his embassy. My principal, who thoroughly enjoyed this scene, and would hardly have been prevented from enjoying it, if he had seen a scaffold prepared for him the moment he quitted it, went on to overact his part. He pressed Captain Croke so earnestly to dine with him, that at last the republican yielded. He said he would first make a circuit of some of the neighbouring mansions, in search of that villain, the rebel commander, and would then return; leaving in the mean time one of his sergeants with us, as security for the performance of his promise.

Croke had no sooner turned his back upon us, than a courier arrived, with the unwelcome intelligence, that the true Laudseer had taken land at Ilfracombe, and might be expected to reach his own dwelling in the course of an hour. The sergeant was luckily in the stables at the receipt of this message, and was therefore unacquainted with its import. Sir Joseph and I, now thoroughly alarmed, prepared for im

mediate departure. The conjuncture was portentous. Croke would be back in less than three hours, and would then detect the cheat that had been imposed upon him. The sergeant, if he were a fellow of any adroitness, would discover the trick sooner; and he and the true Laudseer would set on foot a pursuit after us, before we had almost commenced our flight. We cursed the hour when we entered this dangerous abode, and still more the ill-timed and ill-indulged humour of Sir Joseph, that had fixed upon us the return of that notorious rebel-hunter, Croke.

Laudseer, however, instead of following his avant courier in an hour, arrived in a few minutes after him, and to our utter confusion entered the parlour, just as we were taking our sad and hurried leave of his wife. The sergeant had now caught up the intelligence, that another person, claiming to be the owner of the house, had arrived; and, as in duty bound, he entered the parlour at the same time with the stranger, that he might see every thing with his own eyes, and draw his own conclusions. An extraordinary scene ensued. Here were two Mr Laudseers, both dressed in the same habiliments, and each asserting his rights as master of the house. The newly arrived demanded, with a haughty and a furious tone, what was the meaning of all he saw? Sir Joseph, with admirable composure, and with the most edifying and saint-like tone and gesture, requested the intruder to moderate his anger, and to quit a dwelling where he had not the smallest right to be found. Mrs Laudseer was appealed to, and decided for Sir Joseph as her true husband, After much wrangling and violence, I proposed that the sergeant should retire to the outside of the door for a few minutes, till the dispute was settled. I then desired Sir Joseph to withdraw into the inner room, and leave me and my cousin alone with the new-comer.

This arrangement was no sooner effected than I lost no time, in laying before Laudseer the true state of the case, and imploring his compassion. I told him, that his unexpected guest was no other than the gallant Sir Joseph Wagstaff, who had been totally defeated in his insurrection, was flying before a merciless enemy, and desired no more than to escape with life to his master in France, whose cause was now totally desperate and hopeless. I put it to him as pathetically as I could, whether he could reconcile it to the honourable disposition I had ever known in him, with his own hands to deliver up to the scaffold a gentleman, who

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