a lady of strict delicacy can allow a stranger to come so near her person; to encircle her very form; her own soft arms lying on his; every attitude and motion necessarily exhibiting that yielding air which ordinarily means still more than it expresses; and then their scarcely separated lips, sighing a language inarticulate and warm! Doubtless the situation has its charm; the propinquities and tactuations must have an exquisite mystery, which the uninitiated comprehend not; or else she would shrink, when she felt the trembling hand of her impatient partner clasping her palpitating waist! The tell-tale blood, mantling the cheek and neck, will sometimes betray the nature of this mystery, and the true source from which has arisen the excessive popularity of the waltz!

Yet those who countenance the voluptuous reelings of this ambiguous amusement will denounce, as indecent, the congregating of people in groves, to worship their Maker. The waltz is encouraged as a thing of elegant refinement; while a camp meeting, with its family groups, its preachers of sacred truth, and its hymns of fervid devotion, is condemned as excessively vulgar, and panderly accessary to the indulgence of criminal passion. I do not advocate these sylvan assemblies; I only say that those who yield themselves to the indiscriminate embraces of the waltz, should be the last people in the world to bestow upon them their reprobation. But what a mass of inconsistencies may be found in the lan

guage and deportment of one of those who declaim most vehemently against the usages of the devotedly religious! He is out himself, at rout, revel, and masquerade, till the cocks crow for day, and sees no unseasonableness in his hours, or harmful tendency in the nature of his amusements; but if a few poor Christians meet for an hour or two in the evening to confess their sins, and strengthen their better resolutions, he is alarmed for the discreet habits of society, and sees a fanatical apparition advancing, ghastly as death on his pale horse! He will spend a week, or month, on a party of pleasure, in hunting a rare bird, or running down a red-tailed fox, and considers his time most unobjectionably employed; but if a "three days' meeting" is announced, he thinks a famine will ensue, or the whole world be turned upside down! Now I only ask him, who is so devotedly given up to fiddles and foxes, to have a little patience with those who prefer their Bible and Christian duties. At least, let him remove the beam from his own eye, before he attempts to pluck the mote from the eye of his brother. I love that impartial justice which cuts up one's own faults, as well as those of his neighbor. I admire consistency, though it be in Lucifer, and feel, sometimes, a shuddering respect for that unchanging, unmixed, and immortal hate, that made him exclaim in his burning anguish, over the result of his contemplated scheme"Which, if not victory, is yet revenge."

CHAPTER XXII.

Consequences of our visit to Constantinople-Solemnities of a Court Martial-Situation as Counsel for the Defendant-Sentence of the Court-Principles of our Naval Code-Redress of Grievances— Self-vindication-Thoughts of Home-Obituary Notice.

I was speaking of the incidents which relieved the monotony of our winter at Mahon, and must not wholly omit the solemnities of a court martial, which broke in with imposing effect. It grew out of circumstances connected with our visit to Constantinople; our exposure to the Plague while there; the precipitancy of our 'reunion with the ship, and the unjustifiable attitude which a few were induced to assume in view of our deportment, which they at the time regarded as extremely reckless. One little irritation led to another, till the gathering snow-ball, at first scarcely visible in its steep place, rolled at last into the deep ravine, a thundering avalanche ! Articles of accusation, by the superior officer of the ship, were drawn up in form; a court summoned, and the accused, holding the rank of lieutenant, ordered up for trial. I was called upon by the defendant to act as his counsel; this was placing me in rather an embarrassing attitude, for, aside from my legal ignorance, and the sacerdotality of my profes

sion, I was largely enjoying the munificent hospitality of the other party, and well knew, however entire and devoted might be my fidelity to my client, yet if it involved merely a naked defence, the forbearance might be ascribed to a sense of personal obligation, which, in any other situation, it would be ungrateful not to cherish, but which, in this new capacity, could not be indulged without an imputation on my honor. But the accused, having very wisely expressed a willingness to stand strictly on the defensive, I consented to run this narrow channel, though I expected my poor ship would have her copper raked off on both sides, and, perhaps, her bends broken in.

The charges for we have now come to themwere like a November caravan of crows, very long, and very black; but, like my worthy progenitor of wind-mill memory, being now fairly enlisted, I felt it incumbent on my vow to run a tilt with every hostile form, whether of earth, ocean, or air; so the attack was immediately commenced on these flying squadrons of the dark plume; some were frightened away; some killed outright; some slightly wounded and dispersed; till at last only one poor fellow remained, and he appeared so lonely and lost to hope, that the court, fearing they should not have an opportunity of exhibiting their skill and courage in the battle, shed tears quite feelingly and fast. Never was victory, in a desperate case, more complete; it

was like the rout of the spirits that waited on Comus, and the liberation of the fatally enchanted lady, who sat

"In stony fetters fix'd, and motionless."

But to drop all metaphor and hyperbole the court was organized; the charges read over, and the witnesses examined, who testified with an amiable inclination to the side of mercy. The tribunal, composed of spirits that would, if necessary, "beard the very devil to keep his place," manifested the most majestic patience, while the parties, through many a long day, like Corydon and Thyrsis, exercised their rival gifts,

Et cantare pares, et respondere parati.

The contest, which, after all, had very little music in it, would have been less long, but every question had to be written down, submitted to the court; its propriety, perhaps, discussed; and then the answer of the witness, often long and unsatisfactory, recorded. This makes a court-martial the most tedious process by which guilt is ever punished. Indeed, if the offender has turned the middle of life, you may as well allow him to escape, for your verdict will hardly overtake him before he has gone beyond the reach of human penalties; and there is no gallows in the grave; and I thank Heaven there is not, for if there were, such is the passion of people for seeing culprits hung, there would be more bodies swinging under ground than above it; and the con