The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-04 00:00:00

giving the- alarm ; but it appeared that he was directed first to ex-
tort from her, by force of threats, the knowledge of the place where
the money was deposited, and oblige her to give him the keys, if in
her possession. Affrighted at the nearness of the danger which
menaced her superior, she resolved without delay to give the alarm
to the neighbourhood, by tolling the convent bell, the customary
signal when assistance is required by night in religious houses. As
she hurried to the belfry for the purpose, she heard the bell of the
Abbess ring -violently, which seemed to her the signal of death,
and make her accelerate her pace. In a few moments the great
bell of the convent gave the alarm to the vicinity, and the towns-
people soon came thronging to the gates of the convent to afford
such assistance as might be necessary.
The nuns, :terrified at a signal which they knew betokened fire,
or some no less disaster, came running out of their cells in confu-
sion. The robbers, finding themselves discovered, took to flight.
Those in the garden succeeded in effecting their escape, but the
ruffian within the walls was not so fortunate ; he was arrested,
consigned into the hands of justice, and soon after paid with his
life the forfeit of his iniquity.
The Abbess was found in a swoon in bed, but uninjured except
by the effects of the fright. She related that she had been awakened
by a cold hand, which grasped her throat; to her horror, she per-
ceived it was that of a man, who with threats inquired for the
money kept in the convent. Being unable to speak from the force
with which he compressed her throat, the robber released his hold
a little, when she took the opportunity of seizing the bell-rope at
the head of the bed; almost at the same instant the great bell of
the convent began to sound, on which the robber ran off with pre-
cipitation. -

In the March of Intellect, a grave attempt is made
by some elderly gentleman to prove that things are retro-
grading with us. The effort, as might. be expected, is not
particularly successful, and only proves how little the writer
knows of the world he is taking upon himself to criticise.

Not one syllable has he heard of the modern advances in
mathematics, in chemistry, in medicine, or of the thousand
improvements diffused through society by the wonderful
spread of mechanic knowledge ; the names of Ark-
wright, Babbage, Brunell, Watt, have never reached
his ears ; by a miracle, that can never be sufficiently
admired, he alone seems to have been standing still
while all around him has been advancing. What is
better calculated to damp all enterprize than this eternal
ringing the changes on its inutility ? Mankind in general
are not too prone to value the success of others, even when
they are reaping their fair portion of its benefits, and the
effect of such writers, supposing them to produce any effect,
must be to augment that indifference, and, by so doing,
check every motive to improvement. After all, this pitting
of the times past against the times present is less the result
of utter ignorance than of the most deplorable vanity ; the
imbecile, conscious of his inferiority to the world about him,
finds a sort of wretched gratification in endeavouring to
depreciate it down to his own level.

The lines headed " Early Poetry of Lord Byron," are
vile trash. We do not believe they were written by

him, and, even if the great poet had indeed been guilty
of such nonsense in his boyish days, respect for departed
genius should have prevented their publication. We
should just as much think of digging up his mouldering
bones and selling them to the mob, as of entering into this
unholy barter of his fame for a little paltry lucre. But,
not to dwell upon the better and higher motives of con-
duct, it is not even policy to put forth these illusive an-
nouncements. Who, that has once been caught by the
heading—" Early Poetry of Lord Byron"—and has been
treated to such garbage, will return' a second time to the
same table ?

It has been said. of a certain judge that, when he is de-
cidedly against the poor culprit, he invariably " plays pussy"
—that is, he begins his summing up by putting the case in
the most favourable light, and ends, to use the language of
Joffrys, by giving him a lick with the rough side of his
tongue. As our opinions have a kindly bias towards the
Metropolitan we shall reverse this said game of pussy, and
having set down his offences without extenuation, we shall
sum up in his favour, by a brief extract from that amusing
gentleman, the Pasha of many Tales
" But I'll be dished if I talk about any thing but the animal,
which we had some trouble to kill ; for it stands on its big tail,
and fights with all four feet. Moreover, it be otherwise a strange
beast ; for its young ones pop out of its stomach, and then pop in
again, having a place there on purpose, just like the great hole in
the bow of a timber ship ; and as for the other little animal, it
swims in the ponds, lays eggs, and has a duck's bill, yet still it be
covered all over with hair like a beast. _ _ _ _ •

The Vizier interpreted—" By the prophet, but he laughs at our
beards !" exclaimed the Pasha angrily. " These arc foolish lies."
" You must not tell the Pasha such foolish lies. He will be
angry," said Mustapha. " Tell lies, but they must be good lies."
" Well, I'll be —," replied the sailor, " if the old beggar don't
doubt the only part which is true out. of the whole yarn. Well, I
will try another good 'un to please him."
" After I had been there about Fix months I was tired, and as
there was only twenty thousand miles between that country and
my own, I determined to swim back!"
" Mashalla ! swim back—how many thousand miles ?" exclaimed
Mustapha. -
" Only twenty thousand—a mere nothing.
" So one fine morning I throws a young kangaroo on my
shoulders, and off I starts. I swam for three months night
and day, and then feeling a little tired, I laid-to on my
back, and then I setoff again ; but by this time I was so
covered with barnacles, that I made but little way. So I
stopped at Ascension, scraped and cleaned myself, and
then, after feeding for a week on turtle, just to keep the
scurvy out of my bones, I set off again ; and as I passed
the Gut, I thought I might just as well put in here ; and
here I arrived, sure enough, yesterday, about three bells in
the morning watch, after a voyage of five months and
three days."
When Mustapha translated all this to the Pasha, the
latter was lost in astonishment. " Alla Caba ! God is
everywhere ! Did you ever hear of such a swimmer ?
Twenty thousand miles—five months and three days ! it is
wonderful story ! Let his mouth be filled with gold."

THE SPORTING MAGAZINE.-THE NEW
SPORTING MAGAZINE.

The pictorial engravings with which these excellent
periodicals are embellished are more than worth the cost of
them, even to those whose habits and feelings are opposed
to all sports of field and flood, which have for their object
the capture of the sinless inhabitants of woods and waters.
In the first, Pussy, engraved by Parr, from a drawing by
Cane, is the representation of a fine animal, with all the in-
telligence of eye observable in the best Arabian horses.
The only fault is the extreme smallness of the ears, and a little
coarseness in the execution of the thigh of the nearer hind
leg. The pasterns are well drawn, and the management of the
shadows very judicious. 'Badger Hunting, drawn and en-
graved by Greig, is a beautiful piece, and reflects great credit
on the artist, both for ingenuity of design and skilfulness of
execution. ,The situation of the badger is well chosen, and,
though the dogs appear in high spirits, their enemy, look-
ing only just unearthed, promises not to die unrevenged. The
first plate in the New Sporting Magazine is a drawing by
Landseer of Horatio Ross, M. P., and an old forester,
Deer-Stalking. The veteran wood-ranger is on his knees, a
fowling-piece in his left hand, while with his right he endea-
vours to restrain the ardour of his more youthful companion in
a half-kneeling, half-rising position, behind him. The intensity
with which both mark their prey, and the caution with
which they creep over the little knoll beyond which we
catch au indistinct glimpse of a pair of branching antlers,
is extremely well depicted. The only thing we complain
of is the warped heaviness of the clouds. Earth and
heaven look huddled together, and there is no accounting
for the light at-the bottom of the picture according to any
rule of art. Red Grouse is not so carefully engraved as

the others. The articles are everything that could be de-
sired in sporting periodicals, full of the right dare-devil,
neck-or-nothing spirit of well-mounted sportsmen. We can
only find room for a song from the " New."

Up ! Up ! with the first rosy glimpse of the morning,
Away thro' the forest and dale ;
The hills of the east the young sun is adorning,
And fresh is the heart-stirring gale.

-
Up ! Up ! and away.
The stag hounds are baying, the coursers are neighing,
We will skim o'er the bright waving corn ;
And the breeze thro' the forest's green shade will be playing,
As we cheerily wind the shrill horn.

Up ! Up ! and away.
Hark ! Hark ! they have found, in the deep heather lying,
A Buck—he is off with the wind,
See ! See ! how o'er hedge, ditch, and bank he is flying,
Ride ! Ride ! or they leave us behind.

Off ! Off ! and away.
Now o'er meadoW- and brake our swift course we are winging,
The stag's far away in the shade
Of the forest, whose deep startled echoes are ringing,
As we dash on the trail he has made.

O Odnas!hainngd,away.
And now through the river's broad stream he !
is
On, on, he's at bay on the bank.
Into eddying foam its bright wave we are lashing.
The red-blood streams down from his flank.
In ! and away.
He is down—and the horns are his requiem sounding ;
Through the country their marry blast thrills ;
The cheery " halloo" of the huntsmen resounding,
Dies away on the far distant hills. _ _

Back ! Back ! and away.

Sir Robert Peel, Bart. M.P. passed through this
town, on Thursday last. The risible faculties of the Hon.
Bart. were excited by a Tory inhabitant of the town request-,
ing him " To look sharp after the_Radicals."—Northampton
Free Press.