him for having made those villains too great concessions, viz. that Cromwell should be lord lieutenant for life of Ireland, without account with the garter, &c.) That in that letter of the king's, it was said she should leave him to manage who was better informed of all circumstances than she could be; but she might be entirely easy as to any concessions he should make them, for that he should know in time how to deal with the rogues, who instead of a silken garter should have a hempen one. This letter was intercepted, and decided his fate. Lord Oxford offered five hundred pounds for this original letter.

CHARLES V.

The emperor used to unbend his mind in the society of a large baboon, which he had taught to play chess, a game the emperor was remarkably fond of. One day the animal checkmated the emperor, upon which, being extremely irritated, he took up the chess-board, and struck the ape so violent a blow on the head that the blood flowed; but, on recollection, seeing the absurdity of his conduct, he soothed the poor animal, which with some difficulty became again familiar with him.

Some time after the emperor invited the baboon again to his favourite amusement, when the animal again checkmated the emperor, and recollecting the emperor's anger on the former occasion, sprung from his seat, and hid himself under the table, from whence he was enticed with great difficulty.

ESCAPE OF MRS. SPENCER SMITH.

In 1806 the French force, under General Lauriston, entered Venice, and established there a new government. Mrs. Spencer Smith, the sister-in-law of the

gallant Sir Sidney Smith, was then resident there, for the benefit of her health, with two infant children.

She received an order to appear before the French police. On obeying the summons, she was declared to be under arrest as a French prisoner, and received an order to depart within a week, for the city of Bassano, the place fixed upon by the government for her residence. She demanded to know the reason for which she was thus treated; and was answered, "Your country and your name."

A very few days after, it appeared that the order to repair to Bassano was a mere feint, and that the real instructions of the French police were to send her prisoner of war to the fortress of Valenciennes ! At the moment when she was anxiously waiting to receive a passport, to enable her to quit Venice, she was arrested by a party of gendarmes, told of her destination to Valenciennes, and placed in a state of close confinement, in her chamber, previously to being conducted to France.

The friends of Mrs. Smith were struck with consternation and grief at this change in her fate; but, endued herself with an admirable degree of fortitude, she roused the courage of those who wept around her; nor once appeared shaken till her lovely infants came running to her arms, to ask their mamma why she was so sad? She wished, by any sacrifice, to preserve them from the fate to which she was doomed. But how was this to be done? Who was able to help her by saving them? In evident anguish she looked round on each of the small circle of friends, who sympathized with her situation, and in mournful silence her eyes explained her supplication to them all.

Among the number of these friends was a young Sicilian nobleman, the Marquess de Salvo. Overcome by the sensations which so tender a scene excited, he

rushed from the room; and when he had recovered composure sufficient to return, it was to intimate privately to Mrs. Smith, that he had formed and resolved to execute, at all hazards, the generous design of effecting the escape both of herself and of her children.

The children not having been placed under the immediate vigilance of the police, the Marquess succeeded, without any great difficulty, in getting them conveyed away to Gratz, where the Countess Strazzoldo, a sister of Mrs. Smith, resided; but he did not think it prudent to make the attempt to effect Mrs. Smith's own escape, till after she had left Venice, and was on her way to the Alps.

It was necessary to the success of the project, that the Marquess de Salvo should accompany Mrs. Smith on the road; and nothing being more reasonable than her request, that a friend might be permitted to travel with her, it was readily complied with, and the Marquess took his seat beside Mrs. Smith, in the gondola which conveyed her a prisoner from Venice.

It was at Brescia that the Marquess had determined to accomplish Mrs. Smith's deliverance, it being the nearest place to a neutral territory. The party were to stop here two days. The room of the inn in which Mrs. Smith was confined, was fifty feet from the ground, and gens-d'armes were posted in the room adjoining, with the door open. The Marquess de Salvo occupied an apartment in another part of the house. Early on the morning after their arrival the Marquess slipped out unseen by the gens-d'armes; and while the police of Brescia were yet in ignorance of his arrival with Mrs. Smith, went, and got a passport signed for the Tyrol. From the police he hastened to survey the outlets of the city; but, to his sorrow, could see no other passage than through the gates, which were all strongly guarded. He was not, however, dismayed,

but immediately set about procuring all the means for their escape; a light carriage, which could travel any where; horses, to spare them the necessity of waiting at the post-houses; a man's dress for the disguise of Mrs. Smith; and, finally, a bill of health, which would be requisite on entering another country. All this he accomplished before ten o'clock in the morning, when he returned to Mrs. Smith, and availed himself of an hour, while the soldiers were at the street-door, to settle with her all that was to be prepared and attempted. It was agreed that he should go next day to reconnoitre the environs of Brescia, and collect all the information possible, respecting the places through which it would be necessary to pass; and that on the ensuing night, at eleven o'clock, Mrs. Smith was to let down a string from the window to the ground, to which the Marquess was to be ready to tie a paper, communicating what further discoveries and arrangements he had made.

Returning down stairs, the Marquess told the guards that his affairs prevented him from continuing any longer in the company of this woman; that the slow manner in which she travelled greatly retarded his journey; that he had to go to Paris with all possible despatch, and besides, (flattering them by apparent confidence) he assured them that he did not like to be exposed to the stigma of being the friend of a woman, whose arrest was demanded by the Emperor of the French. He added, that it was his intention to leave Brescia that very evening; and that as he did not like to tell the lady that such was his intention, he begged as a favour, that they would have the goodness to inform her of it themselves. The guards murmured their opinions to one another; and turning to the Marquess, in a friendly tone commended his design,

and promised to be the faithful bearers of his apology to the lady.

At four o'clock next morning, the Marquess passed the gates of Brescia, and directed his steps to Salo. On his arrival there no officer appeared at the gate to demand his passport, nor did he perceive any crowd of idle gazers about his chaise, to look at the stranger, as is the custom in the small towns and villages of Italy; circumstances which made him at once fix on the place as one which it would be an easy matter to pass through without observation. He then hastened to the borders of the Lake di Garda, where he engaged a covered boat with twelve oars, to be ready next morning at six o'clock, for passing the lake with all expedition.

At eleven o'clock in the forenoon nothing further remained to be prepared at Salo, and as he could not well return to Brescia before the evening, he employed the interval in making a ladder of rope and pieces of wood, and succeeded in making one as long as he thought would be required. When this important implement was finished, he wrote a letter of instructions to Mrs. Smith: and, as the night closed in, returned to Brescia, which he entered just as the gates were shutting. He left the horse and chaise at an inn, situated in a solitary square, telling the ostler that he would return by three o'clock in the morning.

It was near three o'clock when, dressed as a Brescian postillion, and with the rope ladder and letter under his cloak, he advanced through the most lonely streets, towards the inn called the Two Towers, where Mrs. Smith was. He stopped before he approached to the window: he listened for some time to the noise of the soldiers; and after convincing himself that they were occupied in drinking, he drew near and felt for the string with his hand. Having found it, he tied the