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was in the pay of the Empress Catherine, the Swedish officers, although confident of victory, refused to march, because Gustavus III. had commenced the war without consulting the estates, the King was compelled to retire to Stockholm, where the insolence and intrigues of the nobility threatened the reduction of his regal rights to the mere phantom of sovereignty. Menaced with revolt and assassination, this great prince, attended by a single domestic, in secrecy reached the mountains of Delecarlia, the immoveable seat of Swedish loyalty, where, with all that bold, affecting, and irresistible eloquence, for which he was so justly famed, upon the very rock on which, in elder times, their idol Gustavus Vasa had addressed them, he invoked them to rally round the throne, and preserve their Sovereign from the cabals of treason. At the sound of his voice they formed themselves into battalions, with electric celerity, and encreasing as they advanced, proceeded under the command of Baron Armfelt to Drottingholm, where they overawed the factious. At this very period, an unexpected disaster made fresh demands upon the inexhaustible resources of Gustavus's mind, which encreased with his emergencies. The Prince of Hesse, at the head of twelve thousand men, marched from Norway to Gottenborg, at the gates of which, at a late hour, the King, having surmounted great difficulties in his way through Wermlandia, presented himself, and the next morning surprized the Danish herald, by informing him in person from the ramparts, that sooner than surrender the

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place, the garrison should be buried under its ruins, and accordingly ordered the bridge over the river Gothael to be burnt. It is well known, that the wise and active mediation of Mr. Elliott, our then minister at Copenhagen, prevailed upon the Prince of Hesse to retire. To return to the Delecarlians: the dress of the men is always of a grey or black coarse cloth, and, on account of the many services which they have rendered to government, and their proved patriotism, they enjoy the flattering and gracious privilege of taking the King's hand wherever they meet him: the pressure must ever be delightful to both parties. From the mountains of health and liberty, Gustavus III. selected the wet-nurse of the present King, that, with her milk, he might imbibe vigour and the love of his country. This woman was the wife of a Delecarlian peasant, lineally descended from the brave and honest Andrew Preston, who preserved Gustavus Vasa from the murderers who were sent in pursuit of him by Christian. The houses of the Delecarlian peasants are as simple as their owners are virtuous: they have but one hole in the roof, exposed to the south, which answers the double purpose of a window and a clock: their meals are regulated by the sun's rays upon a chest, placed beneath this hole on one side; or upon the stove, with which all the Swedish houses are warmed, standing on the other.

We were much gratified with the palace of Drottingholm:

a pleasant drive of about ten miles brought us to the island on which it stands in the lake Mæler; the road to it lay through rocks covered with firs, and over two large floating bridges; the building is large but light, and is of brick stuccoed white; the hall and stair-case are in bad taste; their ornaments are white upon a dark brown ground, resembling sugar plumbs upon gingerbread. The state rooms are very rich and elegant, and an Englishman is much gratified to find in the library a very large and choice collection of English authors. There is a beautiful picture here of a weeping Ariadne, by Wertmuller, a Swedish artist, who, unfortunately for his country, has for ever left it, and settled in America.

Whenever I reflect upon a neglected artist of merit, a delightful little anecdote, which is related of Francis I. always occurs to me that sovereign having received a picture of St. Michael from the hand of Raphael d'Urbino, which he much coveted, he remunerated Raphael far beyond what his modesty conceived he ought to receive: the generous artist, however, made him a present of a Holy Family, painted by himself, which the courteous monarch received, saying, that persons famous in the arts partake of the immortality of princes, and are upon a footing with them.

In this palace there is the head of a Persian Sybil, in mosaic, exquisitely beautiful, and two costly and elegant presents from

the late Empress Catharine II. of tables of lapis lazuli and Siberian agate. There are also some exquisite statues in alabaster and marble, and Etruscan vases, purchased in Italy by Gustavus III. during his southern tour. The Etruscan vases are very beautiful; but in tone of colour, classical richness, elegance and variety of shape, not equal to those which I had previously seen in England at Gillwell Lodge, the seat of William Chinnery, Esq., who unquestionably has the finest private collection of this kind in England, perhaps in Europe.

There is here a portrait of that eccentric personage, Queen Christina, who abdicated the throne of Sweden in 1660, and left to her successor, Charles X., the costly discovery that, amidst all her whimsical caprices, she had taken good care to clear most of the palaces of their rarest furniture previous to her retiring to Rome : picking out even the jewels of the crown before she resigned it. So completely had she secured every thing that was valuable, that Charles X. was obliged to borrow several necessary utensils for his coronation. This loss, for I suppose it must not be called a depredation, has been amply restored by the taste and munificence of Gustavus III. In the state sleeping-chamber, the royal banner of light blue and silver was fixed at the foot of the bed, and had a very chivalrous appearance. In the garden there is a theatre, which is large and handsome; but since the death of Gustavus III., who was much attached to this place, and made it the seat of

his brilliant festivities, it has been little used. In the gardens there is a range of small houses in the Chinese taste, but neither the former nor the latter are worthy of much notice.

After our return from Drottingholm we gained admission, but with much difficulty, to the arsenal. This depot of military triumphs is a brick-building, consisting of a ground floor, with lofty windows down to the ground, stands at the end of the King's gardens, the only mall of Stockholm, and has all the appearance of a large green-house. The artillery, which is planted before it, has the ridiculous effect of being placed there to defend the most precious of exotic trees within from all external enemies, who either move in air or pace the earth. The contents, alas! are such fruits " as the tree of war bears," and well deserve the attention of the traveller and antiquary. Here is an immense collection of trophies and standards taken from the enemies of Sweden, and a long line of stuffed kings, in the actual armour which they wore, mounted upon wooden horses, painted to resemble, and as large as life, chronologically arranged. I was particularly struck with the clothes of Charles XII. which he wore when he was killed at the siege of Frederickshall, and very proudly put them on, viz. a long shabby blue frock of common cloth, with large flaps and brass buttons, a little greasy low cocked hat, a handsome pair of gloves, fit to have touched the delicate hands of the Countess of Koningsmarck, a pair of stiff high-heeled military boots,

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