I endeavoured to recollect a French work which I had recently read, and which described, in his own words, the last six weeks of the life of a criminal condemned to die. It was by Victor Hugo. It ran thus:

"Condamné a mort! Cinq semaines que j'habite avec cette idée -." I could not continue it, but I remembered that the malefactor's little girl, an infant, was allowed to see him, that he might take his leave of her. I wished to see my children.

The day before that appointed for the event, they told me it was not to take place. I had been pronounced insane. I laughed when I heard it. Insane!

At

I was removed hither, and it is now six years since I have dwelt among madmen. my earnest request I am allowed at times to discourse with them. It is a province of my profession to observe those who are insane. When they let me free, I shall profit by what I have learned here. From many I have gathered their histories. Rational histories, recorded by insane men. A paradox!

I will publish them hereafter, when they give me my liberty; or, now that I am allowed writing materials, I will commit them to paper while they are fresh in my memory.

A LAPSE OF FORTY YEARS.

BY MADAME DE CHATELAIN.

"GREAT wits jump," it is said-or, to use a more elegant, because exotic phrase, ed anch' io son pittore. The clever, though now halfforgotten author of the "Hermite de la Chaussée d'Antin," tells us that he kept a diary of all his actions, from his youth upwards; in proof whereof, he shews us the frivolous day wasted by the young man, and the soberer, but scarcely less frivolous one got through by the old man, and bids us look "on this picture and on that," and draw our own conclusions. Mine is simply this-that the youth was father to the man. But to return to myself, having also kept a journal as diligently as the hermit, and being now sixty-five, and somewhat upwards, what hinders my following his example, and giving my experience to the world? I shall only trouble my readers with a day of each period.

"MAY, 1800.-Went to Tattersall's to conclude the purchase of the black pony for Caroline. Fine creature-I mean Caroline, not the pony-and she will look like a queen upon it. Called at Hoby's on the way. The last pair of shoes were too tight, but I shall keep them for chamber use-I mean to lie about in my chambers-they look well. My aunt has promised to come with my cousin Maria to lunch with me, next time she drives into town. Maria is a pretty girl, and seems to like me, but I think I may do better if I resolve to marry.

"Drove into Bond Street, met Lady R in an open barouche, with her two daughters. The eldest is a very fine girl, but I am afraid

has little or no fortune. She smiled as she bowed to me. Dropped in at Colonel N's. Had a lobster and a bottle of claret for lunch. He told me Lieutenant Blake is in love with Lady R's youngest daughter.

"Called on Mrs Summerton. Her five daughters each played on the piano or sung, and each shewed me their drawings. Large families are my averson; they always insist on one's staying, and are so troublesomely polite.

"Dined at home with three friends I had invited to go with me to the opera. Captain D—, when in his cups, told us he had heard, from a side wind, that Emily Fairly had unexpectedly inherited a large fortune, and that he meant to propose before the family could guess that he knew anything about it. I sent the captain home in a coach, with my footboy to take care of him, as he was not fit to appear in public. My friends and I proceeded to the opera: the piece was begun, so that our arrival created a little noise and bustle. I hate to arrive in time. I went round to visit several ladies in their boxes. Mrs. Hartly has left off her weeds, and looks very pretty. She told me that Henrietta B- was a very designing girl. Went to speak to Henrietta, who told me that the widow H- was a coquette, and

would not be a widow long.

"Left the opera-house, after the first act, to be in time to see a new actress come out in a farce at one of the large theatres. Her voice and person are faultless. I went behind the scenes to congratulate, and told her she will become the first actress of the day. She is certainly a much finer woman than Caroline. The manager invited me to come and sup with him and the débutante. He had forgotten his

purse, so I paid.

"Fell asleep; resolved to make Emily an offer to-morrow morning."

"MAY, 1840.-Took an airing in my nephew's phaeton. Jack drives too fast: he says it is owing to the march of intellect. I should have preferred walking if it had not been for the gout. Those last boots were confoundedly tight. Jack drove me home through Regent Street, where he said he saw a great many pretty girls, but I think they used somehow to be prettier. Bond Street is narrower, and was more convenient for seeing one's acquaintance on the other side of the way. Jack said he could not decide whether to marry for love or for money. I told him love was bad, and money worse. The rogue then owned he was in love with a portionless girl, and begged me to persuade his father to approve of the match. I promised my assistance. Jack helped me out of his phaeton very carefully.

"My cousin Maria called to see me, with her two pretty granddaughters. It is very considerate of her to come and see an old man as often as she does. Maria is always cheerful, and has worn vastly well. She does not look her age. I might have been very happy if I had married her; she makes her home so comfortable. I often wish Emily had refused me. I wonder why she eloped so very soon, since she liked me well enough to marry me?

He says I must go

"My physician looked in to know how I was. on with the abstemious system. Read the newspapers. Saw a benefit announced for an old actress, Miss B- who left the stage twenty

years ago, and is now in distress. She will play, for that night only, the character she came out in. To make the evening more attractive, a celebrated danseuse will sing a song, and a famous singer will dance the cachuca. The whole will conclude with a scene from Norma, in which a young lady will sing the part of the high priest. Now-a-days, the whole aim of the scenic tribe is to do something that they are most unfitted for. Nevertheless, I shall take a box, and twenty pit tickets; for having been at her first, I am bound to be at her last representation. I fancy few of the young men that will go to see her, will believe how pretty she once was, poor thing!

"Dined on a boiled chicken and a rice-pudding. Drank toast-andwater as the physician prescribed. If Captain D– had never drank anything else, I should probably never have married Emily. He saw double, too, when he spoke of her fortune, for it turned out to be twenty, instead of forty thousand.

"My son called in, when I had half done, to lunch at my dinner. He came to borrow five hundred pounds. I lent it, but with a lecture. I wish he would leave off his bad habits and take a wife. I should like to see him marry Maria's grand-daughter when she comes

out.

"Went to take tea and play at chess with General Blake. He related to me, for the hundredth time, how he had run away with Lady R's youngest daughter when he was only a lieutenant. It turned out a very good match after all. Colonel N, who used to laugh at him, and say he would never get her, was killed in India years ago. I checkmated the general at the first game. His grand-daughter came in to make tea for us. She is a fine girl, and reminded me of her great-aunt, Fanny, whom she is christened after. She was so attentive to all my little wants, that I could not resist taking out of my pocket a ring, which I had intended for my god-daughter, and offering it to her. She smiled, and said she was afraid she might not receive a present except from older men than myself. Her father told her she was a fool, as I was old enough for anything of that sort. The little gipsy is full of good sense and sprightliness. I left the general at ten; and, as my foot was better I walked home, for we live within a street's length of each other. A poor woman, at a crossing, asked me for money: I gave her sixpence, and, as she seemed distressed, I inquired her name and abode. She answered Caroline. I had nearly made an exclamation, but checked myself, and promised to assist her further. All the way home I could not get rid of the recollection of Caroline on the black pony, and how graceful she used to look. Her merry laugh used to ring in my ears. Who could have thought that her high spirits and her blooming cheeks would pass away, and leave not a wreck behind? I wonder how many fortunes she has got through since Major S took her off my hands. I must get the poor old soul into an almshouse, and provide for her comfortably. Her support for the rest of her life will not cost as much as furnishing the cottage I once fitted up for her at Brompton.

"Dreamt that I was a young man again, and galloping to Brompton on the bay mare. Was just going to leap a high gate, when I woke with the cramp."

THE BATTLE PLAIN OF IMMA, NOW EL'UMK.

BY W. FRANCIS AINSWORTH.

The Plain.-Delay in the Transport.-The Crusaders at the Iron Bridge.-Defeat of the Palmyrenes.-The Acropolis of Cyrrhestica.-Battles of Ventidius and the Parthians. Arsace.-Geography of the Crusades.-Navigation of the Lake of Antioch.-Pelicans and Storks.-Battle of Enoporas.-Encampments of the Turkomans.-Manners and Customs.

THE plain, to the description of which the progress of the expedition next leads us, occupies an important tract of country in North Syria, and it possesses many features of high interest, in an historical and political, as well as in a merely economical and descriptive point of view.*

Averaging a mean elevation of three hundred and sixty feet above the level of the sea, and watered by several rivers; its lower or central part is occupied by the lake called Denghiz Aghá, better known as the Lake of Antioch, and which has a various extent of from seven to ten miles, and an area of from sixty to seventy. This lake is enclosed on every side by extensive marshes, and beyond these are grassy plains, interspersed here and there, by great tracts covered with flowering plants, chiefly of the natural families composite and umbellifera, or of the thistle and hemlock, or parsley tribes, and which attain so luxuriant a growth, as to form at times impenetrable thickets, and even when penetrated, to overtop a man on horseback. Snakes also attain

a gigantic size in this jungle, and during our residence at Murád Páshá, we killed one which measured fifteen feet in length.

This great plain is tenanted by Turkomans of the tribe of Reï 'Anlú, and there are also some stationary villages of Arabs and Syrians on the borders, which are marked on the one side by the well-defined foot of the lofty Armanus and Rhosus, on the other by the lower, woodless, and rocky range, called Em-göli Tágh, or the Mountain of the Lake of Em, probably another corruption or abbreviation for the Lake of Imma or Emma. To the north it is bounded by the less distinct range of Jindarís, which separates the valley of the Kárá Sú, or Black Water, from that of the 'Afrín; and to the south, by the hills of Antioch or Anti Casius, which leave an opening in the south-east, to the valley of the Orontes, constituting the renowned Colo-Syria.

Ibráhím Páshá made an attempt to bring part of this luxuriant plain into culture, and for this purpose, Syrian peasants were brought down

* This plain is denominated that of Cyrrhus, by Kinneir, in which he is followed by Bell, in his "System of Geography," where it is described as a vast and fertile plain, sufficient to support all Syria with corn. But this name is very objectionable, as not being used by ancients or moderns. Cyrrhus, according to the "Antonine Itinerary," was forty-two Roman miles from Beroa, or Aleppo, and twelve from Ciliza, now Kilís; from which, according to Colonel Chesney, the ruins of Corus are sixteen miles distant. It was, also, according to the Theodosian or Peutingerian Tables, thirty-six Roman miles beyond Gindarus, which is itself several miles north of the plain. Strabo, perhaps more accurately, calls it the Plain of Antioch. It appears, however, more generally to have been designated after the town of Imma, written Emma in the before-mentioned tables, which was more particularly on the plain; and of which its modern appellation, El 'Umk, appears to be a corruption.

from the well-tilled plain of Dana, in the Em-göli Tágh, but owing to the opposition of the Turkomans, the experiment did not succeed.

During the excursions previously detailed, things remained in pretty nearly the same condition at Amelia Depot. The commander of the expedition was provided with a powerful Fermán, from the Sultan, to secure the transport of the material across the country that intervened between the sea and the river Euphrates, a distance of 111 miles, and the Consul-General in Egypt was engaged to secure the submission of Mehemet Ali to its provisions, and his co-operation in the undertaking. But whether it was that the territory in which the transport was to take place, belonging at that time, as far as to the river Sájúr, to the Egyptian Satrap, rendered him jealous of acknowledging Turkish authority therein, or whether he viewed the communication to India by the Euphrates, as interfering with his own favourite project of facilitating the way by the Red Sea, and in which his interests would be always more directly involved, it is difficult to say; probably both combined against the expedition; and too wily to openly oppose what had met with the support of the British government and of the King of England in person, the Egyptian ruler determined to put every difficulty in the way of the enterprise, by passively thwarting its progress, by all possible means that were not overt, and the most formidable of which, was to forbid the natives to assist us with the means of transport.

It was in vain that the country was ransacked for camels, bullocks, and horses. The consul and merchants at Aleppo met with the same inexplicable refusal from the Arabs to be employed on the transport. The agent at Antioch was unable to afford any assistance, and the expedition and its stores lay crowded in a little point on the sea-shore, like a stranded ship, unable to move in any direction.

The landing of the stores, now terminated, had not been unattended by danger. The surf on the bar impeded its progress sometimes for days together. On one occasion, Captain Henderson, of the "Columbine," was going over in his gig with four men, when the boat was capsized. Fitzjames was passing at the moment, with a load, but he could not let go from the halser, by aid of which the landing was effected; and he was only able to throw an oar to the captain and his crew, struggling in the waves. Happily, however, they all reached the shore in safety, but much exhausted.

Annoyed at the obstacles thus put in the way of the transport, and in the absence of Ibráhím Páshá, who had withdrawn himself, in order to avoid importunities; the commander despatched Colonel Estcourt and Dr. Staunton on a mission to the civil governor of Syria, whose residence was at Damascus, and where they met with a satisfactory reception, and the customary vague promises, which were never meant to be fulfilled.

In the meantime, to avoid the mischievous effects of idleness, the men were employed in putting the "Tigris" steamer together on the Orontes, and trying her capabilities; and on the return of the first mission, Colonel Chesney thinking that assistance might be obtained from over the Turkish frontier, as well, also, to secure the privilege of establishing a depot on the Euphrates, despatched a second mission to Reshíd Páshá, the Osmanli Ser 'Asker, who was at that moment