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distinguished himself, receiving, however, a dangerous wound in the breast. The Servians fought for whole days during the remainder of the summer-sometimes in the open field, sometimes at the intrenchments which the Turks had thrown up, without any decisive result.

But towards autumn the Turks went back over the Drina. The remainder were driven out of the district of Belgrade, and the Rayhas, free and armed, were in possession of the country and of the fortresses. Thus it was that what is justly designated, in Servian song and chronicles, as the "War of Liberation of 1806 and 1807," came to conclusion, and the state of subjection, in which the Servians had been held for centuries, was for a time effectually destroyed.

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THE LEAGUER OF LATHOM.*

""Twas when they raised, 'mid sap and siege,
The banners of their rightful liege,

At their she-captain's call ;
Who, miracle of womankind!
Lent mettle to the meanest hind
That mann'd her castle wall.

THESE simple yet eloquent lines, quoted by Mr. William Harrison Ainsworth, give the key-note to his new story. That "miracle of womankind,"-Charlotte de la Trémoille, Countess of Derby, is the heroine; but although her name is more popular than that of her husband, from her gallant defence of Lathom House, the Earl of Derby is the real hero, and his feats at Manchester, Lancaster, and Preston, and, above all, his entire devotion to an ungrateful monarch, ending in a tragic fate, more then entitle him to the distinction which is conferred upon him by the author.

Manchester, at the time of the succession of Lord Strange to the Earldom of Derby, was held by the Parliamentarians, and it had been put in an efficient state of defence by a skilful German engineer-one Colonel Rosworm, who had served under Wallenstein during the Thrity Years' War. As Lord Strange, the earl had assembled a force of over sixty thousand efficient men on the moors of Lancashire, in the cause of King Charles; but that monarch misled by perfidious counsellors to believe that the Stanleys had pretensions to the crown, forbade the lord to take the command of the force, and these potent auxiliaries were thus lost to the King. When that monarch, alarmed at the rapid progress the rebellion was making in Lancashire, was reduced once more to claim the aid of Lord Strange-now Earl of Derby-that aid was willingly tendered; but it was no longer possible to raise the same amount of men-many had even gone over to the rebels. The King's desire was that Lord Derby should, with the aid of the local nobility and gentry, send such forces as they could assemble, crush the rebellion throughout the country, and to do this begin with Manchester.

No time was accordingly lost in laying siege to the city; and as Salford had remained faithful to the King, the opposing forces

"The Leaguer of Lathom, a Tale of the Civil War in Lancashire." By William Harrison Ainsworth. 3 vols. Tinsley Brothers.

soon found themselves in very close proximity. A view of old Manchester, at this epoch, with its preparations for defence, taken from the tower of the Collegiate Church, is one of those masterpieces of description in which the author excels, and one which, from his intimacy with localities and past history, no other writer could equal. Before entering upon the siege, an attempt was made to win over the German engineer to the royal cause, and a gallant young cavalier-Frank Standish-was employed upon the delicate mission. But, although a soldier of fortune, Colonel Rosworm was firm in his allegiance, and he indignantly repelled the overtures made to him. Not so his daughter Gertrude, a fair German girl with profuse flaxen locks, summer-blue eyes, a delicately-fair complexion, and graceful figure; her instincts were in favour of the monarchy, and these received a new impulse in the acquaintance thus brought about with the handsome young Cavalier, with his long brown locks falling upon his shoulders, a great contrast to the closely-cropped, sour-looking Puritans, with whom she was daily brought in contact. The intimacy thus brought about was ripened by Captain Standish being wounded at an assault on the barrier in Deansgate, and removed to Colonel Rosworm's house, where he was tended by the lovely Gertrude.

She

This youthful maiden was not only fair, she was a personlike others whose characters were developed by the peculiar circumstances of the times--who had actually martial instincts; and so far did these carry her, that she assumed male attire in order to accompany a nocturnal sortie, resolved upon by the rebels, to burn down Alport Lodge, at that time the head-quarters of the Royalists. Gertrude, made prisoner by Frank Standish in this untoward affair, was induced by the Earl of Derby to plead with her father that he would aid in the defence of Lathom House. did so with earnestness, but to no avail; and so far were the young maiden's sympathies with the cause won over, that she consented to separate herself from her father, and attend upon the Countess at Lathom House. This episode in a most eventful history has a melancholy ending-like the story itself. The Cavaliers appear in some instances to have been more firm in their allegiance to royalty than they were to their loves; and Frank Standish becomes desperately enamoured of a Spanish maiden, with magnificent black eyes, who had been stranded, with her father, in a large Spanish man-of-war, bringing arms and ammunition for the King's party, in the estuary of the Wyre. Poor Gertrude is no longer thought of, until, after many acts of devotion and courage, she is shot by a puritanical fanatic, known as Asaph the Avenger, and on her death-bed pardons her faithless lover.

It is not for us to anticipate the striking incidents and strange

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events which attended upon the great civil war in Lancashire. The Earl of Derby, baffled at Manchester, the siege of which city was raised by command of the King, obtained possession of another of the strongholds of Puritanism-Preston-after storming Lancaster; and the royal cause was, with a few drawbacks, prospering in the county, when once more the weak monarch was induced by the Earl's enemies to take from him his command, and to summon his friends and followers to Oxford. The bearer of this unwelcome order was no less a person than the redoutable Lord Goring-there was no eluding it-although the earl pleaded earnestly to be allowed to make one more assault on the stubborn Parliamentarians of Manchester; and nothing was left for the noble leader of the Lancashire Royalists than to retire to Castle Rushen in the Isle of Man-leaving to his brave wife the defence of Lathom House.

The true interest of the work lies with this well-known and most remarkable siege. Never, however, has it been before so fully related in all its striking incidents, as they occurred day by day,-acts of heroism which fully deserved being rescued from oblivion by such an elaborate and careful record. We have read some strangely-coloured stories of devices used to annoy and terrify the besiegers, when a scarcity of powder diminished the means of defence, and no longer allowed of the frequent and daring sallies which constituted so remarkable a feature in the defence of Lathom House; but our careful and experienced author reduces them to the flinging of balls of clay, furnished with a lighted match, such as were used at that epoch by the musketeers; and the besiegers, thinking that an assailing party was at hand, fired in the direction of the lights, to the great delight and amusement of the spectators on the ramparts.

The gallant Prince Rupert came at last to the relief of the besieged mansion-the Parliamentarians were defeated at Stockport Bridge-Bolton was taken by assault-Lathom House was set free; a banquet was given in the great hall, and a marriage took place in the chapel. The faithless Standish did not, however, live long to enjoy the company of his Spanish beauty; he fell shortly afterwards at the siege of Liverpool, and finally the King having been beheaded, the youthful Charles had once more been aided by the brave and loyal Earl of Derby to recover his father's throne, when a sad conclusion is brought about to this most eventful history, by a picture of which it is justly said: "it will retain its melancholy attraction as long as any reverence shall remain for what is noble and heroic or any pity for tenderness and constancy in the saddest reverses of fortune-in fact, as long as there are hearts that can feel and eyes that can weep."

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THE RISE OF MAXIMIN,

EMPEROR OF THE OCCIDENT,

Compiled by Lucius, Keeper of the Imperial Archives at Iscapolis.

TRANSLATED AND EDITED

BY RICHARD JEFFERIES.

CHAPTER II.-Continued.

MAX now sent his agents, one or two together, about among the mountaineers, the hardy, independent dwellers near and upon the Blue Mountains, who entered their small circular camps, carrying the "Rah" in hand, and read from it, and addressed them. These men had never been subjected either by Saudover, Brucester, or any of the petty kingdoms which lined its coast. They had no king, but a number of chiefs, who, however, had little authority: and their hands had been for generations against the dwellers upon the coast. But even taking into consideration all the circumstances, it is impossible to explain the enthusiasm which seized upon them when the enterprise of Maximin, and the principles of his works, were expounded to them. They flocked to the Sacred Stone in hundreds, and laid themselves at his feet, begging him to lead them against their enemies, and he received deputations from the camps for two days' march along the Blue Mountain range, requesting him to be their regulus. At first, Maximin, urged on strongly by his new friends, was inclined to head a general descent into the coasts with these men; but before he decided, he, as was his wont, went out alone to commune with the wilderness. Alone upon the great Plantain, with the sun and the sky, he thought over the proposed expedition. He reckoned up, one by one, the reasons for and against. He saw that the mountaineers were hardy and brave; but he also saw that they were illarmed, having nothing but spears and darts, and they had no organisation whatever. The dwellers upon the coast were, it is true, badly disciplined; but they possessed firearms and cannon and could retire, if pressed, behind stone walls. If they did that, the mountaineers, as soon as they had exhausted the supplies of the country, must return to the bills, and then, the cities uniting, would pursue them, and attacking one camp after another, cause a great slaughter. It would be cruelty to expose his friends to such destruction. He could not arm them better, for there was no

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