In the meantime a still further calamity befel Mrs. Hamilton, already terribly broken down by the news of the fate of her husband. The same evening that the fort was invested Palit disappeared, and the two children committed to his charge were missing.

The next day the grief-stricken mother was told that they were dead. They did not tell her that Palit had shown their fair heads, stuck on pikes, to the garrison, from a safe place outside the walls. If this fearful act was intended to terrify the garrison, it signally failed in its object. The men became, if possible, more determined than ever to fight to the last; but long before their provisions failed, relief came. In the darkness of a moonless night a faithful native slipped out of the fort, eluded the besiegers, and carried tidings of the station's danger to a small army composed of Europeans and loyal natives, which had been sent to crush the mutiny in that part. The besieging force soon found itself surrounded, and was, after a desperate struggle, cut to pieces. Palit was one of the few prisoners taken. He was conducted, heavily ironed, to the presence of Mrs. Hamilton and her sister. Here he con

fessed his guilt, and gloried in his crime. For such a man mercy was not to be thought of. The day after his capture he was tried by court martial, found guilty, and blown to pieces from the cannon's mouth.

The months passed on, the mutiny was suppressed, and poor bereaved Mrs. Hamilton prepared to return to her own country, when she was startled by a strange rumour, that awakened a wild hope in her breast. Hamilton, it was reported, though left for dead by the mutineers, had only been severely wounded. He had recovered, and was now held in bondage by a tribe of hillmen. Mr. Hamilton's brother, himself an officer in the army, obtained leave to go with a small party and find what truth there was in the rumour. His search we need not describe; suffice it to say that he was successful. He had the pleasure of grasping by the hand Hamilton, believed to be dead, and in reality living with the natives, and obliged to conform to their ways, and of restoring him to his wife's arms. Such is one of the thousands of tales of individual suffering that could be told of in connection with the history of the famous Indian Mutiny.

THE

IRCASSIA is now only a geographical expression, for as a nation it no longer exists. The name is commonly given "to the

whole of the north-west portion of the Caucasus, including the district between the mountain range and the Black Sea, and extending to the north of the central ridge as far as the river Kuban." The country is very hilly; there is no great plain in its whole extent, though there are many green and fertile valleys.

The inhabitants of this wild region attracted a great amount of attention throughout Europe, on account of the brave, though finally unsuccessful, fight which they carried on against the power of Russia.

The Circassians were adherents of the creed of Islam, were in close alliance with the Turks. They proved valuable allies to this latter people in the many wars they had with Russia. In 1829 the fortunes of the struggle had gone against Constantinople. The Turks were obliged to purchase peace by the surrender of a large portion of their territory to their foes. Amongst other provisions, they ceded Circassia to their enemies, although they had no right to that country whatever. This shameless article gave the Russians a pretext for turning the whole force of their arms against this brave and unfortunate people. From 1829 to 1859 the contest raged. "The Russians," says E. H. Bunbury in the Encyclopædia Britannica, "had to encounter immense difficulties, to traverse dangerous passes, to burn down forests and to sacrifice an immense number of

lives in order to gain small portions of territory. The war was for a long time chiefly maintained by the Circassians under their native chiefs; and no sooner did their exertions relax in consequence of the exhaustion caused by a long-continued contest, than a new enemy to Russia arose on the shores of the Caspian. Schamyl, the most devoted follower of the heroic Kasi Mullah, placed himself, on the death of that chief, at the head of the Lesghians. At once the prophet and the warrior of his race, by his enthusiasm and bravery he soon gained the confidence of the tribes, and prevailed upon them to follow a united and determined plan of action under his authority. His influence was daily increased, not only by the victories which he gained, but by the successful manner in which he frequently delivered himself and his followers from the most imminent dangers. His own escape from the rocky fortress of Achulko, where he was completely invested by the forces of General Grabbe, appeared, both to his own countrymen and the enemy, almost miraculous. The great exertions which were made by the Russians in the following years to reduce the tribes yet unsubdued, and those which had risen against their authority, were completely defeated by his indefatigable activity and bravery. In the year 1842, when the mountain tribes were filled with the greatest alarm in consequence of the advance of General Grabbe, that formidable enemy was completely defeated by Schamyl in the woods of Itchkeri. The Circassians, after again renewing their attacks upon the Russians in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea, were ultimately driven back to their fortresses; but Schamyl

succession to the Caucasus," and indeed all means were tried, yet none were successful in effectually conquering these brave mountaineers.

During the Crimean war the Circassians were allowed a short breathing space; but at its close the vast multitudes who in daily conflict with the British

and French had become trained soldiers, were poured into these terrible mountain passes. After a "final agony" of conflict the Circassian tribes were one by one subdued. Schamyl was made prisoner (September 6, 1859), and independent Circassia became a Russian province.

HE Pall Mall Gazette, in a recent article, gives the following interesting account of the celebration of the Feast of the Passover by the Jewish communities of our own times.

On the 15th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar (generally falling in the month of April) the professors of Judaism "celebrate for well-nigh the three thousandth time the recorded deliverance of their ancestors from Egyptian bondage. On the night of the departure of Pharaoh's slaves the Israelites were eating the Paschal Lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs 'in haste,' waiting for the signal which was to set them free. Since the destruction of the Jewish Temple the Paschal offering has been discontinued by all save the Samaritan Jews. But there is hardly a Hebrew table which will not be graced this evening by the other symbols of Egyptian slavery-unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and where the history of Israel's deliverance will not be rehearsed. For unlike any other Jewish observance, the Fast of Atonement excepted, the institution of Passover, at least in its more essential features, is

held in importance by the entire community of Israelites. Considering that there are some eight or nine millions of Jews in the world, living under almost every variety of human condition, and holding wellnigh every shade of religious belief from ultra-orthodox Rabbinism to pure Spinozism and the most recently developed phases of Agnosticism, this is saying a good deal. It is not so much a solemn celebration as it is a bright and interesting one. The entire ceremonial is arranged with a view to impressing the minds of children, for whom it is primarily intended, and exciting their curiosity. It is in reality a religious object-lesson, and so has to be made not less amusing than instructive. Even the resources of wit and drollery, bon mot and jeu d'esprit, are called into play with this object. The Jewish law-giver, Moses, lays frequent stress on the necessity of handing down from sire to son the tradition of the Exodus. The table is furnished in this wise: before the head of the family is placed a dish containing three Passover biscuits, a roasted lambbone (representing the Paschal Lamb of old), a roasted egg (symbolical of the festival sacrifice of Temple times), bitter herbs (a reminder of the bitter hardships endured by the Israelites in Egypt), together with a dish of salt water, into which they are dipped, and a greyish