lost for fully satiating his vengeance, threatening at the same time, with horrid imprecations, to make Jerusalem the burying place of the whole Jewish nation, and not to leave one single inhabitant within its confines. But the Almighty, against whose providence he was raging, interposed, and stopped him in his wild career. "He was seized," says Rollin, "with incredible pains in his bowels, and the most excessive pangs of the colic." Still, his pride and fury were not abated: he suffered himself to be hurried away by the wild transport of his rage, and breathing nothing but vengeance against the land of Judea and its inhabitants, he gave orders to proceed with still greater celerity in his journey. But as his horses were running forward impe tuously, he fell from his chariot, and bruised every part of his body in so dreadful a manner, that he suffered inexpressible torments; and soon after finished an impious life by a miserable death.

The Turks, in their wars with neighbouring states, both in former and present times, have been proverbial for the malevolence they have displayed, and the cruelties they have exercised towards their enemies. The following is only one instance out of a thousand which might be pro duced, of the desperate length to which human beings will proceed in treachery and in the infliction of torment, when under the influence of a principle of malignity.

In the war with Turkey and the states of Venice, about the year 1571, the Venetians were besieged by the Turks in the city of Famagosta in the island of Cyprus. Through famine and want of ammunition, the Venetian garrison was compelled to enter upon terms of capitulation. A treaty was accordingly set on foot, and hostages exchanged. The folowing terms were agreed to by both parties :-That the officers and soldiers should march out with all the honours of war, drums beating, colours flying, five pieces of cannon, all their baggage, and be conveyed in safety to Candia, under an escort of three Turkish gallies; and that the inhabitants should remain in the free use of their religion, untouched in their property, and in full possession of their freedom. Next day Bragadino, the Venetian commander went to pay his compliments to Mustapha, the Turkish general, attended by some of his chief officers. At first

they met with a civil reception, Mustapha ordering a seat to be placed for Bragadino on his own right hand. They soon entered into discourse about the prisoners, and Mus. tapha taxing Bragadino with some violences committed by the garrison during the suspension granted for settling a capitulation, Bragadino, with a generous disdain, denied the charge. Upon which Mustapha, rising up in a fury, ordered him to be bound hand and foot, and the others to be mas sacred before his face, without regard to hospitality, their bravery, the treaty subsisting, or their being unarmed.

Bragadino was reserved for a more cruel treatment : after being insulted with the most vilifying and opprobrious language; after undergoing the most excruciating tortures; after having his ears, nose, and lips slit, his neck was stretched upon a block, and trampled upon by the dastardly Mustapha, who asked him, where was now that Christ whom he worshipped, and why he did not deliver him out of his hands? At the same time the soldiers on board the fleet were despoiled of every thing, and lashed to the oars. This day's work being finished, Mustapha entered the city, where he gave immediate orders, that Tiepolo, a person of high rank and authority, should be hanged upon a gibbet. A few days after, before Bragadino had recovered from the wounds he had received, he was carried in derision to all the breaches made in the walls, loaded with buckets filled with earth and mortar, and ordered to kiss the ground as often as he passed by Mustapha; a spectacle that raised pangs of pity in the callous hearts of the meanest Turkish soldiers, but could not move compassion in the obdurate breast of Mustapha. Afterwards, the brave Bragadino was cooped up in a cage, and ignominiously hung to a sail-yard in one of the gallies, where his intrepid soldiers were chain. ed to the oars. This sight rendered them almost furious: they exclaimed against the baseness, the treachery of Mustapha; they called aloud for revenge, and desired to be set at liberty that they might, even without arms, rescue their brave general, and inflict the deserved punishment upon their mean, dastardly, and cowardly foes. Their request was answered with cruel lashes: Bragadino was taken down, conducted to the market-place, amidst the din of trumpets, drums, and other warlike instruments, where

he was flayed alive, and a period put to his glorious life. His skin was hung, by way of trophy, to the sail-yard of a galley sent round all the coasts to insult the Venetians. His head, with those of Andrea Bragadino, his brother, Lodovico Martinenga, and the brave Quirino, were sent as presents to Selim the Turkish emperor.*

Could an infernal fiend have devised more excruciating tortures, or have acted with greater baseness and malignity than this treacherous and cruel monster? What a horrible thing would it be to be subjected to the caprice, and under the control of such a proud and vindictive spirit every day, only for a year, much more for hundreds and thousands of years! A group of such spirits giving vent to their male. volent passions without control, are sufficient to produce a degree of misery among surrounding intelligences, surpas. sing every thing that the human mind, in the present state, can possibly conceive.

When the Norman barons and chevaliers, under William the Conqueror, had obtained possession of England, they displayed the most cruel and malignant dispositions towards the native inhabitants. They afflicted and harassed them in every shape, forcing them to work at the building of their castles; and when the castles were finished, they placed on them a garrison of wicked and diabolical men. They seized all whom they thought to possess any thing--men and women-by day and night: they carried them off; imprisoned them; and, to obtain from them gold or silver, inflicted on them tortures such as no martyrs ever underwent. Some they suspended by their feet, with their heads hanging in smoke; others were hung by the thumb, with fire under their feet. They pressed the heads of some by a leathern thong, so as to break the bones, and crush the brain; others were thrown into ditches full of snakes, toads, and other reptiles; others were put in the chambre a crucit. This was the name given in the Norman tongue to a sort of chest, short, strait, and shallow, lined with sharp stones into which the sufferer was crammed to the dislocation of his limbs.--In most of the castles was a hor

* See "Modern Universal History," vol. 27. pp. 405, 406.

rible and frightful engine used for putting to the torture. This was a bundle of chains so heavy that two or three men could hardly lift them. The unfortunate person upon whom they were laid, was kept on his feet by an iron collar fixed in a post, and could neither sit, nor lie, nor sleep. They made many thousands die of hunger. They laid tribute upon tribute on the towns and villages. When the townspeople had no longer any thing to give, they plundered and burned the town. You might have travelled a whole day without finding one soul in the towns, or in the country one cultivated field. The poor died of hunger, and they who had formerly possessed something, now begged their bread from door to door. Never were more griefs and woes poured upon any land;-nay the Pagans in their invasions caused fewer than the men of whom I now speak. They spared neither the church-yards, nor the churches; they took all that could be taken and then set fire to the church. To till the ground had been as vaiu as to till the sand on the sea shore.*

What scenes of wretchedness do such proud and malignant demons produce even in the present world! Can such spirits be supposed qualified for joining the general assembly and church of the first born, and for taking a part in the beneficent operations of heaven? If they exist at all in a future world, they must exist in misery; and so long as such diabolical passions continue to rage, they must produce "lamentation and woe" among all the associates with which they are surrounded.-Even within the confines of mortality, the man who is under the despotic sway of pride, ambition, and similar malevolent passions, imbitters every enjoyment he might otherwise possess, produces pain in the minds of others, and experiences in his own soul pangs similar in kind to those which are felt in the place of punishment. I shall illustrate this position by the spirit and temper displayed by two illustrious individuals who have lately departed to the invisible state ;-the one renowned in the political, the other in the literary world.

The first character to which I allude is that of Napoleon

*

Thierry's "History of the Norman Conquest," 3 vols. 1825.

Buonaparte. This extraordinary man, who, for nearly twenty years, dazzled the whole Eastern hemisphere, like a blazing meteor, appears to have been actuated by the most extravagant and restless ambition. Though he exer cised many cruelties in the midst of his career, as at Jaffa and other places, yet delight in deeds of atrocity formed no part of his ruling passion, and were only occasionally resorted to, in order to accomplish his ambitious projects. The agitated state of mind into which he was thrown by his love of conquest, and the daring enterprises in which he embarked, is strikingly depicted by M. Segur, in his "History of Napoleon's Expedition to Russia." When at Vitepsk, on his way to Moscow, M. Segur says "He at first hardly appeared bold enough to confess to himself a project of such great temerity-[the marching against Moscow]. But, by degrees he assumed courage to look it in the face. He then began to deliberate, and the state of great irresolution which tormented his mind, affected his whole frame. He was observed to wander about his apartments, as if pursued by some dangerous temptation: nothing could rivet his attention; he every moment began, quitted, and resumed his labour; he walked about without any object; inquired the hour, and looked at his watch ;completely absorbed, he stopped, hummed a tune with an absent air, and again began walking about. In the midst of his perplexity, he occasionally addressed the persons whom he met with such half sentences as, Well-What shall we do!-Shall we stay where we are, or advance?— How is it possible to stop short in the midst of so glorious a career!' He did not wait for their reply, but still kept wandering about, as if he was looking for something, or somebody, to terminate his indecision.-At length, quite overwhelmed with the weight of such an important consideration, and oppressed with so great an uncertainty, he would throw himself on one of the beds which he had caused to be laid on the floor of his apartments. His frame, exhausted by the heat and the struggles of his mind, could only bear a covering of the slightest texture. It was in that state that he passed a portion of his day at Vitepsk.

The same restless agitations seemed to have accompanied him at every step in this daring expedition. "At