CHAPTER XXII.

SIR HENRY MORETON HEARS FROM DAUNCY. BY THE SAME MAIL MRS. MAITLAND AND MISS TANKERVILLE RECEIVE LETTERS FROM DOCTOR

ANA

PEST, THE HONOURABLE MR. PELLET,

IN

AND MR. LESTER.

IN the morning fir Henry Moreton arose, after enjoying a delicious fleep. The ham was on the breakfast-table, the chocolate was boiled, and the tea-urn hiffed, while eggs promifed him a luxurious meal. He took up the newspaper to fee if there was any important intelligence; and, to discover the march of the French, he looked among the marriages.

A letter, which came by the mail from England, was put into his hand. It was from Dauncy, who informed him of the recent death of his uncle, and requested the

1

immediate attendance of the prefent earl of Sunderland in London.

By this mail, Mrs. Maitland and her niece received letters. These she expected would contain an account of the principal tranfactions in England, all written by a fhrewd politician; domeftic news, and remarks upon the conduct of the courts of Europe; but, on the pacquet being opened, one of the letters was found to come from the pen of doctor Anapeft. Mrs. Maitland having taken her fpectacles out of the cafe, rubbed the glaffes, and stirred the fire, feated herself in her eafy chair, and read as follows:

"Anapest Anna, Dorothea Maitland, Emma Maitland, S. D.

"You are at present, I am induced to existimate, at a magnificent city, which was formerly known under the name of Ala Flaviana, Vindomina, Vendum, Caftra Flaviana, Vindobona, and alfo Colonia

Fabiana. The name of Colonia Fabiana was affigned to it on account of a Roman colony which was here, under general Fabianus; and here their Claffis Iftrea; the navy on the Danube lay under the protection of the tenth legion, as you may inform your beautiful and youthful niece.

"Voltu doctior (fubaudito Maitland) « Adeo modesto, adeo venufto, ut nihil fupra," "Et citharæ fciens" "et pulchrior fidere."

"This city, however, Claverius informs us, was one of the chief towns in Pannonia; celebrated for its actions against the Mafcomanni and the Quadi, efpecially for the wars of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Philofophus, who defeated thofe nations, and is faid to have died there.

"I beg leave to call to your minute and deliberate attention, five of those letters, que vocales vocantur, over the gate of the palace, imagined to be placed there by the architect, who we find was no vulgar fellow, fince he was acquainted with that eloquent language in which Tully has

pleaded, and Maro written. The words are registered in my tablets

Auftriæ eft imperari orbi univerfo.

"In the imperial library, and it is with deference I mention them, are monuments valuable, the records of industrious men. I fhall pass over the works of Leibnitz, Mofheim, Zimmerman on chemistry, Albertus Fabricius, Putter, and Gerstenberger; much lefs fhall I dwell upon the dramas of Wieland, Leffing, Schiller, or Kotzebue ; works of the imagination, how inferior to the mellifluous Sophocles, the divine Euripides, or the fimple Æfchylus, the comic Roman poet, or the jocofe but unharmonious Plautus. Nor are the works of Geffner or Klopftock to be mentioned with Ovid's Triftia, or the hiftory of Paterculus. If

you fhould fee the works of Cellarius, you will remember to give me fome account of the edition. The names of Ernefti and Heyne I have feen to fome editions of the Greek and Latin claffics;

thefe you may look over, madam. Winckleman has written well on antiquity; but as a geographer, is it to be thought, madam, that Bufching can vie with Pomponius Mela? Some innovators may fay we have discovered new iflands, unknown countries, a new world; but let me keep poffeffion of the old, Let me view in Cellarius that fea which was covered with the contending fleets of Greece and Perfia; Tenedos, where the Greeks anchored before Troy; though Mr. Bryant would rob us of thofe valuable lands fituated in Afia Minor. Let me call your attention, madam, while we pass by other trifes, fuch as the writings of French authors and thofe of other nations, to a Greek MS. of Diofcorides, fince which was written, more than eleven hundred years have elapfed, and a MS. of Livy, which you will be undoubtedly fhewn, above a thoufand years old-monumentum are perennius. Could you, unperceived, contrive to tear a leaf out from either or both of these, ma

I