""I would then have said," replied the English earl, "that all which Margaret of Anjou had to apprehend was, that the duke of Burgundy, when buckling on his armour to win Provence for himself, and to afford to her his powerful assistance to assert her rights in England, was likely to be withdrawn from such high objects by an imprudently eager desire to avenge himself of imaginary affronts, offered to him, as he supposes, by certain confederacies of Alpine mountaineers, over whom it is impossible to gain any important advantage, or acquire reputation, while, on the contrary, there is a risk of losing both. These men dwell amongst rocks and deserts which are almost inaccessible, and subsist in a manner so rude, that the poorest of your subjects would starve if subjected to such diet. They are formed by nature to be the garrison of the mountain-fortresses in which she has placed them ;-for Heaven's sake meddle not with them, but follow forth your own nobler and more important objects, without stirring a nest of hornets, which, once in motion, may sting you into madness."

The duke had promised patience, and endeavoured to keep his word; but the swoln muscles of his face, and his flashing eyes, showed how painful to him it was to suppress his resentment.

"You are misinformed, my lord," he said; "these men are not the inoffensive herdsmen and peasants you are pleased to suppose them. If they were, I might afford to despise them. But, flushed with some victories over the sluggish Austrians, they have shaken off all reverence for authority, assume airs of independence, form leagues, make inroads, storm towns, doom and execute men of noble birth at their pleasure.— Thou art dull, and look'st as if thou dost not apprehend me. To rouse thy English blood, and make thee sympathise with my feelings to these mountaineers, know that these Swiss are very Scots to my dominions in their neighbourhood; poor, proud, ferocious; easily offended, because they gain by war; ill to be appeased, because they nourish deep revenge; ever, ready to seize the moment of advantage, and attack a neighbour when he is engaged in other affairs. The same unquiet, perfidious, and inveterate enemies that the Scots are to England, are the Swiss to Burgundy and to my allies. What say you? Can I undertake any thing of consequence till I have crushed the pride of such a people? It will be but a few days' work. I will grasp the mountainhedge-hog, prickles and all, with my steel-gauntlet.".

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"Your Grace will then have shorter work with them," replied the disguised nobleman, "than our English kings have had with Scotland. The wars there have lasted so long, and proved so bloody, that wise men regret we ever began them."

“Nay," said the duke, "I will not dishonour the Scots by comparing them in all respects to these mountain-churls of the Cantons. The Scots have blood and gentry among them, and we have seen many examples of both; these Swiss are a mere brood of peasants, and the few gentlemen of birth they can boast must hide their distinction in the dress and manners of clowns. They will, I think, scarce stand against a charge of Hainaulters."

"Not if the Hainaulters find ground to ride upon. But

"Nay, to silence your scruples," said the duke, interrupting him, "know, that these people encourage, by their countenance and aid, the formation of the most dangerous conspiracies in my dominions. Look here I told you that my officer, sir Archibald de Hagenbach, was murdered when the town of La Ferette was treacherously taken by these harmless Switzers of yours. And here is a scroll of parchment, which announces that my servant was murdered by doom of the Vehmegericht, a band of secret assassins, whom I will not permit to meet in any part of my dominions. Oh, could I but catch them above ground as they are found lurking below, they should know what the life of a nobleman is worth! Then, look at the insolence of their attestation."

The scroll bore, with the day and date adjected, that judgment had been done on Archibald de Hagenbach, for tyranny, violence, and oppression, by order of the Holy Vehme, and that it was executed by their officials, who were responsible for the same to their tribunal alone. It was countersigned in red ink, with the badges of the Secret Society, a coil of ropes and a drawn dagger.

"This document I found stuck to my toilette with a knife," said the duke; "another trick by which they give mystery to their murderous jugglery."

The thought of what he had undergone in John Mengs's house, and reflections upon the extent and omnipresence of these secret associations, struck even the brave Englishman with an involuntary shudder.

""For the sake of every saint in heaven," he said, "forbear, my lord, to speak of these tremendous societies, whose creatures are above, beneath, and around us. No man is secure of his life, however guarded, if it be sought by a man who is careless of his own. You are sur-› rounded by Germans, Italians, and other strangers. How many amongst these may be bound by the secret ties which withdraw men from every other social bond, to unite them together in one inextricable, though secret compact? Beware, noble prince, of the situation on which your throne is placed, though it still exhibits all the splendor of power, and all the solidity of foundation that belongs to so august a structure. I-the friend of thy house-were it with my dying breath, must needs tell thee, that the Swiss hang like an avalanche over thy head; and the secret associations work beneath thee like the first throes of the coming earthquake. Provoke not the contest, and the snow will rest undisturbed on the mountain-side-the agitation of the subterranean vapours will be hushed to rest; but a single word of defiance, or one flash of indignant scorn, may call their terrors into instant action."

""You speak," said the duke, "with more awe of a pack of naked churls, and a band of midnight assassins, than I have seen you show for real danger. Yet I will not scorn your counsel-I will hear the Swiss envoys patiently, and I will not, if I can help it, show the contempt with which I cannot but regard their pretensions to treat as indepen

VOL. XI. W. R.

dent states. On the secret associations I will be silent, till time gives me the means of acting in combination with the emperor, the Diet, and the princes of the empire, that they may be driven from all their burrows at once.-Ha, sir Earl, said I well?"

"It is well thought, my lord, but it may be unhappily spoken. You are in a position where one word overheard by a traitor, might produce death and ruin.'

"I keep no traitors about me," said Charles, "if I thought there were such in my camp, I would rather die by them at once, than live in perpetual terror and suspicion."

"Your highness's ancient followers and servants," said the earl, speak unfavourably of the count of Campo-basso who holds so high a rank in your confidence."

"Ay," replied the duke, with composure, "it is easy to decry the most faithful servant in a court by the unanimous hatred of all the others. I warrant me your bull-headed countryman, Colvin, has been railing against the count like the rest of them, for Campo-basso sees nothing amiss in any department but he reports it to me without fear or favour. And then his opinions are cast so much in the same mould with my own, that I can hardly get him to enlarge upon what he best understands, if it seems in any respect different from my sentiments. Add to this, a noble person, grace, gaiety, skill in the exercises of war, and in the courtly arts of peace-such is Campo-basso; and being such, is he not a gem for a prince's cabinet?"

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"The very materials out of which a favourite is formed," answered the earl of Oxford, "but something less adapted for making a faithful counsellor."

"Why thou mistrustful fool," said the duke, “must I tell thee the very inmost secret respecting this man, Campo-basso, and will nothing short of it stay these imaginary suspicions, which thy new trade of an itinerant merchant hath led thee to entertain so rashly?'

"If your majesty honours me with your confidence," said the earl of Oxford, "I can only say that my fidelity shall deserve it."

"Know, then, thou misbelieving mortal, that my good friend and brother, Louis of France, sent me private information through no less a person than his famous barber, Öliver le Diable, that Campo-basso had for a certain sum offered to put my person into his hands, alive or dead. You start?"

"I do indeed-recollecting your highness's practice of riding out lightly armed, and with a very small attendance, to reconnoitre the ground and visit the out-posts, and therefore how easily such a treacherous device might be carried into execution.”

"Pshaw!" answered the duke."-"Thou seest the danger as if it were real, whereas nothing can be more certain than that, if my cousin of France had ever received such an offer, he would have been the last person to have put me on my guard against the attempt. No-he knows the value I set on Campo-basso's services, and forged the accusation to deprive me of them."

"And yet, my lord," replied the English earl, "your highness, by my counsel, will not unnecessarily or impatiently fling aside your armour of proof, or ride without the escort of some score of your trusty Walloons."

"Tush, man, thou would'st make a carbonado of a fever-stirred wretch like myself, betwixt the bright iron and the burning sun. But I will be cautious though I jest thus-and you, young man, may assure my cousin, Margaret of Anjou, that I will consider her affairs as my own. And remember, youth, that the secrets of princes are fatal gifts, if he to whom they are imparted blaze them abroad; but if duly treasured up, they enrich the bearer. And thou shalt have cause to say so, if thou canst bring back with thee from Nancy the deed of resignation, of which thy father has spoken-Good night-good night!"

'He left the apartment.'-vol. iii. pp.73-86.

It may be supposed that the three great battles, all fought within not many months of each other, and which were so important in their consequences, afford our author a fine opportunity for the exercise of his power of rapid narrative. It is true that the noble fields of Granson, and Morat, and the melancholy rout of Nancy are spiritedly described, and yet we prefer the plain and simple story of the chronicles of the time. In one point indeed the histories far exceed the romances, and that too in a point of interest: we mean the treachery of Campo-basso, and the subsequent melancholy death in battle of the duke himself, and all the circumstances connected with his supposed assassination, and the difficulty in finding his remains. The story of the Swiss, as told in De Barante, who copies almost verbatim the passages he selects from the chroniclers, is not much longer than Sir Walter Scott's, while it is certainly clearer, and, what is more, throws a deeper and holier interest upon the motives and characters of the sterling leaders of the valiant Swiss. A man cannot do every thing in three volumes; but we should have been glad to have had this part of the story placed in bolder relief. As we are finding fault, we may add to the small catalogue of errors, that, in Sir Walter Scott's narrative of the movements of the two armies, there is an indistinctness which is not warranted by his original. When Napoleon,* on his return from his great Italian campaign, visited the field of Morat, he very justly censured the duke's want of generalship, and pointed out his error. It is much easier to understand his remark from the narrative of De Barante, than the description of Sir Walter Scott. But these are small matters, and will not essentially detract from the praise which, on the whole, we feel

* De Bourrienne.

happy in bestowing on Sir Walter's last effort. We can easily select our passages for laudation and blame, yet who but himself could paint, as he has done, the beautiful scenery of Switzerland, or describe with like felicity the court and character of the amiable but eccentric bon roi René. Had we not said and quoted enough of a work that will soon be in every body's hands, we should undoubtedly have pleased ourselves with a transcription of some of the passages relative to this prince, and his happy kingdom of Provence, which we are disposed to place among Sir Walter's most felicitous sketches of the kind.

ART. XV-A Prospectus of the Quipola, or an Explanation of the Quipoes, now open for Public Opinion. London. Printed by J. Phair, 69 Great Peter Street, Westminster. 1827. 64to. pp. 18. THE Quipos, or knots on cords of different colours, which are celebrated by authors fond of the marvellous, as if they had been regular annals of the [Peruvian] empire, imperfectly supplied the place of writing. According to the obscure description of them by Acosta, which Garcilasso de la Vega has adopted with little variation ' and no improvement, the quipos seem to have been a device for rendering calculation more expeditious and accurate. By the various 'colours different objects were denoted, and by each knot a distinct 'number. Thus an account was taken, and a kind of register kept, of 'the inhabitants in each province, or of the several productions col'lected there for public use. But as by these knots, however varied or 'combined, no moral or abstract idea, no operation or quality of the 'mind could be represented, they contributed little towards preserving 'the memory of ancient events and institutions. By the Mexican 'paintings and symbols, rude as they were, more knowledge of remote 'transactions seems to have been conveyed, than the Peruvians could ' derive from their boasted quipos. Had the latter been even of more 'extensive use, and better adapted to supply the place of written records, they perished so generally, together with other monuments of Peruvian ingenuity, in the wreck occasioned by the Spanish conquest, ' and the civil wars subsequent to it, that no accession of light or know'ledge comes from them.'-Robertson's History of America.-Book Vii.

It is difficult to say how a writer of ordinary caution can have fallen into a statement so much at variance with the authorities from which it professes to be derived. It is clear from the accounts of the original historians, that the quipos were not only adapted to supply the place of written records,' but that they were records. Since the subject involves a reference to transactions of singular curiosity, as being without parallel in any other portion of the history of mankind, occasion will be taken by the appearance of what professes to be a genuine set