extreme fondness of it. The intoxication which it occasioned was the cause that their feasts often ended in quarrels, and were stained with blood. Then Odin hastened to the scene, awed both sides by his august and terrible appearance, restored order, and made his warriors feel that it was against enemies alone that they ought to display their courage; on which courage, however, he bestowed the meed of praise.

Mimer, who had acquired at Byzantium the rudiments of a more rational and humane philosophy, could not refrain from blaming the barbarous policy of Odin. When they were walking together, at a distance from the crowd, Mimer exclaimed, "Of what unworthy means do you dare avail yourself! For a society of men, you invent inhuman gods! Not satisfied with inciting them to murder in the field of battle, you accustom them to see murder committed in cold blood! And by whose hands? By those of the queen, your wife! You teach them to look upon the most sensual pleasures as the fittest recompence which can be given to valour and to virtue! You even go so far as to lead astray their reason by the most brutal intoxication! It seems as if you called all the vices, nay, all the crimes to your aid, to found a society, from which you expect the most glorious exploits."

"Listen to me, Mimer," replied Odin. "I neither ought to, nor will I, explain to any body but yourself the motives of my conduct. What would have become of the handful of barbarians whom I have led from the further parts of Scythia, had I acted otherwise than I have done? They would all have languished and died in the forests through which we have passed, or would have fallen under the formidable maces of the people whom we have subdued. I was compelled to make them respect an unknown being. I depicted that being creative and beneficent to them, terrible and inexorable to their enemies, that I might unite them closely with their brethren in arms, and encourage them to conquer those with whom they were obliged to contend. Í sacrificed the aged people of the tribes which I have overcome, and I thus lost only the useless part of the nations which I wished to incorporate with my own countrymen. By sacrificing them, I also deprived the

rising generation of my enemies of the fruit of the experience and wisdom of their elders; and I made them lose the very trace of glory, and of the exploits of their

ancestors.

My beloved Freya is at the head of the new religion which I compel my followers to adopt. The dignity with which she is invested, of priestess and prophetess, induces my subjects to respect her sex, and establishes in their minds a prejudice by which their ferocity will one day be softened. It is necessary that they should be accustomed to honour the sex, that they may the better feel the bliss of being loved by it. My descendants, my dear Mimer, will some time or other prove what great effects may arise from this feeling. Lastly, if I now and then plunge my warriors in intoxication, their bodies are only rendered the more robust by it. In this rigid climate it is a means of giving fresh animation to a languishing existence. And, besides, is it possible to govern men without leading them from one intoxication to another?"

The wise Mimer was unconvinced by these reasons. The prince and he retained each his own opinion.Meanwhile Odin and his numerous army, (for during its progress it had exceedingly increased) arrived on the shore of a tolerably tranquil sea, and near a gulph of no great width, on the other side of which they perceived a fertile country. Odin soon learned that it was inhabited by a people called Scanians; that, a little further, dispersed in different islands, dwelt the Danes; and that the latter were separated only by an easily passable arm of the sea from the Cimbrians, the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons.

The design of conquering all these nations was immediately formed by Odin; but as its execution would be attended by new difficulties, it was necessary for him to use new means to induce the Scythians to undertake it. Already, in the vast forests that bordered on the Baltic sea, the chief had caused to be cut down an immense number of oaks, pines, and birch trees, which were hollowed out into canoes, or made into rafts, for the purpose of conveying his whole army into Scania, when a general murmur was raised around him.

TO BE RESUMED.

A SKETCH

OF THE

ADVENTURES OF H. MASERS DE LA TUDE,

Who was thirty-five Years confined in various

FRENCH STATE PRISONS.

MR. HENRY MASERS de la TUDE was the son of a knight of the order of St. Lewis, who, in the year 1733, was made king's lieutenant of Sedan. At the age of twenty-three he was sent to Paris to complete his mathematical studies, in order to qualify him for some post in the army; but falling in company with a set of rash young men, who were plotting the destruction of Madame de Pompadour, the favourite mistress of Lewis XV. he was induced to form a project, which laid the foundation of all his future miseries.

From no other motive, as he pretends in his memoirs, than that of doing the marchioness a good office, he repaired to Versailles, and acquainted her, that he had seen a parcel, addressed to her, put into the post-office, which he had reason to believe was designed for her destruction, and cautioned her to be particularly on her guard. She politely expressed her gratitude; and, as soon as the parcel arrived (which had been put into the post-office by himself), the effects of its contents were tried on several animals, when no harm resulting, she judged him to be an impostor, and had him committed to the Bastile, on the 1st of May,

1749.

In the beginning of September following he was removed to the castle of Vincennes; where, being indulged by the lieutenant-governor with the privilege of walking two hours a day in the garden, he made use of the following means to effect his escape. Two turnkeys usually attended him, one of whom waited in the garden, and the other conducted him down stairs from his room. Having formed his project, he for several days together descended a little faster than the turnkey, who, as he always found him by the side of his companion in the garden, took no notice of this manœuvre. Observing this, and taking a favourable opportunity, he tripped as fast as possible down

the flight of steps, and shutting the bottom door of the staircase, advanced boldly to the garden-gate, where a sentinel was posted by way of security.

The vigilance of this man, as well as that of several others, who were placed on the opposite side of the drawbridge, he eluded, by pretending to enquire for a person who was just gone that way; but, after having obtained his liberty in this artful manner, he was imprudent enough, through the advice of a friend, to surrender himself up again to the king, trusting that the artless confidence of an innocent man would not be abused. He was, nevertheless, reconducted to the Bastile, where he was closely confined for eighteen months in one of the most dismal dungeons of that prison. At the expiration of that term he was taken from this horrid situation, and put into another room, with a prisoner named D'Alégre, who was likewise detained by Madame de Pompadour.

Both he and his companion had been long taught to expect, with patience, the disgrace of the marchioness; but, with the unfortunate, days are as tedious as years, and it is no wonder that they should turn their thoughts towards regaining their liberty. This, however, appeared a romantic idea; for besides the high walls of the Bastile, which were six feet thick, and four iron grates at each window, the prison was continually guarded by a number of sentinels, and the trenches which surrounded it were most commonly full of water: how then could two prisoners, confined in a narrow cell, and destitute of all human assistance, effect their escape?

Mr. de la Tude, who was fruitful in expedients, first informed himself, by means of an artful trick which he played while they were conducted back to their room, after hearing mass, that the apartment in which they were confined had a double ceiling; and after mentioning what he had observed to his friend, told him, that he had formed a plan for their enlargement, which could not fail of success. From his confidence upon this occasion D'Alégre thought him disordered in his mind, and asked him, with a sneer, where they were to get the ropes, and other implements, necessary to such an undertaking.

"As for the ropes," said de la Tude," give yourself no manner of trouble: in that trunk there are twelve dozen of shirts, six dozen pair of silk stockings, twelve dozen pair of under-stockings, five dozen drawers, and as many dozen of napkins; now, by unraveling these, we shall have more than enough to make one thousand feet of rope." "True," said the other, "but how shall we remove the iron bars from the window? for without instruments it is impossible to do any thing." De la Tude told him that the hand was the instrument of all instruments, and that men, whose heads are capable of working, are never at a loss for resources; what, though neither scissars, knives, nor any edged tools are allowed us, have not we the iron hinges of our folding table, which, with patience and skill, we can make answer the same purpose?

From this discourse D'Alégre began to entertain some hopes, and they now employed all their time and talents in the execution of this curious project. The first evening, by means of one of the hinges, they took up a tile from the floor, and after digging for six hours, found it was a double partition, as de la Tude had conjectured. They then carefully replaced the tile, and began to unravel some of the shirts, drawing them out thread by thread, and twisting them together, till they had formed a rope fifty-five feet long; this they made into a ladder, consisting of twenty-five rounds, made of the wood which was brought them for firing.

The next thing to be done was to remove the iron bars from the chimney, by which outlet they had resolved to escape; they accomplished it in about two months, and then returned them to their places, leaving them ready to be removed when they should be wanted. This appears to have been an exceedingly troublesome operation, as they never descended from the work without bloody hands, and their bodies were so bruised in the chimney, that they could not renew their labour for an hour or two afterwards. This toil over, they now set about making a wooden ladder of twenty feet long, which, as fast as it was finished, was hid with the other things between the two floors.