The Annual Register of World Events: A Review of the Year

his wife. He was executed; and his body, according to cuftom, was exposed on the scaffold as a terror to the beholders. Rage and defpair had in the mean time tranfported Valentina to the dreadfulleft of all imaginable deeds. She took her two children by the hand, and hurried them with hafty ftrides, and continually weeping, to the place of execution. She preffed through the croud, who made way for her to pafs, and loaded her with execra

tions.

But Valentina was deaf to all that paffed. She reached the foot of the bloody fcaffold, and mounted with her children the fatal steps, as though he would once more embrace the body of her spouse. Valentina led her children quite up to the bleeding corpfe, and bade them embrace their deceased father. At this doleful fight, and at the cries of these poor children, all the fpectators burst out into tears, when fuddenly the raging mother plunged a dagger into the breaft of one, ran upon the other, and ftretched him dead befide his dying brother. An univerfal burst of horro rand difmay afcended to the kies! The

populace ran to lay hold of her→ but, already fhe had stabbed herself with the poignard, and fell lifeless on the bodies of her husband and children.

The fight of the two murdered children, and the mother wallowing in their blood, filled all that were prefent with detestation and terror. It was as if the whole city. had met with fome general calamity. Aftonishment and dejection took hold of every mind and heart. The inhabitants roamed up and down the streets in gloomy filence, and the croud was inceffantly renewing round the scaffold where the blood of the children and the mother was mingling with the blood of the innocent father. Even the hardest hearts were melted into pity and compaffion.

The judge affected by the relation, granted leave to the family to inter the bodies of the father and mother in a place without the walls. The two children were buried in the church of St. Catharine. The tradition of this melancholy event has been preferved at Pifa to the prefent day, and it is ftilt related there with vifible concern.

POETRY

POETRY.

ODE for the NEW YEAR 1795. By HENRY JAMES PYE, Esq.

Poet Laureat.

GAIN the swift revolving hours
Bring January's frozen car;

Still difcord on the nations low'rs,
Still reigns the iron pow'r of war.
Hufh'd be awhile the tumult's ftorm;
Awhile let Concord's milder form
Glide gently o'er each smiling plain,
While as they weave the myrtle wreath
The sportive loves and graces breathe
The hymeneal strain.

II.

From Parent-Elbe's high-trophy'd shore,
Whence our illuftrious chiefs of yore
Brought that bleft code of laws their fons revere,
And bade the glorious fabric flourish here,
The royal virgin comes- -Ye gales

Aufpicious, fill the fwelling fails;
And, while ye gently curl the azure deep,
Let ev'ry ruder blast in filence fleep;
For not from Afric's golden fands,
Or either India's glowing lands,
Have e'er the favouring Naiads brought
A prize to us fo dear, a bark fo richly fraught.

III.

Bright maid, to thy expecting eyes When Albion's cliffs congenial rise, No foreign forms thy looks fhall meet, Thine ear no foreign accents greet: VOL. XXXVII.

[*K]

Here

Here fhall thy breaft united tranfports prove
Of kindred fondness and connubial love.
O that amid the nuptial flowers we twine,
Our hands the olive's fober leaves might join,
Thy prefence teach the ftorm of war to cease,
Difarm'd the battle's rage, and charm the world to peace.
IV.

Yet if the ftern` vindictive foe,
Infulting, aim the hoftile blow,
Britain, in martial terrors dight,

Lifts high the avenging fword, and courts the fight.
On every fide behold her swains
Crowd eager from her fertile plains!
With breafts undaunted, lo, they stand
Firm bulwarks of their native land,
And proud her floating caftles round,
The guardians of her happy coaft,
Bid their terrific thunder found

Difmay to Gallia's scatter'd hoft,
While fill Britannia's navies reign
Triumphant o'er the fubject main.

ODE for His MAJESTY'S BIRTH-DAY, 1795. By HENRY JAME? PYE, Efq. Poet Laureat.

NOT from the martial meature blown,

OT from the trumpet's brazen throat

Mild concord breathes a fofter note,

To greet a triumph all her own;
Wafted on Pleafure's downy wings,
A nearer joy than conqueft brings

Now foothes the royal parent's breast;

By roly wreaths of hymen bound,
A Nation's fervent vows are crown'd,
A much-lov'd fon is bleft.

II.

While crouds, on this returning morn,
Their willing homage pay,

And fhouts of heart-felt gladnefs born,
O'ercome the Mufe's lay,

Amid the Pæan's choral found,

While dying faction's fhrieks are drown'd,

O Sove

O Sovereign of a people's choice.
Hear, in that people's general voice,

The nobleft praise that waits a throne;
Their fureft guard thy patriot zeal!-
Thy public care their ftrength-they feel
Thy happiness their own.

- III.

O royal youth! a king's, a parent's pride,
A nation's future hope!-again the tongue
That join'd the choir, what time by Ifis fide
Her tuneful fons thy birth aufpicious fung,
Now hails, fulfill'd by Hymen's hallow'd flame :
The warmeft with Affection's voice could frame:
For fay, can Fame, can Fortune know
Such genuine raptures to bestow,

As from the fmiles of wedded love arise,

When heavenly virtue beams from blufhing Beauty's eyes?

Ne'er may the rapid hours that wing

O'er Time's unbounded field their ceaseless flight,

To grateful Britain's monarch bring

A tribute of lefs pure delight

Ne'er may the fong of duty foothe his ear

With ftrains of weaker joy, or transports lefs fincere.

EXTRACT from Mr. MAURICE's Elegiac Poem on Sir Wм. JONES.

To gloin, and to burft his chains;
O chase the tenfold gloom, my Jones, was thine,

To search for latent gems the Sanscreet mine,
And wake the fervour of her ancient flrains.

For oh! what pen fhall paint with half thy fire,
The power of mufic on the impaffion'd foul,
When the great masters waked the Indian lyre,
And bade the burning fong electric roll?*

The impreffive title of one of the most ancient Sanfcreet treatifes on mufic is, "The Sea of Paffions." See our author's animated account of the Indian music in the Afiatic Researches, vol. ii. p, 55.

[*K 2]

The

The myftic veil, that wraps the hallow'd shrines
Of India's deities, 'twas thine to rend;
With brighter fires each radiant altar fhines,
To Nature's awful god those fires afcend.

Sound the deep conch; dread Vefhnu's power proclaim,
And heap with fragrant woods the blazing urn;

I fee, fublime Devotion's nobleft flame

'Midft Superftition's glowing embers burn!

Nor did the inftructive orbs of heav'n, alóne,
Abforb thy foul 'mid yon ethereal fields;
To thee the vegetable world was known,
And all the blooming tribes the garden yields.

From the tall cedar on the mountain's brow,
Which the fierce tropic ftorm in vain affails,
Down to the humbleft fhrubs that beauteous blow:
And scent the air of Afia's fragrant vales.

But talents-fancy-ardent, bold, fublime-
Unbounded fcience-form'd thy meaneft fame;
Beyond the grasp of death, the bound of time,
On wings of fire religion wafts thy name,

And long as ftars fhall fhine, or planets roll,

To kindred virtue fhall that name be dear;
Still fhall thy genius charm the aspiring foul,
And diftant ages kindle at thy bier.

See the two profound Differtations on the Indian Chronology in Afiatic Reßarches, vol. ii. p. 111, and 389.

+ Confult various aftronomical paffages in the treatifes above-mentioned, and the difcourfe on the Lunar Year of the Hindus, in the fame publication, vol. iii. p. 249 They are all made fubfervient to the cause of the national theology, and the illustration of the grand truths delivered in the facred writings.

Alluding to fome circumstances of devotion, which occurred in the moments of fir William's diffolution.

ODE

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The Annual Register of World Events: A Review of the Year, Tập 37