troops advanced, still supported by quick and effective discharges of artil lery on their flanks, their antagonists turned from the contest, and fled to the north-east, in the direction of Bisztritz. This sudden flight encouraged General Bem to fresh exertions. His soldiers, careless of rest and food, pressed on in pursuit, and, attacking and defeating the Austrians when they attempted to rally at Bethlen, Bisztritz, and Tihucsa, Bem drove them through the defiles of Borgo, and compelled them to seek refuge in the Bukovina. The cities of Klausenburg and Bisztritz were occupied by his forces, and on the 13th of January, when he marched against the important town of Maros-Vasarhely, the Austrian garrison evacuated the place at the first news of his approach and retreated to Mediash. So great was the success and the confidence of the victorious general, that he wrote to Mr. Kossuth: 'I ask you neither for soldiers, nor weapons, nor money. I have it in my power to get as much of them as I want.' And he added that within three days he expected to be in possession of Herrmanstadt, the capital of the province of Transylvania. True to his word, on that day he led his troops over the plain in front of the town, which is fortified with a wall and rampart, and which was, on this occasion, surrounded by formidable redoubts, and occupied by 9000 foot, 2000 cavalry, 30 field-pieces, and 24 pieces of heavy ordnance. The Austrian troops were, moreover, supported by 7000 German and Wallachian irregulars. To confront so large an army in its advantageous position, General Bem brought 7000 men and 30 guns into the plain of Herrmanstadt. He was by far too experienced a general to be blind to the impossibility of success, unless the Imperialists, demoralized by their frequent defeats and their terror of Bem's artillery, should chance to decline the battle and effect their retreat. The assurance with which he led his soldiers up to the very mouths of the Austrian cannon showed that he relied rather on the moral effect of his temerity, than on the means by which battles are usually lost and won. Nor was he altogether wrong

in his calculations. Desertions
of late been frequent among tr
Austrian troops, and on the in
previous to the arrival of the Hz
garians, the Austrian command:
General Puchner, had narra
escaped the consequences of s
tiny among his officers. Indeed
convinced were even the inh
tants of Herrmanstadt of the te
of the troops and the rebell
spirit of their leaders, that the
left the city in crowds for the dese
forests of the defiles of Rotha
thurm.

But General Bem's expectations whatever they might be,weresignal disappointed. As his troops as vanced on the road with their e tillery on either flank, and wha they were in the immediate vicina of the outer entrenchments, the Inperialist artillery opened upon the The first discharge covered Gener Bem and his staff. His adjutant and one of his colonels were kille by his side. In another momen the fire was returned by the Hgarian artillery, and a violent enonade commenced. In this gagement the infantry and cavalry also were brought into action. Beni Viennalegion and his Szeklerhussas (almost the only natives of Tran sylvania who espoused the Hu garian cause) made three unsu cessful attempts to take the works They were each time driven bas by the grape-shot and the mas ketry of the Imperialists. On the other hand, the Hungarian artillery. which was stationed in the open plain, was repeatedly attacked by the Austrian cavalry, and each time the attack was repulsed by murderous fire, supported by the violent onset of Bem's hussars. When the engagement had lasted above five hours, it was found that of the Hungarian guns six had been dismounted, and the centre and I left wing of their position were seriously shaken by the enemy's fire. Their ammunition was spent. A retreat was unavoidable, and the first retrograde movements were making when the rear-guard of the army, under the command of Major Czetz, gained the field of battle. That officer, who ought to have arrived immediately after the commencement of the engagement, came in time to

2

over the retreat of his general by nother attack. But even this uccour did not avail to rouse the #1opes of the young and undisciplined Hungarian troops. Retreating slowly Pat first, they soon wavered, dispersed, and covered the field in their rapid, disorderly flight, while the Austrian horse and artillery issued from their entrenchments to complete the victory. It was at this trying moment that General Bem's cool and calculating courage served him in the stead of an army. He made

no fruitless attempts to rally the fugitives, but surrounded by one squadron of hussars and supported by only six field-pieces, he confronted the Imperialists, firing, retreating, and firing again, and for seven long hours keeping his pursuers at bay. In these seven hours he retreated at the rate of a mile an hour, and at eight o'clock at night he reached the village of Stolzenburg, where, placing his artillery in a commanding position, and impeding the enemy's advance by the destruction of a bridge, he made a definitive and successful resistance. His fugitive troops returned to Stolzenburg in the course of the night. Early on the morning of the 22nd of January, General Bem, though apparently defeated, held a commanding position within a few miles from the field of battle and the capital of Transylvania. The news of these events, proceeding as they did from a part of the country from which Mr. Kossuth, even in his most sanguine moments, could not expect to hear of anything but defeats, reanimated the courage of the Hungarian leader. Though the attack on Herrmanstadt had proved unsuccessful, it was now certain that General Puchner and his army were kept in check by an able and daring commander, at the head of a force whose numbers were daily increasing, while each engagement added to their experience in war. According to the original plan of Prince Windischgrätz, it was General Puchner's task to lead his army from Transylvania into the plains of Hungary, to occupy Grosswardein, Debreczin, and the other head-quarters of Magyarism, and, supported by the troops from the Banat, to prevent the escape of

Mr. Kossuth and the rest of the Magyar leaders. This part of the plan had signally failed. Whatever the result of the campaign might be, it was now certain that the Hungarian forces expelled from Pesth were not to be driven back to that town by the advance of General Puchner in their rear. The Commander-in chief of the Imperial army was compelled to resume his operations against the plains of the Theiss, and, at the same time, to detach fresh forces in pursuit of General Görgey, who, retreating along the banks of the Danube and threatening the Austrian corps which blockaded the fortresses of Komorn and Leopoldstadt, defied the Imperialist general by a line of march which brought him to the vicinity of Pressburg and of the frontier of Austria Proper. It required but the genius of a Bem to make this vexatious position one of real danger for the Austrian Empire. But, even at this early period of the war, it seemed to be General Gōrgey's object to dispel all doubts as to his ultimate intentions. There was even then a moderation in his manœuvres against the Imperialists which admitted but of one construction. was his object to show himself as a formidable antagonist, and, at the same time, to avoid being hated as an enemy; to detach the troops under his command from the national cause and to form for himself an army which would be willing to fight his battles and consent to his treaties; and finally to obtain an influential and commanding position in that Imperial army, which to him, as to every Austrian officer, stood in the place of country, friends, and home. All his actions conduced to that one leading idea. The Hungarians identified Mr. Kossuth with the national cause. It was Mr. Kossuth whom he mentioned with studious contempt, whose orders he disobeyed with a vaunting effrontery, and whom he denounced as a quilldriver' and a pettifogger.' Severe and almost obdurate to his troops, neglectful of their comfort and careless of their sufferings, his treatment of the Austrian prisoners Iwas marked by a kindness which caused his soldiers to say it was better to be an Austrian captive

It

HE English poets are so frequent in their references to the auperstitions which, less than three Benturies ago, continued to exist in The popular mind, that such matters mave acquired greater importance than they might otherwise have Dossessed; though it would be easy o show that many of the creations of fable, even without such recomnendation, are intrinsically beautiful, and contain a germ of truth which may be easily discovered, if, as Cowley says, we open and intend our eye. Not, however, to venture upon this higher ground, it may be safely asserted, that subjects which delighted Milton, even in his mature years-which were illuminated by the radiance of Spenser's fancy and imagination-and whereon the colossal mind of Shakespeare dwelt with love (to pass over a host of less great, but still mighty, intellects), are worthy of regard and investigation during the intervals of graver studies. No production of the human intellect can be altogether trivial; and whatever is beautiful or sublime, becomes a truth to the mind, if not a fact to the senses. The universality of this kind of fiction, also, gives it peculiar interest. Fable appears to have

flowed from the same sacred oriental founts whence our very being is derived. Its origin is nearly coeval with that of humanity. The clear atmosphere of the world's morning hangs above it; and with the first gushing of the living stream of nations towards the desert places of the earth, the vast river of romantic fiction and superstition seems to have gone forth, and to have left remarkable evidences of its progress and omnipresence.

As, however, the great family of man has been split up into a variety of races, each having the same general characteristics, but certain minor shades of difference, so has it been with the posterity of fable. Northern manners and customs, northern scenery, and northern climate, have imparted to the oriental stock a new complexion,

and in some cases have even modified its form; but the identity may generally be traced. This variety, however, is one of the chief excellences of the popular superstitions of England. We have the fantastic and elaborate gorgeousness of the East, with the savage grandeur and primeval ruggedness of the North; visions full of colour and aerial light, side by side with remote glooms and desolate enchantments. It is therefore no wonder that our poetical literature should abound with allusions to so rich a mythology; nor that we should desire to gossip with our readers upon imaginative creations which do not appear to have received their due share of attention.

It is proposed to introduce the reader to the most remarkable fables and superstitions which the great poets and early romance-writers of England have ennobled by their use, of course, with the exception of those borrowed from the stores of Greece and Rome, which are too well known to require further elucidation. The singular thread of connexion, running from land to land, will in most instances be traced; and (wherever it is possible) the remote origin of the fable under consideration-whether existing in some terror common to the human mind, or in a national peculiaritywill be shown. The progress of races is often curiously exemplified in these slight histories; and few things are more pleasant than to find that, without knowing it, we have been enjoying a fairy tale or a poetical abstraction in common with the Chinese and Persians, or with the aborigines of America. The denizens of our nursery, and the shapes that people the heights of our Parnassus, come indeed from strange and remote places-from

the farthest steep of India,' on the one hand, and, on the other, from the long-lost islands of Atlantis, across waters that were once thought to be the limits of the world.

In no fiction is this more remarkably shown than in the one with which we proposed to commence.