I've seen thee decorate the virgin's breast,

Whose coy eyes, in their liquid beauty, sought Thy sympathetic petals, when opprest

By Love, who scrutinised her timid thought.
Yet, ever meek as pity, and as mild,
Of thy unsullied loveliness alone
Unconscious, as the inconsiderate child,
To whom reflection is a thing unknown.
Oh, fair Consistency! always the same-
Lowly as aught beneath protecting skies!
Humility 's thy most appropriate name,

So well dost thou its nature emblemise.
Thou mindest me of gentle orphan maid,
With head down bent, and cheek of pearly hue;
Whose earthly hope is in the graveyard laid,
Yet hath a heavenly esperance in view.
Thou, thou so delicate,―thou, thou so frail,
The faintest zephyr shakes thy trembling bell;
And yet thou canst withstand the adverse gale,
When booming winds the raging tempest swell!
There is a Power supports thee, and sustains,—
THAT Power invisible, but ever strong,
Which the tyrannic hand perforce restrains,
Haply uplifted for thy mortal wrong.

not;

If to a flower is lent supernal aid,
Which is to-day, and, on the morrow,
Shall man, in the Lord's proper image made,
By his benign Creator be forgot?

No; let him, like the snowdrop, bow his head
Submissively to hyperborean blast:

Angelic strength shall stand his weakness' stead,
Until the hurricane be overpast.

'Tis ONLY when we will not to him turn

That God appears his creatures to forsake; The humbly trustful he will never spurn,

Nor, to the righteous, his pledged promise break. He speaks to us in the most fragile things: The reed that 's shaken by unruly windThe bird that careless through the ether wings Its starlike, homeward flight, its mate to find

Ephemera dancing in the tepid air,

All teach a lesson to imperious man,

That nought 's too mean for God's peculiar care,
And nought 's too great for his contemning ban.
Live, then, in the sweet comfort of His love;
Secure a Father and a Friend on earth;
Secure a Father and a Friend above,

When seraphs wake thee to immortal birth!

SPANISH ADVENTURES.*

A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN ANTHONY BLAKE.

BY CAPTAIN RAFTER.

CHAPTER XI.

The Venta of Somport.

THE ground-floor of the Venta, or common receptacle for men and beasts, into which our travellers proceeded in a body, through a wide, arched doorway, was a spacious hall, capable of containing twenty or thirty mules, with their loads and packsaddles. From the dim light yielded by the lamp, even aided as it was by a torch of blazing pine, held by an urchin of the establishment, it was difficult to make out the details of the place; but the wall fronting the entrance displayed a range of mangers well filled with chopped straw, oats, and barley; while sundry troughs of water stood at convenient distances for the refreshment of the thirsty animals. This important part of the venta was well-furnished with straw throughout its whole length, and was very warm; being, in fact, destined for the especial comfort of the muleteers as well as of their favourite beasts, which were now disencumbered of their loads and harness, and sent to luxuriate on the good things so liberally proIvided for them.

An inspection having taken place of the mule which had fallen, it appeared that a violent sprain had been the consequence of the accident. This threatened a serious loss of time to the smugglers, who were obliged to abandon all intention of going any further till the following night (for the motions of these gentry do not often court the "garish eye of day"); whereas they had expected to pass Canfranc, the first Spanish village, a few miles distant, before the ensuing daylight should expose their proceedings to the custom-house officers stationed there. The disappointment, therefore, excessively irritated their naturally peevish tempers: Saint John swore like a sinner; while Pedro, Garcia, and Antonio, chimed in with lungs of leather and bitterness of invective. They accused the people of the venta of having intentionally made the hole into which the mule had fallen, for the purpose of detaining them all night:

*Continued from vol. xlvii., page 402.

the latter retorted with equal fury, invoking all the wrath of heaven and all the curses of hell on the heads of their adversaries and their maldita bestia ;* while, with the same breath, they called loudly on their favourite saints to aid them in the

contest.

Disgusted with this shocking scene, our hero and his companion desired to be shown to a room where they might be provided with supper; but no obsequious landlord or bustling waiter responded to the call, and they felt that they were now in a country where the fatigued and hungry traveller is left to shift for himself as he best may. Having shouted in vain to the stable-attendants, who were too deeply engaged with the muleteers to wait upon them, even had they been so inclined, our philosophers were obliged to find their own way as well as they could. Guided by the screams of some children and the scolding of a woman, they accordingly groped along in the dark until they stumbled upon an old crazy staircase, apparently leading to the upper part of the building, which, in a Spanish posada, is generally dedicated to the lodgment of the family and the better class of travellers. Having ascended some rickety steps, and passed along a gloomy corridor; knocking their heads against walls and broken beams, bruising their shins against logs of wood, and stumbling over heaps of rubbish, they at length found themselves at the door of a large apartment, which was at once the kitchen, drawing-room, and salle à manger of this delectable hotel.

Our travellers, having uttered the customary salutation, "Ave Maria, purisima!" and being answered by a rough voice from within," Sin pecado concebida !" entered the cocina of the establishment; within whose hospitable precinct all ranks are levelled, and the gentleman and the muleteer meet on a footing of equality. It was a large low room; the walls and ceiling of which were jetty-black with the smoke of half-a-century. In the centre stood a fire-place, consisting of a piece of rude masonry, six or eight feet square, raised about a foot from the floor; upon this blazed a huge fire of pine-logs; and through a funnel, or chimney, in the ceiling overhead, the smoke might or might not escape, as the wind was pleased to direct. Wooden benches were ranged round the fire-place, which served as seats during meal-time, and as places of repose for all who could not afford the luxury of a bed. Over the fire hung two large iron pots, suspended by iron chains from above; and the walls were hung with a variety of saucepans, gridirons, frying-pans, and other culinary utensils of a great diversity of shapes and sizes. This multifarious apartment was under the superintendence of

* "Accursed beast." "Hail Mary, most pure!" "Conceived without sin!"

the patrona;* who, though no longer young, possessed the remains of considerable beauty. Her appearance, however, indicated strongly that she was both a slattern and a shrew her hair hung in disorder down her back, her gown was rent in many places, and her slip-shod shoes fell off her feet every other step she took; while the lines and furrows of her once-handsome countenance, formed a sort of map, wherein might be traced, in legible characters, peevishness, bigotry, ignorance, and extortion.

"Most charming patrona," said Henri, in an insinuating voice, to this elegant creature; "what can we have for supper?" "Lo que usted trae consigo," sharply replied the patrona, without once deigning to look at her guest; being fully occupied in scolding and thumping half-a-dozen ragged urchins, who were tumbling about amongst the ashes.

"Patrona de mi alma !" persisted Henri, in his most winning manner, "we have brought nothing whatever with us, and are actually famishing. What can you give us, therefore, to save our lives in this extremity?"

"Jodeos,"§ grunted the patrona, as she pursued her maternal avocations.

"What else?" demanded Blake.

"Baccaliaou," was the concise reply.

"Muchesimas gracias!" responded Blake; "but my dear good lady, have you not some nice piece of carne¶¶ to add to the feast?"

"Carne!" reiterated the beldam, with something like a yell of astonishment at this demand for meat on a fast-day.

"Yes, mi querida," replied Blake; "a good puchero, for instance."

"Or a guisado de liebre,"** added Henri.

"Carne!" again exclaimed the patrona, with uplifted hands and eyes; "Jesus Maria! esto es Viernes, Señor!"++

"But, patrona santisima!" cried Blake, "though you may not yourself eat meat on a Friday, we are two English travellers who have no scruples of conscience in the matter.'

"Ingleses!" exclaimed the patrona, crossing herself devoutly; "Jesus Maria and Joseph! Holy Virgin! Saint Peter and the Twelve Apostles! Forgive me for harbouring Jews and Protestants, on this blessed night, in my unhappy house!"

"We'll take the sin on ourselves," said Blake," and willingly bear our own punishment."

Landlady.

"Patrona of my soul !"

+ "Whatever you bring with you."

Hodeos, horse-beans; which, with the baccaliaou, or salt cod, enter largely into the cuisine Espagnole, especially on meagre days.

"Many, many thanks!"

**A stew of hare.

¶ Meat.

tt "Jesus Maria! this is Friday, Sir!"

"And we'll open a new account with Old Nick, for a good supper of carne," added Henri, "if you will only supply us with the materials."

"Virgen santisima del Pilar !"* exclaimed the patrona, with a gesture of sacred horror; " you may damn yourselves as much as you please, but I shall not partake of your iniquity." Then going to the door, she bawled out, with stentorian lungs, for her attendants:

"Chico! maldito sea! Niña! Demonio! Carajo!"

Neither the Chico nor the Niña, however, answered her calls, they were so deeply engaged abusing the smugglers. She returned, therefore, to the fire-place, to vent her spleen on her children; who gave her back curse for curse, with the most dutiful imitation of voice and manner.

This little interlude of domestic harmony was, at length, interrupted by the entrance of the smugglers; who, having disposed of their mules for the night, and provided them with a good supper, now came to do the same kind office for themselves. They, accordingly, demanded what cheer was in the house, and received the same answer from the patrona as she had given to our hero.

"What the devil do you mean?" cried John the Baptist. "I'm not going to be fobbed off with a supper of horsebeans, old lass !"

"There's nothing else to be had in this house on holy Friday," said the patrona, doggedly.

"But I have got a dispensation to eat meat for supper," said John the Baptist," as the night air doesn't agree with my weak stomach."

"I have got the cholic," said Pedro, " and shall certainly die if I'm forced to fast."

"I'm afflicted with the wolf," said Garcia, "and must either eat or be eaten myself."

"This is my saint's day," said Antonio," and I can, therefore, eat everything but horseflesh."

"Carambo!" exclaimed the patrona, crossing herself very devoutly; "you're a crew of Jews and heretics altogether, and I wash my hands of your devil's doings."

"If that be the case," said John the Baptist, with a particularly solemn oath, "we must help ourselves, I see: therefore, Pedro, bring us up the botat and the alforjas; Garcia and I will cook the prog, and St. Antonio there shall for us." say grace "That I will," said Antonio," and in the good old fashion, por exemplo: What God is going to place before us, el mismo demonios shall not cast behind us."

"Most holy Virgin of the Pillar!" Her shrine is at Saragossa.

The wine-bag.

+ Saddle-bags.

The devil himself.