"But where's the thing of aspect haggard "The sharded spy, the gobemouche vapid, "Me wriggling in its maw he painted, "Yet see my skin still smooth and white, "For while Sir Bunny, twitching round "In all thereafter did arise From what my friends to what my ghost did, I am and have been fully posted. "To nurse the virtues that had gained me Thus chaffed she Oberon-then unbraided And sobbed "her grateful tears must fall, 1 Hum-m-ed. We do trust, for the honour of Beetledom, that nothing more than its ordinary intonations were employed on the occasion in question, and that no such vile insinuation was intended as Miss Mtoo sensitively suspected. 2 Sap in-lapin. If M- was responsible for these rhymes (and rhyming was among her absurdities), her pronunciation of French was evidently "after the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe." Lost-garters. If we suppose for a moment this statement to be correct, the loss to M- would not have been a great one, as on all ordinary occasions she preferred wearing her stockings about her heels, "Suddenly our vain searchings1 ceased, "Her ghost, we mean-her wraith-her spectre, "We saw her plain-her form--her pose; "Such gesture certes did appear "Such stuff," the King cried, "ne'er was heard. With glowing cheeks and gleaming tresses, She curtsied here, she curtsied there, "You know, my Liege, you well must know, "And this young Gentlefay can state— At all this causeless fuss about me. 1 Vain searchings. The optical apparatus Puck had constructed reflected, it is evident, little credit on its designer-was, in fact, we suspect, but another sample of his discreditable capers.' The 'searchings' in question, however, might have proved vain' for another reason than defects in the telescope, viz. the non-existence of the objects sought for. 2 The Beast. It has been disputed whether Oberon meant by this appellative the Rabbit-'simpliciter' and 'per se.' Unquestionably there was at that time great confusion in the minds of many of the Fairy community between the ideas of the Rabbit and the D-1, and from the prevalent estimate of Minikeena's character it seemed à priori not improbable that Satan himself should swallow her. From the reply to the King, however, it appears he was understood to refer exclusively to the minor embodiment of evil-the creature without horn or hoof, and with tail of contracted dimensions that was generally supposed to 1 Hum-m-ed. We do trust, for the honour of Beetledom, that nothing more than its ordinary intonations were employed on the occasion in question, and that no such vile insinuation was intended as Miss Mtoo sensitively suspected. 2 Sap in-lapin. If M- was responsible for these rhymes (and rhyming was among her absurdities), her pronunciation of French was evidently "after the school of Stratford-atte-Bowe." Lost-garters. If we suppose for a moment this statement to be correct, the loss to M- would not have been a great one, as on all ordinary occasions she preferred wearing her stockings about her heels, "First to her Queen her thanks were due," Pressing her bosom like a pin's head. "She'd treasure too till Fate should end her, The Doctor's epithet of 'tender,' And that prompt In memoriam Sermon !" She hailed the Commodore 'True Blue,' And bore ecstatic witness to The 'pluck' of both, and the—' agility.' Then she perked up her pigmy body, With tricks, quips, songs, assaulting, cheating, 3 O'Lanthorn danced, the glow-worms glittered, And Oberon-Oh his sides were splitting! Replaced were then the soup, the chine, But now my Muse is lacking rest, King Oberon's heart and Rabbits' noses. J. S. D. 1 Light and sweetness. A resemblance may be detected between these expressions and Mr. Matthew Arnold's "Sweetness and Light." However this may be accounted for-on which a good deal might be said-it is probable, from her subsequent illustrations, that Minikeena understood the epithets in a somewhat different sense from that which the human philosopher attaches to them. 2 Wolfish howl. Of course a pianissimo imitation, yet loud enough, in his Lordship's delicate state of health to agitate him extremely, and even threaten a recurrence of his late distressing malady. 3 O'Lanthorn (Jack-the th sounded as in thin) an Irish crony of Minikeena. The O'Lanterns of Ireland, though closely connected with the humbler English Wisps, hold high position, and are much looked up to in their own country. Some fancy they discern the peculiar gait of the Chief of the Tribe-The O'Lanthorn-in the present Home-Rule move THE CONVENT OF SAN MARCO. IV. SAVONAROLA AS A POLITICIAN. THE first great event which followed, in the public life of Florence and at the same time in the history of Savonarola, upon the death of Lorenzo dei Medici was the very curious and picturesque episode of the visit of Charles of Anjou-Charles the Eighth of France-to the city of Florence. A more remarkable and exciting incident has seldom found a place in any record of the risks to which small states are liable. There was no quarrel between Italy, so far as such a general title could be given to the Italy of that day, and France. Certainly there was no quarrel between Florence and France. But there has scarcely ever been a time when the many divisions, the contending cities, republics, and princedoms of Italy have not been a temptation to her bigger neighbours on every side of her. A country so rich and splendid could scarcely fail to awaken covetings; and nothing could give more opportunity to the invader than the condition of this warring family, every member of which clung with desperation to its own precarious independence, though quite indifferent to the enslaving of its brethren. The immediate cause of the French invasion was the usurpation of Ludovic the Moor, Ludovico Sforza, who had dethroned his own nephew, the rightful Duke of Milan, and reigned (like one of Shakespeare's dukes), keeping this nephew in confinement. The wife of the imprisoned prince, however, was the daughter of the king of Naples, who threatened Ludovico continually, and disturbed him in the possession of his usurped and ill-gotten power. To put an effectual stop to this disturbance, Ludovico invited France, in the person of her young and romantically-disposed monarch, to invade Italy and take Naples, a jewel worthy of even an imperial crown. France, history tells us or at least all wise Frenchmen strangely enough, Italy, the country threatened with invasion, invited it, and rejoiced in the prospect; and even eyes so penetrating penetrating as those of Savonarola saw a deliverer divinely sent in the uncouth figure of Charles of Anjou, the least comely of all knights-errant. Nothing could more clearly show the despairing disgust of the people with their princes and their governments than this universal sentiment of welcome towards the foreign invader, who could scarcely fail to be the enemy of the commonweal. Lorenzo dei Medici had been dead about a year and a half, during which time his son Piero held a tottering sway in Florence, when the French army crossed the Alps. The first news of their setting out, exaggerated by all those popular tales of gigantic strength and barbarian ferocity which attach generally to all invaders, and which in those distant ages rumour gave full voice to, was received in Florence on one of the days when Savonarola preached in the Duomo; and thither the excited populace rushed to hear what he had to say about this terrible event. He had already warned them of One who should come, like a new Cyrus, over the hills to punish the wicked and purge Italy of her sins. As it happened, his series of discourses upon the building of Noah's ark —that spiritual house of refuge in which he had entreated his hearers to take refuge had come to an appropriate and striking point which chimed in strangely with the event of which all his great congregation had just heard with excitement, agitation, and terror. "Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters on the earth," were the words of his text. He gave it forth "with a terrible voice" over the heads of the hushed and awe-stricken multitude in the gloom of the great cathedral; his voice sounded like sudden thunder, and a shudder of painful interest and emotion rose through the vast assembly, moving the |