rest of his days a painter of animals, or rather of two species of animals-bears and cats. But the latter were more peculiarly his favourite studies. He painted them in water-colours, in every possible attitude, either alone or in groups, with a truth and nature that have, perhaps, never been surpassed.

His masterly sketches might have been justly termed "striking portraits of cats." He caught and depicted every evanescent shade and expression of their demure and wily physiognomyhe pourtrayed, with inexhaustible variety, the graceful attitudes and fantastic tricks of the kittens gamboling with the mother cat-be represented, with the most eye-beguiling fidelity, the glossy fur of their coats; in a word, the cats painted by Mind appeared to frisk about, and purr upon the paper. An able French painter, who never passed through Switzerland without purchasing some of Mind's paintings, called him the Raphael of Cats. Most of the sovereigns and persons of distinction who travelled into Switzerland were anxious to secure specimens of Mind's cats' portraits; and they occupy at present a distinguished place in the portfolios of the amateurs of painting. Indeed, it is said, that they have preserved more than one valuable collection from the Vandal teeth of rats and mice. If this circumstance were well authenticated, it would merit being placed alongside the anecdote told of the celebrated Grecian painter Zeuxis, whose fruit-piece tempted the birds to peck at it. It would have been extraordinary if Mind had not succeeded in this branch of the art, for the animals he undertook to represent were the objects of his tenderest affection, and his constant and only companions. While at work, his favourite cat was almost continually by his side; he seemed even to carry on a conversation with her. Sometimes she lay upon his knees, while two or three kittens were perched upon his shoulders; and in this position he has been known to remain for several hours immovable as a statue, fearing, by the slightest motion, to disturb the repose of his friends. He had by no means the same com

plaisance for the mere mortals who came to see him; on the contrary, he received him with very undisguised ill humour. Besides, the sombre expres. sion of his countenance was quite repulsive, so that it very rarely happened that any one was tempted to repeat his visit. Indeed, Nature, for the most part, had been such a niggard to him of personal and mental attractions, that it was this peculiar talent alone that threw any interest around him.

The most severe affliction that Mind probably ever experienced, was caused by the general massacre of the cats, in consequence of an order in 1809 from the police of Bern, a madness having manifested itself amongst these animals. The mothers felt not more an guish at the cruel order of Herod for the murder of the first-born of Judah, than did Mind upon this latter occasion. He succeeded, however, in saving his dear Minette from the bloody proscrip tion; but his sorrow for the untimely death of eight hundred cats immolated upon the altar of public safety, was overwhelming; and, like Rachel weeping for her children, he was not to be comforted.

The second attachment which shared, though in a minor degree, the empire of his affections with the cats, was for the bears. His favourite walk was around the inclosure in which the magistrates of Bern keep some of those animals, who, as every one knows, figure in the arms of the republic. Mind was so well known to them (not to the magis trates, but the bears,) that the moment he appeared, they hastened to meet him with open mouths, certain of receiving from his hands the accustomed bread and fruit.

In the winter evenings, when Mind could neither paint nor pay his usual visits to the bears, he still continued to occupy himself with his favourite animals, by carving chesnuts into the forms of bears and cats: and these pretty trifles, executed with astonishing skill and accuracy, were eagerly sought after throughout Switzerland.

Thus passed forty years of his life, during which he had scarcely any com munion with his fellow men, except

been a captive for eight and twenty years. His son, Prince William, Earl of Flanders, after many ineffectual endeavours to establish his right to the English Crown during the reign of Henry I. died of a wound received at the siege of Alost. His natural brother, Richard, was killed by a stag whilst hunting in the New Forest, and what is very remarkable, Richard, the second son of the Conqueror, was killed in a similar manner at the same place. Which two accidental deaths occurring about the same time as the fatal event which befel William Rufus, caused it to be remarked by the English nation, that as the Conqueror had been guilty of extreme violence in expelling so many of his subjects to make room for the New Forest, the just vengeance of heaven was signalized in the same place by the slaughter of his posterity. Prince William, the only legitimate son of Henry I was drowned off the Reculvers, on his return from Normandy; and the Countess of Perche, and Richard, two of Henry's natural children, perished in the same shipwreck. Another natural son, Robert Earl of Gloucester, after bravely supporting the Empress Matilda's pretensions to the English Throne, died suddenly of a fever in 1147. Eustace, eldest son of Stephen, was cut off by a fever brought on by the agitation of his mind, from his fears of being excluded from the succession. His brother William, Earl of Boulogne and Surrey, died at an early age on his return from an expedition to Toulouse with Henry II. Prince Henry, eldest son of that monarch, died of a dysentery at Martel near Turenne. His second son Richard, King of England, was slain by an arrow at the siege of Chalus; and Geoffrey, his third son, was slain in a tournament at Paris. Arthur, Duke of Brittany, Geoffrey's son, was cruelly murdered by his uncle John, in order to prevent his succession to the throne; and his sister Eleanor was immured in a dungeon for life, also by order of that perfidious monarch. Richard, King of the Romans, brother of Henry III. died suddenly before the departure of his nephew Edward to the Holy Land; and his son Henry, who accompanied that Prince, was assassi

nated in his way to Palestine by Simon and Guy, sons of the rebellious Montfort, Earl of Leicester. In the reign of Edward II. the Earl of Lancaster, his cousin-german, was executed for high treason; and the Duke of Gloucester, the King's nephew, was killed in the battle of Bannockburn. The Earl of Kent, half-brother of Edward II. was beheaded through the intrigues of Mortimer and Isabella, in the beginning of the reign of Edward III. Of the five sons of this monarch, Edward Prince of Wales, called the Black Prince, from the colour of his armour, died of a consumption in 1375; Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, died in Italy in 1368, soon after his second marriage; John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in 1399; Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, in 1401; and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, was suffocated with pillows, by order of Richard II. in 1397. In that King's reign, Roger Earl of March, grandson of Lionel Duke of Clarence, by his daughter Philippa, who had been Viceroy of Ireland, was also slain during a revolt in an engage ment with the insurgents. The Dukes of Surrey and Exeter, half-brothers of Richard II. were executed for high trea son by Henry IV. In the reign of Henry V. the Earl of Cambridge, second son of Edmund of Langley, beheaded for conspiring to place the young Earl of March on the throne; and his elder brother Edward, Duke of York, fell by the hand of the Duke d'Alençon in the battle of Agincourt. Thomas, Duke of Clarence, next broth er of Henry V. was slain in an engage ment with the allied troops of France and Scotland, at Bauge in Anjou. John Duke of Bedford, his third brother, who was appointed Regent of France during the minority of Henry VI. died suddenly of a fever at Rouen, and his youngest brother, the Duke of Glouces ter, commonly called the good Duke Humphrey, fell a victim to the intrigues of his uncle Cardinal Beaufort. (Vide the Spectator, No. 210.) During the wars of the Roses the kingdom was deluged with blood, the partizans of the two contending houses being alternately. consigned to the scaffold by each victorious party. In the reign of Henry VI

was

Richard Duke of York asserting his claim to the crown, in preference to that monarch, who was of the House of Lancaster, was slain at the battle of Wakefield; and his son the Earl of Rutland afterwards murdered by Lord Clifford in cold blood. Edward Prince of Wales, Henry's only son, was assassinated, after the battle of Tewkesbury, by the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester. The same Duke of Clarence was drowned in a butt of malmsey for treason against his brother Edward IV.; and the young Earl of Warwick his son, after fifteen years, confinement in the Tower, was beheaded by order of Henry VII. for attempting his escape. Thus fell the last male of the royal house of Plantagenet. His only sister Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, was cruelly beheaded, with her son Lord Montacute, in the reign of Henry VIII. Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, who was related to the King, also suffered at the same time. Margaret's fourth son, Reginald Pole, the celebrated Cardinal, who so strongly opposed the ecclesiastical measures of that fickle monarch, died a few hours after Queen Mary, by whom he was held in high estimation. John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, nephew of Edward IV. by his sister Élizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk, was slain in the battle of Stoke, unsuccessfully attempting to dethrone Henry VII.-his second brother Edmund Earl of Suffolk, after a long imprisonment by order of that King, was beheaded in the reign of Henry VIII.-And Sir Richard de la Pole, his youngest brother, who had entered into the service of Lewis XII. France, and whose sur

Of his

Many relations of Henry VII. perished in the fatal contention between the Houses of York and Lancaster. Sir Owen Tudor, his paternal grandfather, was beheaded by Edward IV. after the battle of Mortimer's-Cross. maternal ancestors the Dukes of Somerset, Edmund, the second Duke and grandson of John of Gaunt, was slain in the first battle of St. Albans. His two sons Henry and Edmund, who successively inherited the title, were also both beheaded by Edward IV. the first suffering the punishment of martial law after the battle of Hexham, and the second after the battle of Tewkesbury. Arthur Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII. died at Ludlow in the 16th year of his age, soon after his marriage with the Infanta Catherine of Spain.

Several princes of the blood-royal fell victims to the insatiable ambition and bloody policy of Richard III. After the battle of Tewkesbury, as we have before mentioned, he murdered with his own hand Edward Prince of Wales, only son of Henry VI.; and he is said to have assassinated that unfortunate monarch himself shortly afterwards in prison. He also treacherously caused to be beheaded in Pontefract Castle the Earl of Rivers, brother to Elizabeth, Queen of Edward IV. and her son Sir Richard Grey. While

Protector, he occasioned the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Hastings to be brought to the block; and to the number of his victims he soon added Ed.ward V. and his infant brother Richard Duke of York. The lady Anne Neville, second daughter of the famous Earl of Warwick, and widow of Henry's son, having been prevailed upon by the tyrant to espouse him, he cruelly caused her to be taken off by poison, in order that she might not impede his ambitious design of marrying his niece the Princess Royal. Edward Prince of Wales, the only son of this perfidious usurper, died at an early age at Middleham, in Yorkshire.

The reign of Henry VIII. was also marked by many severe and arbitrary executions, of which some instances have already been mentioned. Two of his Queens, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, were brought to the block, -the unfortunate victims of his caprice and jealousy. Lord Rochford, the brother of Anne Boleyn, was beheaded through the arts of his wife the infamous Lady Rochford; and she soon afterwards met with the punishment due to her crimes, for countenancing the gallantries of Catherine Howard. Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, son of that nobleman who lost his life under Richard III. was beheaded for High Treason. His grandson, the brave and accomplished Earl of Surrey, was executed on an unfounded charge of the same nature and the Duke of Norfolk would soon have followed his son's fate, had not Henry's death fortunately intervened. Lord Surrey's son, who succeeded to the Ducal title on the

death of his grandfather, was beheaded in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, for attempting to form a matrimonial alliance with Mary Queen of Scots.

In the reign of Edward VI.* the ambitious and turbulent Lord High Admiral Seymour was executed,for conspiring to remove his brother the Duke of Somerset from the dignity of Protector. Som erset soon after fell through the machinations of Dudley Duke of Northumber land; and Northumberland himself be ing taken some years after in open rebellion against Mary, experienced a similar fate. Lady Jane Grey, grand-daughter of the Duchess of Suffolk,+ (youngest sister of Henry VIII.) was, together with her husband, Lord Guilford Dudley, beheaded by order of the implacable Queen Mary. The Duke of Suf folk, her father, and his brother Lord Thomas Grey, were executed at the same time for being concerned in Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion. Her uncle Lord Leonard Grey had been beheaded some years before by Henry VIII. In the reign of Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringay Castle,-a sacrifice to the jealousy and duplicity of her more powerful rival. Her grandson Henry Prince of Wales, (eldest son of James I.) died at the early age of seventeen of a fever, or, as some say, by poison. Henry Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Charles I. died of the small pox in the year of the Restoration, before he had attained the age of manhood. His eldest sister Mary, Princess of Orange, (mother of William III.) soon after fell a victim to the same disease; and his second sister Elizabeth did not long survive them, her

of Elizabeth.