treating through New Jersey, and leaving its traces of blood from the naked and torn feet of the soldiery, as it hastened onward, was in a state too humble to offer either. Our credit, too, in Europe was entirely gone, so that the commissioners (as they were called, without having any commission), to whom Lafayette still persisted in offering his services, were obliged, at last, to acknowledge, that they could not even give him decent means for his conveyance. "Then," said he, "I shall purchase and fit out a vessel for myself." He did so. The vessel was prepared at Bordeaux, and seat round to one of the nearest ports in Spain, that it might be beyond the reach of the French government. In order more effectually to conceal his purposes, he made, just before his embarkation, a visit of a few weeks in Lagland (the only time he was ever there), and was much sought in English society. On his return to France he did not stop at all in the capital, even to see his crn family, but hastened, with all speed and secrecy, to make good his escape from the country. It was not until he was thus on his way to embark, that Lis ro.nantic undertaking began to be known.

The effect produced in the capital and at. court by its publication was greater than we should now, perhaps, imagine. Lord Stormont, the English ambassador, required the French ministry to despatch an order for his arrest, not only to Bordeaux, but to the French commanders on the West India station; a requisition with which the ministry readily complied, for they were at that time anxious to preserve a good understanding with England, and were seriously angry with a young man who had thus put in jeopardy the relations of the two countries. In fact, at Passage, on the very borders of France and Spain, a lettre-de-cachet overtook him, and he was arrested and carried back to Bordeaux. There, of course, his enterprise was near being finally stopped; but, watching his opportunity, and assisted by cne or two friends, he disguised himself as a courier. with his face blackel and falce Lair, and rode on, ordering post horses for a carriage, which he had caused to follow him at a suitable distance, for this very purpose, and thus fair y passed the frontiers of the two kingdoms, only three or four hours. before his pursuers reached them. He soon arrived at the port where his vessel was waiting for him. His family, ho ever, still flowed him with s licitations to return, which he never received; and the society of the court and capital, according to Madame du Defind's account of it, was in no common state cfexcitement on the occasion. Something of the same sort happened in London. "We talk chiefly," says Gibbon, in a letter dated April 12th, 1777," of the Marquis de Lafayette, who was here a few weeks ago. He is about twenty, with a hundred and thirty thousand

livres a year; the nephew of Noailles, who is ambassador here. He has bought the Duke of Kingston's yacht, [a mistake, ] and is gone to join the Americans. The court appear to be angy with him."

Immediately on arriving the second time at Passage, the wind being fair, he embarked. The usual course, for French. vessels attempting to trade with our colonies at that period, was to sail for the West Indies, and then, coming up along our coast enter where they could. But this course would have exposed Lafayette to the naval commanders of his own nation, and he had almost as much reason to dread them as to dread British cruisers. When, therefore, they were outside of the Canary Islands, Lafayette required his captain to lay their course directly for the United States. The captain refused, alleging that, if they should be taken by a British force, and carried into Halifax the French government would never reclaimi them, and they could hope for nothing but a slow death in a dungeon or a prison-ship. This was true, but Lafayette ki ew it before he made the requisition. He therefore insited, until the captain refused in the most positive manner. Lafayette then told him that the ship was his own rate property, that he had mate is on rangements concerning it, and that if he, the captain,

und not sail directly for the United States, he thould be put in irons, and his command given to the next officer. The captain, of course, submitted, and Lafayette gave him a bond for forty thousand francs, in case of

any accident. They, therefore, now made sail directly for the southern portion of the United States, and arrived unmolested at Charleston, South Carolina, on the 25th of April, 1777.

The sensation produced by his appearance in this country was, of course, much greater than that produced in Europe by his departure. It still stands furth as one of the most prominent and important circumstances in our revolutionary contest; and, as has often 1 een said by one who Lore no small part in its tras and success, rune but those who were then alive, can believe what an impulse it gave to the hopes of a population almost disheartened by a long series of disasters. And well it might; for it taught us, that, in the first rank of the first urbility in Europe, men could still be found, who not only took an interest in cur struggle, but were willing to share cur sufferings; that our obscure and almost desperate contest for freedom in a remote quarter of the world, could yet find supporters among those, who were the most natural and powerful allies of a splendid despotism; that we were the objects of a regard and interest throughout the world, which would add to our own resources sufficient strength to carry us safely through to final success,

FALL OF CATILINE.
BY PROFESSOR BARBER.

As if nature designed to contrast the calm beauties of an Italian sunset with the horrors of a moral tempest, destined to darken the Roman commonwealth, the evening which preceded the confederacy between Sergius Catiline and his associates was unusually serene. When the sun sunk amid the softened and varied tints which his retiring shadows had created, a gentle breeze from the northern shores of the MediterJanean floated over the hill of gardens, wafting the rich perfumes of nature through the eternal city; the various aqueducts rippled in obedience to the wind which scarcely agitated their surfaces, while the moon, as she rose in unclouded majesty above the Aventine, lingered over the dome of her sacred temple, the guardian deity of the vestal virgins who were offering up their evening orisons. Silence reigned omnipotent; not a sound broke her repose, save the scream of the night-bird as he shrieked amid the timeworn pillars of the Capitol, the deep notes of the watchman who guarded the Codian, or the response of the sentry who pro you.

claimed the watch-hour from the heights of the Esquiline.

As night threw her sable mantle over the western side of the Janiculum, the officiating ministers in the Capitol retired within the portals of their respective temples, to propitiate the favours of the guardian deities of Rome by the accustomed sacrifices. It was at this interesting moment that two Roman ladies, elegantly attired, crossed the Publician bridge. As they passed onward in the direction of the Aventine, the elder of the two suddenly paused, and gazing on the clear waters of the Tiber, on which the moonbeams had cast the deep shadows of the Palatine, exclaimed, "Thou common grave of a monarch and a hero, how often have thy waters been polluted since their primal stream left the bosom of the Appenines; how often has the shuddering victim, hurled from the Capitoline, poured out his spirit as the sudden dash announced that thou hadst received the sacrifice, and thy current resumed its wonted course! Shade of Manlius, beautiful yet awful is thy resting-place; the daughter of Jupiter smiles upon thee from the elysium of the Gods and in the dark shadows

of yon mounts on the surface of the Tiber, she erects a monument upon thy grave!"

The fair speaker had scarcely concluded this beautiful apotheosis to the manes of her murdered countryman, when her attention was arrested by a vulture, which, after fluttering around the base of the Aventine, uttered a terrific scream and flew off in the direction of the Capitol.

This nocturnal and ominous visitant struck terror into the bosoms of the fair companions journeying to the temple of Diana. The younger, upon reaching the sacred edifice, implored the protection of its favouring deity. What was her astonishment when a sepulchral voice from within replied, "Happiness dwells not with the companions of guilt;seek to know no further;-the secrets of futurity belong to the gods!"

"Tell me, mysterious being," said the gentle supplicant, "what evil awaits Marcella? By what misfortune has she incurred the displeasure of the gods ?"

"When the anger of the gods convulses the heavens, shall mortality dare to inquire into futurity?" responded the former voice. "Look upward and retire!"

Marcella directed her view to the heavens; a dark cloud was gathering in the north-west over the Campus Martius. It quickly enveloped the Capitoline and Palatine, and finally rested on the extreme eastern edges of the Esquiline and Coelius. The agitated girl had scarcely contemplated this awful change in the elements, when a peal of thunder that echoed through the caverns of the deep shook Rome to its centre; the clouds opened, and a brilliant stream of electric fire, passing from the north-east to the southwestern extremity of the city, wrapped the hills in the awful splendour of a terrific illumination.

"The gods have fired the city," said Marcella, and sunk senseless on the bosom of her friend. At this critical juncture, two Roman knights, attracted by the piercing cry of the companion of Marcella, hastened to her as

sistance.

"What maiden in distress thus contests with the thunder for mastery?" exclaimed the younger knight. A flash of lightning, at this moment, streaming through its cloudy fissure, revealed to his gaze the pallid features of the apparently lifeless Marcella.

"It is Marcella, by the immortal powers!" said he then suddenly turning to a slave by whom he was attended, he commanded him to bear the senseless and beautiful burden to its home. As the slave was about to obey the mandate, the knight rushed frantically forward and arrested his arm. Minion," "said he, I knew not what I said; touch not the hem of her garment; it would be profanity." Then placing his hand on the bosom of the prostrate maiden, he

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exclaimed, "Lovely and beloved Marcella, the waters of life yet flow from the fountain. Lest the lightning's flash should stop the current, Catiline shall bear thee to a place of security." Saying this, he gently raised the fainted form before him, and was quickly lost in thick darkness behind the eastern brow of the Aventine.

In another part of the city, Marcus Cicero had been awakened by the roaring of the Tiber, which, driven in opposition to its current, swollen beyond its banks, and rapidly rising on the Tarpeian, presented to the gaze of the horror-stricken consul the appearance of a sea without a shore.

As the wind howled around the pillars of the Capitol, the consecutive thunder-peals grew louder; while the lightning, more intensely vivid from the darkness which it rendered visible, streamed like the burning lava from a volcano, along the gilded roofs and brazen thresholds of which the hand of rapine had despoiled the temples at Athens. After offering up a prayer to the gods, Cicero commanded his lictors to summon the senators to a solemn council in the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, and throwing around him the consular robe, proceeded towards the Palatine. The awe-stricken senators, preceded by the torch-bearers, were already assembled on the steps of the Capitol, when the lictor announced the approach of the consul; and as the chief magistrate ascended they separated on each side, forming an avenue, in the midst of which he halted, and thus addressed the assembly:

"Fathers and Senators of Rome! need I offer an apology, illustrious countrymen, for thus summoning you, in the dead of our night, to meet me in the Capitol? No; I see you feel with me, that the occasion justifies the act. Never, oh, fathers, has such a night hung its darkened terrors over our devoted city-the Gods have poured upon us torrents of fire-and earthquakes have shaken our eternal hills. We have offended the Gods; some horrible misfortune awaits our city. I propose to you, Fathers, that the Aruspices be summoned to join us in a solemn convocation in the temple of Jupiter; let the omens of the night be compared; if evil, let sacrifices be offered; let hecatombs smoke upon the altars; so shall the further displeasure of the Gods be averted from the city and commonwealth. Sacred father," said he, addressing the Pontifex, as the procession entered the portal of the Temple of Jupiter, "was the evening sacrifice propitious-and what omens hast thou seen throughout this night of terrors?"

"Consul," replied the officiating priest, "I tremble to answer the inquiry. When the declining shadows of the sun sunk behind the Janiculum, we retired, as accustomed, to offer our evening sacrifice to the immortal

Gods; the victim was slain-the faggots lighted-the flame ascended; we were in the act of examining the entrails, when, awful to relate, the right arm of Jupiter slowly removed from its situation and pointed in the direction of the Esquiline; the flames burst forth on all sides, intermingled with black smoke; the livid light scarcely illumed the altar, and the sacrifice was unconsumed. Dismayed at these portentous omens, I invested myself in the Loena, and ascended the dome of Minerva's Temple to observe the direction of the convulsed elements which shook the temples of the gods. I had just reached this commanding eminence, when a stream of fire, which seemed to have enveloped the city in a general conflagration, revealed to my view, in the street of the Gladiators, a multitude of Romans, variously habited and disguised, passing and re-passing from the House of Marcus Lecca."

A loud knocking at the gate of the temple here interrupted the speaker; it was found to proceed from a sentry who had captured a young Roman, in the dress of a lieutenant, passing the Milvian bridge. The captor and the captured were ordered into the presence of Cicero and the senators.

"He bears about him sealed papers," said the guardian of the night," and refuses to answer any interrogatories."

"Why, at the midnight hour and amid the horrors of such a tempest, hast thou been taken, attempting to fly from the city?" said the consul. "Discover thy purposes."

"I am forbidden," replied the youthful soldier.

"On the peril of the rack-the torture, and, finally, thy life, I command thy answer," continued Cicero.

"Lucretia died to preserve her honour," said the soldier. "I am prepared to follow her example in the preservation of mine; the rack and the torture may cause me to shudder-in the hour of agony, the ravings of a madman may usurp the empire of reason and reflection, but neither thy threats nor their more bloody execution shall extort from me the violation of an oath recorded on the sacred altars of the Gods, in the presence of a sacrifice too awful and too holy to name. As for my sealed papers-behold, Marcus Cicero, how small is the size of the packet, and how easily it is concealed," continued the captured Roman, as at one effort he swallowed it.

"Tear him asunder!" vociferated the consul.

"Stand off, thou murdering minister of a more murderous tyrant," said the lieutenant, as the lictor approached him, " and do thou, consul, allow me five hours to reflect on the consequences of a refusal to thy man date."

"Be it so," replied Cicero, but at the

expiration of the alloted time, thou diest, if thou tamperest with our bounty."

"I take the chance," said the soldier; then hurling a look of defiance towards the consul, he was led to the tower which overhung the Tarpeian.

"Fathers and Senators," said the consul, as the youth retired, "the devoted secrecy of yon minion is big with the fate of Rome; let him be treated with special kindness. As the sun rises over the Esquiline we meet again. Senators and Fathers, adieu; to the protection of our guardian deities, and your unremitting vigilance, I commit the safety of the commonwealth." Saying this, he withdrew from the assembly.

The vision of the Aruspex in the dome of Minerva's Temple, had not deceived him. In the street of the Gladiators a band of determined Romans, combining all ranks, had assembled at the house of Marcus Lecca. The master spirit which convoked it, and by which its movements were directed, was Sergius Catiline. Hitherward he was hastening, when the appalling situation of Marcella arrested his footsteps.

Having deposited his sacred burden-the object of his love-in the possession of her friends, with an injunction of secrecy as to the means by which she had been conveyed, the young patrician hastened to the abode of his friend.

As Catiline entered the assembly, the extreme beauty of his person, and the daring and lofty spirit of ambition which pervaded his countenance, called forth from each of the assembled multitude, as he rose to welcome his leader, an earnest and scrutinizing gaze. The object of the nocturnal assemblage had not been fully explained; the summons by which it had been convened, was, at least, equivocal in its character, and every one present sought, in the expressive features of Catiline, a resolution of the doubts by which he was perplexed. At the upper end of the apartment, a rostrum had been erected for the youthful senator, overhung by a ca nopy formed of evergreens, surmounted by the Marian eagle, which had descended to Catiline, and was surrounded by the various ensigns which had distinguished the Sergian house. From this elevated station, a herald recounted to the meeting the various services rendered by the ancestors of the distinguished Sergian to the Roman Commonwealth, and concluded his harangue by announcing to them, that Catiline himself was about to address them on a subject of vital interest to themselves, their country, and their posterity.

Catiline now ascended the rostrum, and having thrown over his right shoulder, the ample folds of the prætexta, thus appealed to the assembly:—

"Countrymen and Romans-descendants of the illustrious Brutus-of that Brutus who swore by the immortal Gods, as he saluted the gory poignard yet reeking with the chaste blood of Lucretia, that neither the posterity of Tarquin, nor any other, should ever be kings of Rome, shall we transmit that oath unsullied to futurity, or wantonly abjure it for ever? Shall we become the vassals of a tyrant who usurps the power, but fears to assume the appendages of royalty-shall we submit to the taxes and tributes which are daily demanded of us by the minions of a consul, who has been raised to the dignity of our first magistrate by the frauds of hireling mercenaries, or refuse to submit to the galling imposition? I have long known, oh, countrymen, that Cataline is on the proscription list of the minion, Cicero; he seeks to destroy all opposition, that he may enslave his country more effectually when resistance will be unavailing. Our impoverished population, ground to the dust by the exactions of the consul and his partizans, waits only for the favourable moment-a regular organization and determined leaders, to throw off the yoke and rear the standard of freedom on the heights of the Capitoline; the auspicious moment has arrived-an organization has commenced,-leaders, I see around me, on every side-and I, Catiline, swear by the contents of that cup, smoking with the blood of the sacrifice-by the prostituted pledges of the consul-by the violated liberties of my country, and by the sacred altars of the gods-that the sword which I now unsheath beneath thy ensign, illustrious Marius, shall no more return to its scabbard until Rome is free! Be the blood of the sacrifice the bond of our union," said he, handing round the cup to each of the assembly, "and the seal of eternal silence to our enemies!"

As the horrible contents of the sanguine cup approached the lips of each of the confederates, he repeated the oath which Catiline had taken. The latter then, turning to Titus Manlius, who had just entered the assembly, exclaimed, "Illustrious descendant of Torquatus Manlius, what news bringest thou from the Allobrojes?"

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They are ready to aid us," replied Manlius. "Our messengers were welcomed at Vienne their troops are prepared to join us whenever we feel assured of success."

and immediately sunk in despondency, "perhaps their victim;-but no-if destined to perish, noble youth, the dagger of Catiline shall preserve thee from the axe of the common executioner. Lentulus, I appoint you president of this council; Manlius, repair, on the dawn of morning, to Etruria; henceforward you are commander of the brave army assembled on the plains of Foesula. Let it be your duty, Cethegus, to watch the movements of Cicero and his abject senate. My spies inform me they meet at the Capitol tomorrow; Catiline must be there."

Having once more enjoined the necessity of secrecy, the last of the Sergii bade adieu to the assembly, and burying himself in the deep abstraction to which the scene had given rise, departed for his abode. Unconscious of the objects which surrounded him, he had just entered his dwelling, when a slave informed him that the Lady Marcella had thrice during the night demanded his presence. Aroused from his reverie by this information, the ardent lover and accomplished soldier hastened to the house of his betrothed. Marcella was reclining on a couch, as Catiline entered her apartment. A deep and melancholy hue pervaded her lately expressive features, and as the patrician warrior gazed in silence on the object of his first and still sacred affection, the consuming furnace of ambition died away within him, and he mentally offered the sacrifice of his daring purposes on the altar of Marcella's happiness.

"Dearest Marcella," said he, at length, "why is thy countenance clouded with sorrow? let the presence of Catiline dispel it."

"Trifle not with the feelings thou hast sacrificed," replied Marcella, as she fixed her expressive eye on Catiline. "Three times, this night, have I sent to thy dwelling, but no Catiline was there; in the midst of the fury of the Gods-thunders and lightnings which have shaken the universeomens and auguries which portend the worst of evils-Catiline forsakes the altars of the Gods and the dwelling of Marcella; faithless Catiline-devoted country-miserable and undone Marcella !"

"Calm thy transports," replied Catiline. "Not more lasting is the current of yon stream that laves the Palatine,than is the constancy of Catiline for Marcella, but-but-" "What?" exclaimed Marcella, starting from her couch.

"Wouldst thou require me to break an oath sworn before the Gods?" said Catiline.

"Aye," responded Marcella, "if the oath is such as the Gods cannot hear without convulsing the universe in their anger. Let Catiline appease the wrath of the offended deities, by the abjuration of an oath which has been recorded amid a tumult of nature, that sickens and appals even in recollection,"