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ANECDOTE OF A LADY AND HER PHYSICIAN. 283

prised by sickness, even unto death, she became so deaf to such as admonished her of her end, as when her physician was to minister a receipt unto her, which he had prepared to allay the extremity of that agonizing fit wherewith she was then assailed, putting aside the receipt with her hand, as she rejected it, in the very height and heat of her distemper, with an active resolution, used these words unto her doctor,—“Thanks, good Horatio, take it for thy pains * › »

It was amusing, after the play, to hear the encomiums bestowed upon each of the actors, as they rejoined their friends, with all their newly-acquired laurels flourishing gracefully upon them. "Your performance was 'excellent, admirable, inimitable," and so forth. Then the modest suffusion of countenance which accompanied each announcement; the pride of conscious excellence, uniting with a

*"The English Gentlewoman drawn out to the full body; expressing what habiliments do best attire her, what ornaments do best adorn her, what complements do best accomplish her." By Richard Braithwaite, Esq. London, 1641. p. 299.

284

MALTA-CONVERSAZIONE

beautiful reluctance to receive the homage that was rendered. My friends must pardon me for indulging in a smile, but I fancied that this was the better part of their acting, “admirable” as that was which preceded. So true is that which Young, if I quote correctly, has embodied in the following lines:

"The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art,
Glows more or less, and reigns in every heart.
The proud to gain it, toils on toils endure,
The modest shun it, but to make it sure.
It aids the dancer's skill-the writer's head,
And heaps the plain with mountains of the dead:
Nor ends it here; it nods with sable plumes,
Shines on our hearse, and glitters on our tombs."

Thursday, 6th April.—The conversazione of the Marchioness of Hastings, last night, gave a new character to the ancient residence of the Grand Masters, They seemed to look out from their pictures with surprise upon what was going on; and to think, in spite of the many changes which the island had witnessed, that this was the most outré of all! Peradventure, they were right; but it was, nevertheless, an imposing scene. Monks of the

OF THE MARCHIONESS OF HASTINGS.

285

Order of St. Dominic were moving about in the peculiar dresses of their caste; and almost brought to life again departed ages. The scarlet uniforms of the military, the "waving plumes," the fair smiling faces which converted the apartments of the palace" into a firmament glistered with breathing stars,” were all of them objects upon which a sage might have looked with satisfaction, though it were tinctured with regret: for he might have asked why they were assembled—to what profitable end? Were they better, or were they happier? In all probability, he would have thought not! And he might have lifted up the veil of futurity, and beheld all these animated and animating objects mingled with the dust; loathsome relics of mortality-things that the heart sickens to contemplate. But for all that, one who is not a sage,-one who takes matters just as he finds them, would have been pleased with the scene before him. A philanthropist would have hoped that they were the happier, and a philanthropic moralist, that they were the better. An enthusiast would have believed it at once; and the satiated man of the world, whilst he constrained his features to return the

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smile which saluted them, would pronounce à bitter curse upon the heartlessness of refined society, and the mockery of worldly pleasure! How far any, or all of these, are constituent parts of the man of wisdom; let those answer who will.

CHAPTER IX.

FRIDAY, 8th April.-I mentioned, a few days ago, the trial of certain Greeks, for piracy and murder. The whole statement of this extraordinary case has been published by authority in the Government Gazette. It is, on a variety of accounts, so extremely interesting, it will serve to illustrate, in so many ways, the character of certain portions of Grecian warfare, and solve so many problematical circumstances which may hereafter appear in this Journal, that I transcribe it without scruple, taking the liberty at the same time to correct some grammatical inaccuracies, and involutions of phrase.

"It will be recollected that Salvatore Fernandez, (who was considered as the original planner of the piracy committed on board the Maltese brig La Speranza, of which five of his companions have been found guilty, after a

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