The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-10 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, DEC. 10.
The replies of Austria, Prussia, the Pope,
Hanover, and Bavaria to the Emperor's invitation
to a Congress have been published to-day.
The King of Prussia declares himself ready to
participate in a Congress the object of which would
be to effect the modifications which might be con-
sidered necessary in the treaties of 1815, which,
however, none the less continue to form the founda•
tion upon which the political edifice of Europe at
present rests. The ministers of the various coun-
tries should prepare the propositions which would
be submitted to the Congress.
The Pope in his reply concurs in the project of a
Congress, and will use his endeavours in order that
the principle of justice unrecognised and trampled
under foot may be re-estab►ished, and violated
rights vindicated. The Popo also states that he
should especially demand the re-establishment in
Catholic countries of the real pre-eminence natu-
rally appertaining to the Catholic religion, as being
the only true faith.

PARIS, DEC. 9.

The cash balance in the Bank of France was
211 :pillion francs this morning, being a rise of
one million since yeeterd ky. Firtit:Clo.s2 bills are
discounted at 61, per cent.
BOURSE, Dec, 9,—The market has shown great

firmness in spite of the arrival of the English
Funds with k decline, and t;.e business done marks
an advance on yesterday's quotations. Threes, for
the Account, are now at 671 r. 40c. Mobilier have
improved to 1,062 fr. 50c. Railway market firm.
Closing prices afi follows:
41 per Cents. 95 30
Do. end
3 per Cents
Do. end month 67 40
Credit 1.055
Do. end month 1066 25
Bank Shares 3330
Credit koneier 1265
Roman

Italian Loan 7l 6:5
Do. end month 7l SO
New ditto
Do. end month —
Russian

Austrian
Spanish Threes
Rome Pobt .. —

Deferred

RAILWAYB.

Cash. Account.
Orleans 970 977 50
Northern • •
New ditto
Lyons and Mediwrranean
New ditto O • • •

942 50 .. 940 -
885 - -

Geneva..
S ratheru
Western
Eastern ....
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard
North of Spain
Saragossa..
Ditto to Barcelona ....

493 75 -
688 75 .. G 92 50
506 25 510 -
475 .. 480 -
405 - - -
398 7:5 397 50
526 25 .. 526 25
525 50 .. 527 50
630 - 627 50
310 - .. 310 -

LITERATURE.

Ihs. Gladiators, A Tale of Rome and Judaaa..
By G. J. Whyte Melville, author of "Digby
Grand," 8:2. Three Vols. Longman.
The author of "Digby Grand" and " Holrtby
House" has here adventured upon en ambitious task.
In this new work—a classical and historical novel
—he has endeavoured to bring before us the pomps
and luxuries of Imperial Rome, when Vitellius de-
graded the purple, and the sanguinary conflicts of
the amphitheatre were the chief deligt.t of the
Roman citizens. Although there are flaws in the
picture, here and there, the result has been suffi
ciently successful. Types of the various characters
of that memorable period of imperial history, are
portrayed with a very discriminative hand. There
is Licinius the commander of the 'tenth Legion, a
noble Roman well worthy of his name, and Julius
Placidus, the Tribune, a man of craft and cunning
but of marvellous astuteness and sagacity—a man
who could join con amore in the luxurious banquets
of the Caesar while planning with the gladiators for
the assassination of his host. There is Hippies, the
chief of that formidable band, the fencing-master
and favourite of the maids and naatrons of
Rome—the degenerate daughters of Lucretia
and Cornelia. There is old Hirpinus, one
of the band, a favourable exception to his class.
There are Oarses and Damasippus, the freed-men
and fawning flatterers of Placidus, and others of
their class. Contrasted with these despicable
myrmidons aro Eleszar, the Jew—the Lion of
Judah, a stern, unyielding, uncompromising son of
Israel—and his aged brother Celebes, the Christian,
who boldly and unflinchingly bears witness to the
truth, whether he be a prisoner in the Roman camp,
or a stranger among the fiery gladiators, or an ac-
cused before the formidable council of his own peo-
ple—the San hedrim. The chief hero of the book is
Esca, a youthful British chieftain, who had been
taken prisoner by the invading Romans, and sold
for a slave in Rome. Esca is described as of
stalwart size and symmetrical figure, and is the
admiration of all beholders. His dauntless, manly
character is very incompatible with his position
as a slave, and it is somewhat repug-
nant to our British sentiments to find a
countryman in such an ignominious position,
and apparently so well resigned to his degradation
The heroines of the history do not find favour in.
our eyes. Valeria, the haughty and beautiful
patrician lady of Rome, surrounded by lovers of all
ranks, on whom she turns a cold disdainful eye, is
captivated at last by the graceful figure of the
slave Esca, who is unmoved by her most unwomanly
condescension. After attempting the murder of
Placidus, in a scene of great dramatic power, i❑
order to save her beloved from death, Valeria turns
for consolation to the admiring Hippies, and from
her elevated dignity sinks into the mistress of a
gladiator ! Perhaps such a character and career
may be true to the manners of that degraded epoch,
but the picture is certainly not a pleasing one.
The other heroine, the beloved of Esca, is
Mariamne, the Jewish maiden, who, to saw
her lover from death, betrays Jerusalem into
the hands of the invaders! Truly Captain Whyte
Melville's ideas of womanly devotion are
not the most complimentary to the sex ! As a
specimen of the eloquent style of the descriptions
which abound in these volumes, here is a finished
portrait of—

JULIUS PLACIDUS, TIIE TP.IBUNE.
But with its courage, the Tribune possessed the cunning
of the tiger, not without something also of that fierce ani-
mal's outward beauty, and much of its watchful, pitiless,
and untiring nature, A brave soldier should have con-
sidered it a degradation, under any circumstances, to play a
double part but with Placidus every step was esteemed
honourable so long as it was on the ascent. The
successful winner had no scruple in deceiving all
about him at Rome, by the eagerness with which
he assumed the character of a mere man of pleasure, while
he lost no opportunity the while, of ingratiating himself
with the many desperate spirits who were to be found in
the imperial city, ready aid willing to assist in any enter-
prise which should tend to anarchy and confusion. While
he rushed into every extravagance and pleasure of that
luxurious Court—while he vied the Ca33ar himself in his
profusion, and surpassed him in his orgies--he suffered no
symptoms to escape him of a higher ambition than that of
excellence in trifling,—of deeper projects than those which
affected the wine-cup, the pageant, and the passing follies
of the hour. Yet all the while, within that dainty reveller's
brain, schemes were forming and thoughts burning that
should have withered the very roses on his brow.
It might have been the strain of Greek blood which fil-
tered through his veins, that tempered his Roman courage
and endurance, with the pliancy, essential to conspiracy
and intrigue. A strain that was apparent in his sculptured
regularity of features, and general r ymmetry of form. His
character has already been compared to the tiger's, and his
movements had all the pliant ease and stealthy freedom of
that graceful animal. His stature was little above the aver-
age of his country men, but his frame was cast in that
mould of exact proportion which promises the extreme of
strength combined with agility and endurance. Had
he been caught like Milo, he would have writhed
himself out of the trap, with the sinuous per-
sistency of a snake. There was something snake-like
too in his small glittering eye, and the clear smooth-
ness of his skin. With all its brightness no woman worthy
of the name but would have winced with womanly instincts
of aversion and repugnance from his glance. With all its
beauty no child would have looked up frankly and confid-
ingly in his face. Men turned, indeed, to scan him
approvingly as he passed; but the brave owned no sym-
pathy with that smooth set brow, that crafty and malicious
smile, while the timid or the superstitious shuddered and
shrank away, averting their own gaze from what they felt
to be the influence of the evil eye.
And yet in his snowy tunic bleeched to dazzling white,
in his collar of linked gold, his jewelled belt, his embroidered
sandals, and the ample folds of his deep violet mantle,
nearly approaching purple, Julius Placidus was no un-
worthy representative of his time and his order, no mean
specimen of the wealth, and foppery, and extravagance of
Rome.

Such was the man who now stood up in his gilded chariot
at Valeria'e door, masking with his usual expression of
careless indolence, the real impatience he felt for the
tidings of its mistress.
And here is a companion picture of