The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-04 00:00:00

brow," of the

addolorata

The scene would not a little

have astonished some of those " liberal" individuals amongst
us who are ready to welcome amongst us the Popery of the
19th century, as something which has been washed from its

foulness

" The Sketch of Sir William Rowan Hamilton" is a valu-
able one, and worthy the illustrious invividual who is its
subject. The review of " Tytler's History of Scotland" we
can recommend to the perusal of our readers, young and old.
We can also commend the " Curse of Kishoge," which is
written in a style we seldom meet with so richly done as in
the pages of the Dublin University. It is inimatable. We
extract the following frcm an excellently written tale, en-
tled, " The Vice Legale's Ball" :

The bells of Notre Dame de Donis had already chimed
midnight, when Smeraldo issued from the vice-legate's pa-
lace, enveloped in a light cloak, and with his jewelled cap
drawn down over his eyes. The night was dark, and at that
late hour not a sound rose from the reposing city. A faint
and distant ray of light was, at times, seen struggling through
the thick and darkened air, and which proceeded from the
high and narrow cells of the watchers, or ringers, in the
belfries of the churches. The streets were utterly deserted,
and it was a task of no little difficulty to tread aright the tor-
tuous and gloomy windings of the more remote and less
known part of the city, to which, however, Smeraldo bent
his course, with a rapid and unhesitating step. He at length
stooped at a lofty and cumbrous gate, studded with iron
knobs, which closed the entrance to a dark, narrow, un-
paved, filthy street, or rather lane. On a slight knock being
given by Smeraldo, a small wicket was noiselessly opened,
and shut as cautiously, the moment he passed through it.
" Here I am in the Jewry or Hebrew kennel, at last," he
exclaimed, looking around him, without being able to see
any thing. " What infernal darkness ! Why it would be
impossible to distinguish here one's mistress from an old
shaven monk, or foul. bearded Israelite. You must lead me,
like a blind man, Lawrence." _ _

" Fair seigneur," said the warden, " here I am. I have
executed punctually your orders. The ladder is set right
under the little window. But, in the name of all the saints,
seigneur, think well of what you are about doing. Fm
twenty years I have closed, every evening, at the tolling of
the curfew, this gate, and opened it every morning at the
first bell for the Angelus, I must, therefore, know, right well,
the race of Abraham, and never yet, to my knowledge, did a
Jewess give a rendezvous to a Christian without some wicked
intention."

"To the devil with your wise precautions ! " cried Sme-
raldo ; " if she had given me a meeting I should not be thus
reduced to escalade her chamber,—she would have opened
the door to me. Now, show me the house !"
The warden obeyed. At the further end of the narrow
street stood a house of mean appearance, in the front of
which were several small windows, placed at irregular dis-
tances. Under one of the uppermost of these, and which was
without bars, such not being looked upon as necessary, from
its great height, was set a ladder, which Smeraldo began
mounting rapidly, though not without a certain uneasy feel-
ing, so novel and strange was the situation in which he found
himself. For the first time in his life he was about to com-
mit an act of brutal and unmanly violence. Hitherto the ob-
stacles opposed to him had been overcome by other means ;
and in no case had inexorable resistance forced him to play
so vile and so degraded a part. It was not that he had any
scruples of delicacy ; the honour of a woman, and particu-
larly of a Jewess, was for him of the slightest, or rather, no
consideration ; but he felt vexed and deeply humiliated at
having failed in his attempts at seduction and in being obliged
to act the part of a buccaneer, or a bandit, to accomplish his
object. . . _ _ _ . . .

-
Smeraldo entered, unhesitatingly, through the little win-
dow, and, alighting upon a winding staircase, he descended
with the stealthy pace of a wolf. He had calculated all the
chances of his undertaking well ; and as he knew that at that
hour of the night all the members of that Jewish family were
assembled in the garden, to celebrate the feast of the Taber-
nacles, he proceeded to examine the house. After having
groped his way through several apartments, he entered a
chamber, the doorway of which was masked by a heavy silk
curtain. A faint and uncertain light, that made its way
through the tendrils of the creeping plants that grew about
the window, served to render objects partially visible. The
floor, which was covered with a soft and silk-like matting,
received, noiselessly, the footsteps of Don Smeraldo. A de-
licate perfume of sandal-wood floated on the air, and min-
gled with the breath of flowers from the plants and odife-
rous shrubs that partly filled the balcony, over which hung,
according to the fashion in Spain, a parti-coloured blind, or
slanting curtain : on the seats lay various articles of female
dress, and in one corner glistened a small and fancifully-
framed mirror.

The sound of voices, united in a chaunt, which rose from
below, and the reddish light of torches, which flickered
through the jessamine branches that grew about the balcony,
ttracted him to step out on it, and, on looking down from it,
for the moment, forgotten, in sur-
long the inner walls of this house,

every other feeling was,

prise and admirati

whose front towards the street exhibited a squalid, disco-
loured, and dilapidated aspcct, ran a tastefully laid-out gar-
den, planted with pomegranate trees and others indigenous
to the Holy Land. _ _ _ _

In the middle of a marble terrace sparkled a fountain, sur-
rounded by a parterre of rare and exotic plants and flowers :
in a word, it strongly reminded Smeraldo of the entrance to
one of those Arabian palaces, some magnificent ruins of which
still adorn the southern provinces of Spain. For the cele-
bration of the feast of the Tabernacles a bower of living
branches had been constructed upon the terrace, and under
this verdant canopy was placed a table, covered with a snow-
white cloth, and bearing numerous vases, cups, and other
vessels of the purest and most curiously cut crystal, and of
the most richly-sculptured silver and gold, from which the
light of the torches was reflected back in dazzling brilliancy.
Never had Don Smeraldo seen, even in the vice-legate's pa-
ace, a more rare or precious display of the goldsmith's art.
Near the table stood the Jew, Ben-Jacob, reading aloud
in Hebrew the prayers peculiar to this solemnity. In his
right hand he held a palm-branch, the symbol of the east,
the native country of his people, and the cradle of his religion.
His daughter, and a young man wearing the dress of the
Jews of Ermenia, stood beside him. At the other end of the
table stood, in a reverential. attitude, an old grey-headed
serving-man, and the female servants of the family. Don
Smeraldo was not a little surprised at seeing the young girl,
whom he had met in the streets of Avignon poorly clad, and
wearing the yellow cap, the distinctive article of dress the
Jews were obliged to wear, now covered with jewels and
precious stones, that might have excited the envy of
t- I cess. The lofty stature and eastern character of

Aleli's

beauty, was seen to the greatest advantage in. these fes

robes, which, bordered with deep gold fringe, f
folds to her feet, of perfect symmetry, but half c
little embroidered oriental slippers.