Nor would the vengeful god indulge his taste
With the sweet blessings of a pure repast,

Though (for they learned his fate,) the country round
Their prophet's board with every dainty crowned.
For, lo! descending sudden from the sky,
Round the piled banquet shrieking harpies fly,
Whose beaks rapacious, and whose talons, tear
Quick from his famished lips the untasted fare.
Fawkes Ap. Rhodius, b. 2.

The Argonauts touch at the mansion of Phineus on their voyage to Colchos, and two of their number, the winged children of Boreas, deliver the prophet from this disturbance.

After having re-installed the king of the Garamantes in the pleasures of a comfortable meal, Agesilan set out on the farther quest of Diana, and arrived at the Desolate Isle. The god Tervagant had fallen in love with the queen of this country; but, being baulked in his amour, had let loose a band of destructive hobgoblins, who ravaged the land. An oracle of the god declared, that Tervagant would only be appeased, if the inhabitants daily exposed on the sea-shore a fresh beauty, till such time as he found one he liked as well as the queen. As the fair offering to the fastidious god was every day devoured by a sea-monster, the island was now nearly depopulated, and corsairs were employed to ravage other countries, in quest

of victims.

Diana had fallen into the hands of this crew, and, on her arrival, was bound to the rock. That very day Agesilan descended on his griffin, and offered his services against the seamonster. On proceeding to the place of combat, the discovery of the situation of his mistress invigorated his exertions. Having slain the monster after a dreadful combat, he placed his beloved Diana on his hippogriff, and skimmed with her towards Constantinople.

It may be remembered, that in the Orlando Furioso (c. 8), Proteus, being offended at the bad treatment the princess of Eubuda had received, in consequence of an affair of gallantry in which she had engaged with him, commissioned herds of marine monsters to depopulate the country, and would only be appeased by a daily offering of a damsel, to glut an ork which was stationed on the shore, in readiness to receive her. Angelica was brought to this country by seamen, who scoured the main for victims, and was bound to the fatal rock when delivered by Ruggiero, who arrived on his winged courser. This, like the story of the blind king and the dragon, is of classical origin, and has been doubtless suggested by the fiction of Perseus and Andromeda.

On his flight to Constantinople, Agesilan spied beneath him the ship of Amadis, from which he had been originally separated, and which was still on its voyage. He dextrously alighted on this vessel, and proceeded with the rest of his kindred to the Grecian capital, where his nuptials were solemnized with Diana.

Agesilan of Colchos is the faithful lover of this part of the family chronicle. Rogel of Greece, whose adventures occupy a considerable part of the romance, is the Galaor, or general lover. He was the son of Florisel and Helena, and is, I think, by far the most rakish of his kindred. It is true he is specially attached to Leonida, a Greek princess, whom he finally marries; but, at the solicitation of any damsel, he sets out to the relief of her mistress he usually begins the adventure by an intrigue with the ambassadress, and concludes by an amour with the lady he had served.

The reader, I presume, does not wish any farther to pursue the involved genealogy of the romantic issue of Amadis, and a few words will bring us to the latest posterity.

Many of the chief heroes of the family of Amadis possess a sentimental and platonic female friend, like the Gradaffile of Lisuarte. Finistea acted in

this capacity to Amadis of Greece, and attended him in his long quest of his empress Niquea, who had been carried off while on her way to visit her father. In the course of their peregrinations, Amadis and Finistea came to a desert island, where, having partaken of a certain fruit, they totally divested themselves of their platonic habits, and a son was in consequence produced, who, from the place of his birth, was called

SILVIO DE LA SELVA.'

This prince first distinguished himself at the siege of Constantinople by the Russians, whose king had lately transmitted, by twelve dwarfs, a defiance to the Grecian princes, in which he mentioned that he had entered into a confederacy with a hundred and sixty eastern monarchs, to burn all the habitations of the Greeks, that they might be re-built on an improved plan by his subjects the Russians. A long account is given of the war, which terminated successfully for the besieged; but they are hardly freed from their Russian foes, when the whole bevy of Greek empresses and princesses

'Hechos de Silvio de la Selva, hijo de Amadis de Gre

cia.

are carried off by one fell stroke of necromancy. All the knights and heroes set out in search of them, and meet with the accustomed adventures, in which Silvio de la Selva particularly distinguishes himself. After the princesses are brought back to their own habitations, it is found that, during their absence, many have given birth to children. Spheramond, son of Rogel of Greece, and Amadis of Astre, son of Agesilan, are of the number. When Spheramond and Amadis grow up, they are both sent to Parthia, for it was destined they should be there admitted into the order of chivalry. Here they fall in love with two Parthian princesses, Rosaliana and Richarda, whom they espouse after they have gone through the requisite number of adventures. Among others, they had been present at a great battle between the Christians and Pagans, who, as usual, had besieged Constantinople. In this combat the king of the Island of Terror was slain on the side of the paynims. His widow resolves to be avenged, and accomplishes her purpose by carrying away the young prince Saphiraman, son of Spheramon and the princess Richarda, as also Hercules d'Astre, son of Amadis d'Astre and Rosaliana. These two princes are shut up in an impregnable tower; and the adventures of different knights who attempt