Star.
London, England, 1826-05-18 00:00:00

AN A POLOGUE.

ST r. OASPIT) ISQ. AUTHOR 01 THI " LOLLARDS."

'Twas eight o'clock, and near the fire
My ruddy little boy was seated,
And with the titles of a Sire
My ears expected to be greeted.
But vain the thought! by sleep oppresid,
No father there the child descry'd;
His bead reclin'd upon his breast,
Or, nodding, MEd from side to side !
" Let this young rogue be sent to bed,"
More I had scarce had time to say,
When the poor urchin rais'd his head,
_ To beg that be might longer stay.
Bellied; away his steps he bent
With tearful eye and aching heart,
But claim'd his playthings ere he went,
And took up stairs his horse and cart !
Still for delay, though oft deny'd,
He pleaded.—wildly eraid the boon ;
Though past his usual hour, he tried
At being sent to bed so soon!
If stern to him, his grief I shard,
(Unmov'd, who sees his offspring weep?)
Of soothing him I half despair'd ;
When all his cares were Lost in sleep !
" Alas, poor infant r I exclainid,
" Thy father blushes now to scan,
In aU that he so lately blam'd,
The follies and the fears of man.
The vain regret—the anguish brief,
Whick thou bast known, sent up to bed,
rouetray'd of man the idle grief,
When dooM'd to dumber with the dead!"

4iICHARD CUR DE LION.

-Among the ancient monuments of Trieste, there is
onesatcalited to excite more particularly the curiosity
'of an tnglishman, as it bears the name of one of our
most renowned monarchs, whose achievements and
adventures are recorded by historians of different na-
tions, 'and ivhoselame revives in the modern romances
of the great 'Northern Magician.
There is a small irregular place in the very heart of
Tergeste Antico which has always borne, and still bears,
the nanie of Pizza dilticardo, near to which is a tri-
timphant.atch,"which has the singular appellation of
" Richard's Prison," Prigione di Ricardo. Now it has
been a constant tradition among the people of Trieste,
that the' Richard here mentioned ism° other than Coeur
de Lion, and that he was same time under confinement
at ihis very place.
But this tradition, like some others of more import-
ante, has•little to support it. The learned have rejected
the hypothesis :as a vulgar error, and have perhaps
_substituted a-greater error in its place. It is rather
sin prising that not one among the Literati has been
induced, even by.the spirit of contradiction and contro-
• versy, in defend the popular opinion, nor condescend to
prove its absurdity. In the mean time their own ex-
•planation of the matter is any thing but satisfactory.
U Padre Irene° della Croce, say., Ricardo, is a corruption
:01 Re Cada* and that the arch was erected in honour of
*Chirlemagne, on his passsage through this city in the
ear 799, and more modern Chroniclers have found
it easier to copy than to contradict.
As far as may be judged from the style of architec-
ture, this monument is much older than Charlemagne,
and is evidently Roman; and admitting the probability
elf the corruption of Re Carlo into Ricardo, (that is, of
kaewn name Into one lest boon) what connexion or
,what similarity is there between a triumphal arch and
a prison?
There is indeed no other ground for believing thatl
our Richard ever was at Trieste, and much less in cus-
tody here ; but as he landed, or was shipwrecked in the
seeighbourhood, and was afterwards kept so long a pri.
;loner in Germany, it is possible chat the association of
ideas produced the denomination which has been some
or other applied to the building and locality in
:question. At any rate, it is reasonable to assume that
there once existed a prison and an individual of the name
• of R•chard, to whom the tradition refers : and why not
Ceur de Lion? _ .

According to Austrian writers, King Richard return.
ed from the Crusade full of glory, but destitute of every
thing else, in a small bask, which was wrecked near
Aqulija. (It was undoubtedly on the shoals of -Grado.)
.His intention was to proceed overland to England, and
knowing the Duke of Austria to be his enemy, he tra-
'rifted 'in the disguise of a peasant (or, according to
athers,of a Templar), but UV discovered in common
inn, in one of the suburbs of Vienna. Leopold of Ans.
'tria committed him to the custody of Hademar of Kuen-
riogen, who kept him a close prisoner in the Castle of
, Durnstein, the ruins of which are still to be seen in a
romantic situation on the Dioube. He was afterwards
transferred to-Worms, and delivered up to the barba-
rous and cowardly Emperor Henry IV. who seat him to
Mayence, and exacted an immense sum for his ransom:
The Duke of Austria °was certainly vindictive, and
had less Magnanimity than our heroic Monarch ; but be
• was not that dastard be is repress:sited to be in Shak•
spare's play of King Join. Oa the contrary, he dis-
tinguished himself at the famous siege of Ptolemais,
where the enmity between him and Richard had its rise
is the following circumstance :—Each of the Princes
who mounted the ramparts during the storm, planted
his colours on the walls as a signalof victory.—Richard
conceiving himself to be the chief hero of the day,
caused all-other Bags but the English to be struck, and
by this hauteur offended all the confederates. Duke
Leopold left the camp in dudgeon, and returned home.
At the taking of Ptolemais the slaughter was so great, that Leo-
pold'. whole coat of mail was stained with blood, excepting only
what wai covered by the belt Mind bis waist, which remained
white. Hence she stational /lag of Austria is to this day a galaxy
is a Add of blood.

QUICK Taavimano.—Amung the wonders which
are daily solicitiag attention, the rapidity with which
goods and passengers are whirled from one extremity
of the island to the other is not the least. This is no
doubt due to various causes, but chiefly to the admirable
cattle that now run in our mails and post coaches. Step
into the mail at eight o'clock, and yon may drink tea
400 miles off in less than 48 hours, and mount the Al-
liance in Liverpool at seven on Monday, and you may
eat your muffin in Lad-lane on Tuesday at nine. Fifty
or sixty years ago such a journey would have been
planned over for a month belore setting out, and talked
over for a year after arrival.
The amount of duty paid to Government by five of
the principal calico-pincers in Lancashire, for six weeks,
ending the 25th April, 1825' was 19,3.551. and for the
salute I.erioi in 1826, 12,0961. only.