"When at the altar, surplice-clad I stand, The bridegroom's joy draws forth the golden fee,

The gift I take, but dare not close my hand,

The splendid present, centers not in me."

Anecdote of Oliver Cromwell.

Oliver having intelligence, that a party of the friends of Charles the Second, used (after the death of Charles the First, and the ruin of his party) to assemble privately at an inn at Islington, resolved to make one amongst them. To effect this, he disguised himself like a substantial farmer and on a horse as much splashed, as if he had rode hard all day, came to the inn, and called for a mug of ale. When the landlord brought it, Oliver asked him to drink; and falling into discourse, the Protector frequently dropped treasonable expressions, as if by accident; and, pretending at last, (as they continued drinking) to be affected

with liquor, he became more open, telling the landlord "the occasion of his journey, was a law-suit he had depending; and as he knew not, how long it would detain him, wished he could find a set of honest men to pass his time with, that he might be as little as possible in that dd town, where his royal master was murdered."

The landlord, convinced by his discourse, that he was one of the right sort, introduced him to the above-mentioned party, of whom he was the forwardest in drinking-"The King's return, destruction to the Protector," &c. &c. but in the midst of their jollity, a body of the Protector's guards surrounded the house, and the commanding officer told the landlord," he wanted the protector, who had ordered him to attend him there; and that he was to be in such a company, where he directed the landlord to inquire for him." The landlord assured him, in vain," that his Highness was not in the house :-but poor Sackbut, being obliged to comply,

goes laughing into the room, and delivers his message" At which, Oliver, starting up, answered, "yes; here I am-Now, gentlemen, (continued he) you may be convinced, you cannot be secret enough to evade my discovering you-I pardon what is past, but advise, not to let me find you out another time."

Curious Anecdote of Richard Cour-de-
Lion.

When Richard, more from the impulse of heroism, than superstition, first proposed a visit to Palestine Fulke, curate of Neuelly, a zealous preacher of the crusade, advised the King to get rid of his three favourite daughters, Pride, Avarice, and Voluptuousness.

"You counsel well," replied Richard, " and I hereby dispose of the first, to the templers; of the second, to the benedictines, and of the third, to my prelates."

The English fleet, in their passage up

the Straights, were separated by a tempest, and the bark, in which were Berengaria, (Richard's intended bride,) and his sister, the Dowager Queen of Sicily, touching, with some other vessels at Cyprus, to wait the King's arrival, who had put into Messina to strengthen his equipment; Isaac, Prince of Cyprus, refused the Princesses the liberty to land; and even threw into prison, the crews and soldiery of some of the ships which had been stranded. Richard, arriving soon after, took ample vengeance; he disembarked the troops in defiance of the force, which this tyrant brought to oppose him, entered the harbour by storm;' defeated him in two successive battles, took him captive, threw him into one of his own prisons, and as a mark of distinction, ordered him to wear silver fetters, that he might at once consider himself as a prince and captive.

His wars in Palestine, were chiefly directed against that ornament of Nature, the philosophic Saladin. In one action,

he defeated Saladin's army, consisting of 300,000 men, with a small body of English. Richard, during his stay at Damascus, beheld the shroud of Saladin, carried as a standard through the streets; and thus proclaimed "This is all that remains to the mighty Saladin, the conqueror of

the East!"

On his return from this crusade, he was secretly imprisoned in a castle of Leopold, Duke of Austria-here he was discovered by Blondel de Nesle, as follows:--

Blondel sung part of an ode, which the King and he composed together--Blondel, pausing in the middle-Richard sung the conclusion The air of this ode, the late Doctor Goldsmith often related to his friends, he heard it sung in Normandy, in a convent, where, from age to age, it was orally preserved.

He was soon after led in a captive state before a diet of the empire at Worms, and accused by Henry the Emperor, of many crimes, the chief of which was, conclud