sounded at two in the morning; all had been arranged beforehand: the murderers carried a scarf on the left arm and a white cross in the hat, for better distinction. A band of soldiers led by Henry of Guise presented themselves at the house of Coligny; the doors were opened in the king's name, the assassins. entered and found their victim at prayer. "Art thou Coligny?" said the leader, with his sword drawn. "Yes, I am he," was the reply; "young man, respect my white hairs." Without further parley Coligny was slain, his body thrown from the window, and Henry of Guise spurned it with his foot as it lay. Death reigned throughout Paris: the Huguenots rushed out of their houses half naked at the sound of the tocsin, at the cries of their brethren, and were slaughtered in the streets; the goldsmith Cruce boasted of having slain four hundred Huguenots in one day. The king, who had planned this awful tragedy, desired to take his part in the execution. "He was seen to fire," says Brantôme, "from a window of the Louvre, on the Protestant fugitives. Royal orders were despatched and similar scenes were performed in the other principal towns of the kingdom. Henry, king of Navarre, and the young Condé were brought into the presence of Charles: "The mass, or death!" cried the king, and the two young nobles submitted to an external conformity with the religion of the author of St. Bartholomew. The intelligence was received in England and in Europe with silent horror. At Rome the pope chanted a solemn mass of thanksgiving; and in Madrid, Philip II. accepted the information with approbation. The duke of Alva, who at this moment was sacrificing thousands to the same spirit of bigotry in the Netherlands, had suggested nine years before to the queen mother, that "ten thousand frogs are not worth one salmon!" Queen Catherine and her son had expected by so great a crime to bear down all remains of opposition, but they were in error: the places that revolted defended themselves with the obstinacy of despair. Rochelle stood a siege against Henry, the king's brother, of six months' duration, and it cost the besiegers twenty thousand men. In June, 1573, a new treaty conceded the same privileges as before to the Huguenots. Charles IX. fell into ill-health; he seemed a prey to a furious delirium; the spectres of his victims appeared before his eyes. He expired in an agony of mental and physical anguish, at the early age of twenty-four, 30th May, 1574, one year and nine months after the fatal night of St. Bartholomew.Abridged from Cockayne's France. RALEIGH IN THE TOWER. HIS EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AMERICA HIS EXECUTION. HO, when thinking of Sir Walter Raleigh, does not recall to his memory the magnificent lines in which the poet Spenser dedicates to him one of the great masterpieces of English literature: "To thee that art the sommer's nightingale, In whose high thoughts Pleasure hath built her boure, And dainty Love learned sweetly to endite Fitter perhaps to thunder martial stowre, Yet, till that thou thy poeme wilt make knowne, showne." In these words Spenser dedicates his "Faëry Queene" to Raleigh, who, it appears, was meditating some poem in praise of Queen Elizabeth, here called Cynthia. Well indeed might he sing the praises of this Cynthia, with whom he was such a special favourite; for her successor, James I., seems to have had a rooted aversion to him, and under his reign Raleigh occupied a very different position from that which he had hitherto done. Very soon after the accession of James I., Raleigh's post of captain of the guard was taken from him; and his patent of wines was revoked, though not without a nominal compensation being made. To complete his ruin, it was contrived to involve him in a charge of treason. Most writers have concurred in speaking of this passage of history as inexplicable; it is the opinion of Mr. Tytler, that he has found sufficient evidence for regarding the whole plot as a device of Cecil's, and he has supported this opinion by cogent arguments. Lord Cobham, a violent and ambitious but weak man, had engaged in private dealings with the Spanish ambassador, which brought him under the suspicion of the government. By a device of Cecil's he was induced, in a fit of anger, and in the belief that Raleigh had given information against him, to accuse Sir Walter himself of being privy to a conspiracy against the government. This charge Cobham retracted, confirmed, and retracted again, behaving in so equivocal a manner, that no reliance whatever can be placed on any of his assertions. But as the king was afraid of Raleigh as much as the secretary hated him, this vague charge, unsupported by other evidence, was made sufficient to commit him to the Tower; and, after being plied with private examinations, in which nothing criminal could be elicited, he was brought to trial, November 17, 1603, and found guilty. It is reported to have been said by one of the judges who presided over it, on his deathbed, that "the justice of England had never been so degraded and injured as by the condemnation of Sir Walter Raleigh." The behaviour of the victim himself was the object of universal admiration, for the tempered mixture of patience and noble spirit with which he bore the oppressive measure dealt to him. He had before been unpopular; but it was recorded by an eye-witness that "he behaved himself so worthily, so wisely, and so temperately, K that in half a day the mind of all the company was changed from the extremest hate to the extremest pity." The sentence of death thus unfairly and disgracefully obtained was not immediately carried into execution. James was not satisfied with the evidence adduced on the trial; and believing at the same time that Raleigh had been plotting against him, he set his royal wit to dive into the mystery. Of the singular scene which our British Solomon devised it is not necessary to speak, since Raleigh was not an actor in it. But as no more evidence could be obtained against him, even by the king's sagacity, he was reprieved, and remanded to the Tower, where the next twelve years of his life were spent in confinement. Fortunately, he had never ceased to cultivate literature with a zeal not often found in the soldier and politician, and he now beguiled the tedium of his lot by an entire devotion to those studies which before had only served to diversify his more active and engrossing pursuits. Of his poetical talents we have already made short mention; to the end of life he continued the practice of pouring out his mind in verse, and there are several well-known and beautiful pieces expressive of his feelings in prison, and in the anticipation of immediate death, especially "The Lie," and the beautiful little poem called "The Pilgrimage." He also possessed a strong turn for mathematics, and studied them with much success in the society, and under the guidance of his friend Thomas Hariot, one of the most accomplished mathematicians of the age. Chemistry was another favourite pursuit, in which, according to the standard of his contemporaries, he made great progress. But the most important occupation of his imprisonment was the composition of his "History of the World." Notwithstanding the quaintness of the style, and the discursive manner in which the ject is treated, it is impossible to read this volume without admiring the wonderful extent of the author's reading, not only in history, but in philosophy, theology, and even the ponderous and untempting stores of Rabbinical learning. Many of the chapters relate to subjects which few persons would expect to find in a history of the world; yet these will often be found among the most interesting and characteristic portions of the book; and its deep learning is relieved and set off by passages of genuine eloquence, which display to the best advantage the author's rich imagination and grasp of mind. The work extends from the Creation to the end of the second Macedonian war. Raleigh meant to bring it down to modern times; but the untimely death of Henry, Prince of Wales, for whose use it was composed, deprived him of the spirit to proceed with so laborious an undertaking. He enjoyed the confidence of that generous youth in a remarkable degree, and maintained a close correspondence with him on civil, military, and naval subjects. Several discourses on these topics, addressed to the prince, will be found in the editions of Raleigh's works. Henry repaid these services with sincere friendship and admiration; and we may presume that his adviser looked forward to that friendship, not only for a cessation of misfortune, but for a more brilliant period of favour and power than he had yet enjoyed. Fortunately, however, this calamity was preceded by the death of his archenemy, Cecil; and through the mediation of the Duke of Buckingham, employed in consideration of £1,500 paid to his uncles, Sir William, Sir John, and Sir Edward Villiers, Raleigh was released from the Tower, in March, 1615; and obtained permission to follow up his long-cherished scheme of establishing a colony in Guiana, and working a goldmine, of which he had ascertained the cxistence and situation. The terms on which this licence was ensued, in which the English gained the advantage, and burnt the town. In this action Raleigh's eldest son was killed. The Spaniards still occupied the passes to the mine, and after an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge them, Keymis abandoned the enterprise, and returned to the ships. Raleigh's correspondence expresses in affecting terms his grief and indignation at this double misfortune; the loss of a brave and promising son, and the destruction of the hopes which he had founded on this longcherished adventure. On his return to England, he found himself marked out for a victim to appease the resentment of the Spanish court, to which he had long been an object of fear and hatred. He quietly surrendered himself to Sir Lewis Stewkeley, who was sent to Plymouth to arrest him, and commenced the journey to London under his charge. But his mind fluctuated between the desire to confront his enemies, and a sense of the hopelessness of obtaining justice; and he was at last entrapped by the artifices of the emissaries of government who surrounded him, into an attempt to escape, in which he was arrested, and committed to close custody in the Tower. Here his conversation and correspondence were narrowly watched, in the hopes. that a treasonable understanding with the French government, from which he had received the offer of an asylum in France, might be established against him. His conduct abroad had already been closely scrutinised, in the hope of finding some act of piracy, or unauthorised aggression against Spain, for which he might be brought to trial. Both these hopes failing, and his death, in compliment to Spain, being resolved granted are remarkable. He was not pardoned, but merely let loose on the engagement of his friends, the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke, that he should return to England. Neither did James contribute to the expense of the undertaking, though it was stipulated that he was to receive a fifth part of the bullion imported. The necessary funds were provided out of the wreck of Raleigh's fortune (his estate of Sherborne had been forfeited), and by those private adventurers who were willing to risk something in reliance on his experience and judgment. A fleet of fourteen sail was thus provided, and Raleigh, by letters under the privy seal, was appointed commander-in-chief and governor of the intended colony. He relied, it is said, on the full powers granted him by this commission as necessarily including a remission of all past offences, and therefore neglected to sue out a formal pardon, which at this period probably would hardly have been denied him. The results of this disastrous voyage must be shortly given. Raleigh sailed March 28, 1617, and reached the coast of Guiana in November following. Being himself disabled by sickness from proceeding farther, he despatched a party to the mine under the command of Captain Keymis, an officer who had served in the former voyage to Guiana. But during the interval which had elapsed since Raleigh's first discovery of that country, the Spaniards had extended their settlements into it, and in particular had built a town called Santa Thome, in the immediate neighbourhood of the mine in question. James, with his usual duplicity, while he authorised the expedition, revealed every particular connected with it to the Spanish ambas-on, it was determined to carry into effect sador. The English, therefore, were expected in the Orinoco, and preparations had been made for repelling them by force. Keymis and his men were unexpectedly attacked by the garrison of Santa Thome, and a sharp contest the sentence passed fifteen years before, from which he had never been legally released; and a warrant was accordingly issued to the judges, requiring them to order execution. The case was a novel one, and threw that learned body into some perplexity. They determined, however, that after so long an interval, execution could not be granted without allowing the prisoner an opportunity of pleading against it; and Raleigh was therefore brought to the bar of the Court of King's Bench, October 28, 1618. The record of his conviction having been read, he was asked whether he could urge anything why the sentence should not be carried into effect. He insisted on the nature of his late commission, and on that plea being overruled, submitted with his usual calmness and dignity. The execution, with indecent haste, was ordered to take place on the following morning. In this last stage of life, his greatness of mind shone with even more than its usual lustre. Calm, and fearless without bravado, his behaviour and speech expressed the piety and resignation of a Christian, with the habitual coolness of one who has braved death too often to shrink at its approach. The accounts of his deportment on the scaffold effectually refute the charges of irreligion and atheism, which some writers have brought against him, unless we make up our minds to believe him an accomplished hypocrite. He spoke at considerable length, and his dying words have been faithfully reported. They contain a denial of all the serious offences laid to his charge, and express his forgiveness of those even who had betrayed him under the mask of friendship. After delivering this address, and spending some time in prayer, he laid his head on the block, and breathing a short private prayer, gave the signal to the executioner. Not being immediately obeyed, he partially raised his head, and said, "What dost thou fear? Strike, man!" and underwent the fatal blow without shrinking or alteration of position. He died in the sixty-sixth year of his age. CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS. THEIR DISTINCTIVE FAULTS AND MERITS. T is not often that | power. "If their steps were not acthe moderate Eng- companied by a splendid train of lish character sunders itself so completely into two such distinct types as were the Puri tans and their opponents. The fierce struggle of the civil war, culminating in the execution of Charles I., was no doubt the cause of this. Men's peculiarities are best brought out in sharp conflict; in times of peace and quiet, they are quite obliterated. To the Puritans the whole world seemed filled with the presence of a higher menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. Their palaces were houses not made with hands; their diadems crowns of glory which should never fade away. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt: for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language, nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand. The very meanest of them was a being to whose fate a mysterious and terrible importance belonged, on whose slightest |