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marked the last battle-fields of the invading Tartar, had long been green and mossy. Among the people, it seemed also that the battle of the Reformation had been won. Free thought and free discussion were established in Poland, and her protestant church, already of considerable extent and influence, was daily gaining ground by help of prince Radizwill's bible. Nevertheless, throughout the land there was a gleam of arms and a waving of banners, as from fortress and town, from castle and convent, barons, palatines, bishops, and abbots, poured to the field of Vola.

On that broad plain royalty had been bestowed ever since the temple of Zereneboc stood there, and the first Piast built Cracow with bulwarks of wood and walls of clay. Through centuries of barbarism and superstition Poland had chosen her rulers on the spot; and now, in an age of great national prosperity and growing light, her magnates were assembling to elect another king. The field of election presented a singular and splendid spectacle. In its centre stood the great earthen amphitheatre, the work of a rude age, but now covered with crimson cloth and hung with arras. There the Polish deputies gave their momentous votes at an equally primitive altar, on which lay the iron club of that early and canonized monarch, Saint Mieczyslav, a gorgeously illuminated manuscript of the Gospels, a stone urn (said to be as old as the Sarmatian Republic) to receive the voters' scrolls, the crown of Poland, and two great rolls of parchment, filled with the rights and privileges of her nobility. The level land, all round from the gates of Cracow to the royal forest, was covered with tents, banners, and armed squadrons, the encampment of each princely house distinguishable by its floating standard, regular fortifications, and mounted cannon; for though hostility was neither meant nor expected, the march of each superior palatine to Vola was like that of an army with armed battalions, baggage, and cannon. The bishops and abbots came with no less martial pomp, though crosier and chalice were borne before them; while the neighbouring princes, foreign ambassadors, and nobles from distant lands, who came to watch over political interests, or witness the grand ceremonial, felt bound to appear in proportionate magnifiGreat was the gathering of rank, riches, and beauty; for noble ladies accompanied their kindred from the remotest provinces to see the solemnity and share in the after festivities. Great was the multitude of retainers and dependants, and great the crowd of trading Jews, idle peasants, and preaching friars, who swarmed on the outskirts of the field.

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Many purposes, and many plans, besides the disposal of a crown, had drawn that vast assembly together; and in a poor tent within the camp of Christopher Radizwill, palatine of Lithuania, sat a pair who had no vote to give, no interest to serve, but who had come a weary journey to see their long-absent child. The man, Justin Dolenski, was one of twin brothers, nobly descended, but early left orphans, and without provision, through the prodigality of an ill-guided father. In her widowed poverty, their mother removed from great Poland to the house of her godfather, near the little town of Kieydany, in Upper Lithuania, who had kindly offered to shelter her and

her children. He had been physician to the grand duke Sigismund, better known in history as the last of the Jagellons, and having purchased a small estate out of his savings, he lived a solitary man among his peasants in an old Lithuanian hoff, spending every spare dollar on books, for which he took annual journeys to the fairs of Kiof and Wilna, and devoting his days to study and learning. From that retirement his fame as a scholar had spread over the north of Europe. There was no university from which he had not received a degree, no controversy of the age in which he had not taken part. Learned men in those Latin-speaking days knew him as doctor Robertus Hamiltonius. His real name would have sounded strangely among the names of Poland, for it was Robert Hamilton. Born at Lanark, in the west of Scotland, and sent for education to the then flourishing university of Saint Andrews, the early dawn of the Reformation lighted up his mind just when the Scottish monarch James v was endeavouring to atone for his licentious life by a relentless persecution of what was called "the new heresy." The instruments of priestly tyranny were abroad; and one of them, a class-fellow, accused young Hamilton to the dreaded cardinal Beaton, of secretly reading the Greek testament. There was no safety from such a charge but in flight. The young student accordingly escaped to Germany, completed his studies at Leipsic, and, after many wanderings, settled at the court of the grand duke Sigismund, and subsequently, on his purchased estate near Kieydany, where a considerable number of Scottish refugees had established themselves, as the growing strength of protestantism in that province allowed free scope for their faith and worship.

In no country did the doctrines of the Reformation make more rapid progress than in Lithuania, which, under Providence, was chiefly owing to the two great palatines, famous in their country's history as the Red and the Black Radizwill. The former of these princes fought the battles of Poland against Swede and Muscovite, with valour and success, and still more bravely defended the cause of religious liberty within her borders; but to the latter, at once a scholar and a statesman, Poland owes a deeper debt. Under his patronage, and with his assistance, was completed that translation of the bible into her vernacular tongue, to which popular gratitude, or memory, has attached his name; for the Polish protestant's bible is still known as that of prince Radizwill. Doctor Robertus had given the help of his zeal and scholarship to the faith for which he was an exile. Through his instruction the widow became a protestant, and her children were brought up in the Zwinglian confession, which was then most popu lar in the palatinate. Kind and loving brothers were Justin and Emerich Dolenski-ever together in tasks or play, and scarcely to be distinguished from each other, on account of the mutual resem blance peculiar to twins. Both were handsome, clever, and high-spirited. As time developed their characters, it was observed that Emerich possessed most prudence, and Justin most courage and ability. The friends of the family had great hopes that the latter would one day retrieve its fallen fortunes; and when it became necessary that

the landless orphans should select professions fitting their birth and times, Justin entered the army of prince Radizwill, while Emerich took service as esquire with the count of Jablonski, grand-chamberlain to Catherine Jagellon, the newmade queen of Sweden. The count was a zealous Romanist, and so was his royal mistress; but she had wedded a protestant king, and presided over a protestant court, and a kingdom in which the Reformation had struck a deeper root than in any realm of Europe. Doctor Robertus saw no risk in this; nor did the widow apprehend danger to her son's principles. The worldly prospect which his appointment offered, screened the peril. The hopes and anxieties of mother and sons were bounded by earthly honours and possessions, notwithstanding their profession of a purer faith. The brothers parted at their old home threshold, and henceforth their paths were diverse. Justin's led through camp and fortress, through battle and siege, in Courland, Livonia, and Red Russia; Emerich's through the scarcely less perilous mazes of the Swedish court, filled with discontented nobles, governed by an ambitious but unstable monarch, and perplexed by a bigoted queen and her Jesuit confessor. Each brother rose to distinction by the steps before him, as manhood succeeded youth. Justin was known as a brave captain among the lances of Radizwill the Red, and Emerich became squire-at-arms to prince Sigismund, the heir of the Swedish crown. In process of time each also married. Emerich obtained the hand of Marcella Dombrowski, maid of honour to queen Catherine, who was regarded with special favour for her devotion to the Romish creed; while Justin formed a less gainful though more illustrious alliance, with an orphan daughter of the princely house of Lyszczynski, who fled from a convent in which her Roman catholic uncle had destined her to wear the veil, to share the fortunes of the protestant captain.

gismund. The offer of a courtly education for their child seemed too advantageous to the parents to be refused; and in her ninth year the girl was sent, with all the care they could command, and a trusty escort, to Stockholm. Regularly since then, they had heard of her growth, of her welfare, and of the progress she made in all the ladies' learning of that age; but for nine long years they had not seen their daughter; and as the lord chamberlain was to come with his whole family in the train of prince Sigismund, they had for this purpose journeyed thus far from the old hoff in Lithuania.

Many hopes and fears had hung about that journey. The tidings of their daughter had been regular, but scanty-always conveyed in brief and formal messages. When, at length, the girl's own letters came, they were well written, and dutiful, but had a tone of constraint that fell cold on the mother's heart. Eustachia had missed her child sorely when first they parted. Anxious thoughts regarding her fate and fortunes in the distant city, made the woman's nights sleepless; but as age crept on them in their poor and solitary home, she and her husband consoled themselves by thinking what an advantage her uncle's great house and courtly state must be to Anna. Nevertheless, one fear haunted the mother's mind, which neither time nor letters lessened. Might not the girl's affections be weaned from her poor parents to the gay household among whom she had lived so long? Perhaps it was selfish, though natural, to think so; but a higher cause of anxiety had lately occurred to both father and mother. The years that changed the bold and handsome captain to a bowed and sickly man, and streaked with grey Eustachia's rich black hair, had not passed fruitlessly for them. Justin had been a protestant by education, and his wife had adopted the reformed creed because it was his; but both were gradually led, by ways scarcely known to themselves, to think earnestly of the things that belong to their peace, Eustachia Lyszczynski was now seated by his and learn the true value of "the faith once deliside in that lone tent; but time had brought great vered to the saints." With that better light came changes to her and hers. Years ago Justin's unwonted fears for their daughter. To what inmartial career had been interrupted by a spent ball fluences might her young mind be exposed in the from a Russian culverin, which produced perma- house of her careless uncle, and the court of the nent injury of the spine, and unfitted him for bigoted Catherine! for a pompous letter had military or even active life. With a small pension long ago informed them that their girl had been in acknowledgment of past services, the broken- selected as playmate and companion to the young down soldier and his wife returned to the hospit- princess Anna. Bitterly did the parents now reable roof of doctor Robertus. The old man had gret that they had ever sacrificed so much to still a welcome for them. Eustachia's uncle, how-worldly advantage; but the step could not be reever, had never forgiven her first act of disobedience. From its commission he had disowned and cast her off as a disgrace to her family; but the proud and wealthy noble had lived to see no heir to his vast possessions but her only child Anna Eustachia.

While heavy misfortune had thus fallen upon his brother, while his mother had grown old and died, and doctor Robertus had departed from his books, kindly bequeathing his small estate to Justin, Emerich had advanced in courtly skill and honours, till, on being appointed chamberlain to prince Sigismund, and learning that his niece might be the heiress of Lyszczynski, he had offered to give her an education befitting her future rank, as he himself had been blessed with no daughter, and but one son, named, in honour of the young prince, Si

traced. Stockholm was in those days more difficult to reach from Lithuania than London would be in ours. Justin was ill-calculated for travelling, and Emerich held out neither encouragement nor invitation to come and see their child. Indeed, the lord chamberlain's permission had been with difficulty obtained to see her even at Vola; for though prince Vladislav Lyszczynski had all but declared Anna his heiress, Emerich thought proper to let her parents understand their inferiority.

Late events had greatly increased the difference in the brothers' fortunes; for rumour now spoke of the prince whom Emerich had served so long, as the future king of Poland. At the period of our story, Poland and Sweden were reckoned the most powerful kingdoms of the north. Russia was then scarcely counted among European states.

Her influence, her commerce, and her manners belonged rather to northern Asia, and the western nations regarded the barbarous Muscovite as little removed from the Tartar. Descended from the royal houses of Vasa and Jagellon, there was every probability that the two crowns would be united on the brow of the young prince Sigismund. Religion alone presented an obstacle, for the reformed faith was firmly established in Sweden, not only by law, but by the attachment of the people; while in Poland, Rome still claimed the majority, and a protestant king had never been elected. Sigismund's father, the weak and worldlyminded John Vasa, who, like many a man of lower estate, was more anxious to grasp than prudent to retain or manage, had schemed, and intrigued, and shifted through a long life, to obtain that union of crowns for his family. For it he had endangered the peace of his protestant kingdom, not to say of his own palace, by selecting as his bride a princess whose reason and conscience were known to be in the keeping of the Jesuits, solely because her royal race had long been respected in Poland. While himself professing protestantism, he had permitted his heir to be brought up a Romanist, till at length discovering that the young prince regarded his confessor much more than his heretic father, he attempted to convert him by a system of domestic persecution, which of course had not the desired effect. Emerich Dolenski had imitated at a humble distance, but with considerable accuracy, the turns and windings of his royal master. He, too, had formed a Romish alliance, but his lady was less devout than ambitious. Her confessor had the direction of their only son's education, who was named Sigismund, after the prince, and brought up as near his training as a subject's estate permitted. In the midst of court intrigues and envies, Emerich's wife was taken from his side by one of those sudden summonses which say to mortals, " Be ye always ready." The event amazed him, as it were, for a moment, but, deeply involved as he was in the world's meshes, the man went on circumventing, watching, and plotting to aggrandize his house.

Under a less devoted monarch, it was feared Poland might entirely cast off the papal yoke. Surrounding princes spared no expense of bribe or promise to secure his election, while bishops, priests, and friars made exertions scarcely to be paralleled in the history of their church. On the protestants of the land a fatal security seemed to have fallen. Some among them doubtless saw the threatened danger, but there were none with the spirit of old Firley, who, when Henry de Valois tried to put aside the oath securing liberty of conscience on the day of his coronation, took up the diadem from before him, exclaiming: "If thou dost not swear, thou shalt not reign." Sigismund's election was all but certain, and Emerich Dolenski, besides the hope of being high chamberlain at his court, rejoiced in the prospect of the Lyszczynski lands.

Under the management of two sisters of the Holy Heart, one grave and the other gay, his young niece had been slowly and almost insensibly led into the practice of the Roman ritual, though her governesses declared they could not make her devout. The poor parents knew nothing of this. News from the Swedish court never reached their remote and rustic home; but they knew, on arriving at Cracow, that Emerich had come with prince Sigismund, and they were now patiently waiting till the great man should find time to see them and bring their daughter, as he had given them positive commands not to approach his pavilion.

All day long they had watched and waited; and now the west was glorious with a summer sunset, which made that gathering of earthly pomp look dim. Trumpet and herald had ceased along the field of Vola. The ceremonious visits to the prince were over, and the inferior crowd, tired of shouts and gazing, had settled into the quiet of a continuous hum, which rose from tent and field. As the light grew fainter, there was a sound of com ing steps, and a tall, spare man, with an anxious and crafty look, wrapped in a russet mantle, like one who would avoid observation, and followed by a young girl and a dame of discreet age, entered Dolenski's tent.

Justin knew his brother, and Eustachia knew her child, as the black veil and hood were hastily flung back, and Anna clung round her neck, exclaiming: "Dear mother, how changed you are! but I know you." The cold letters, the long loneliness, and even the fears, were forgotten. Her own youth seemed renewed in the fair open brow and deep blue eyes bending over her. Justin had not seen his brother for fifteen years, but Emerich's greeting clasp was cold and hurried, while something in the meeting of Anna and her mother seemed to disconcert him wonderfully. As for the discreet dame, she looked on with the blandest smile in the world, but there was a keen unquiet light in her eye.

Emerich's zeal for the education of his niece was not unconnected with that purpose. He too had a union in prospect, and laboured for it after king John's own fashion. There was an understanding between him and old Vladislav, brought about by queen Catherine's confessor, that if the heiress of Lyszczynski were brought up in the Romish faith, she should be the bride of his son Sigismund. Match-making was a favourite employment of "the holy brotherhood" in those days, and woeful work they made by that means in families. But Emerich had no doubt of obtaining the papal dispensation necessary for such a connexion; for though a sort of half conscience, half pride, kept him from changing his profession (it could not be called religion), he belonged to that order whom a Jesuit writer designates as heretics who may be suffered for a time, and even made" serviceable to the church."

King and chamberlain were by this time each congratulating himself on the success of his deep-laid and laborious scheme. Prince Sigismund's known attachment to their faith had made the Romish

powers of Christendom combine in his favour.

"She is my first governess," whispered Anna, and has been kind," as she flew to embrace her father.

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Bless you, my girl," said Justin, clasping his daughter; "I thought you would have forgotten us.'

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"Oh, never, never, father!" said Anna. “When my education is finished, we will all live together

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at Cracow you know I am to have a great fortune."

A frown, which he tried to conceal, but could not, here passed over Emerich's face, and he said: "Now remember, we must return in time for your grand-uncle's banquet. Do be quiet and let us talk comfortably."

Anna shrank to her mother's side at that rebuke; and, seating himself with Justin, Emerich began to enlarge on the grandeur of his own present position and future prospects, on the power of the Romish faction, on the friendship they had shown him, on the extreme folly of disputing about religion, and on the great wisdom the Swedish king had shown in the education of his son.

To all this Justin was a patient though by no means acquiescing listener. In the meantime, Eustachia, with the high-bred courtesy acquired in earlier days, saluted her daughter's governess, (who, it is needless to say, was a sister of the Holy Heart,) thanking her for the pains and care she had bestowed on Anna's education. Nothing could exceed the modesty and politeness with which the lady responded to these compliments; and, having taken a seat, she commenced a detail of Anna's excellent conduct and accomplishments, which left the poor delighted mother no time for a word with her child, till, whether by accident or design, the governess at length stumbled on a gold-clasped missal presented to her by queen Catherine. "Why a missal!" said Madame Dolenski; "is my child a protestant ?"

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The governess stared as if she thought her ears must be deceitful.

"Oh yes, certainly," cried Emerich, with an evasive air. "But, do you know," continued he, "all the people who care anything for religion at court are catholics."

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Ah! my daughter," said the conscience-strick en Eustachia, on whom Emerich's manner had not been lost, "to what peril have I exposed you!" 'Dear mother," cried Anna-but here Emerich interposed, saying, as he seized her arm, "Come away, girl. It is the banquet hour, and the heiress must not disappoint prince Vladislav; we will settle those troublesome questions about religion once for all to-morrow, after the election;" and he and the governess hurried poor Anna away, while she addressed a hesitating ques tion to her mother regarding the receipt of certain letters and presents.

It was a sad hour with the pair when they left them. Emerich's crafty coldness fell like frost on his brother's heart.

"It is through friends we learn to know our misfortunes," said Justin; "and Emerich has studied in an evil school." Concerning Anna, too, their worst fears seemed to be verified, yet there was some hope. Their daughter evidently did not despise nor forget her poor parents; and if the bonds which surrounded her could be broken-but they were cemented by rank and splendour" And what," said the father, despondingly, "have we to offer ?"

by four good oxen, which formed the equipage of provincial gentry; but Michael's discretion and usefulness could be relied on. He was still strong and active, in spite of sixty years; a shrewd though somewhat silent man, better informed than the most of Polish peasants, for Michael was a protestant, pious, honest, and devoted to his mastor. He had been a soldier in Justin's regiment, and was chosen for his special attendant on account of courage and good conduct. The captain had saved his life three times in battle, and, when he retired from military service, Michael followed him. Without wife, children, or relations, the hoff became his home, and his absorbing interest the fortunes of the family. Absent on necessary business during that short interview, Michael's disappointment was great at having missed seeing his young mistress, as he called Anna, but his consolation was that of her parents, that the girl would be more with them after the election. [END OF CHAPter 1.]

THE CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. GREAT changes have passed over British husbandry during the past thirty years, both as regards the value of produce and the system of tillage. The enormous war-prices of the earlier part of the century led necessarily to a corresponding reaction, which spread consternation and alarm through all the realms of Farmerdom; while, much more recently, certain well-known legislative arrangements have been pregnant with fresh trials for the agricultural class. The effect of these derangements of traditional customs and experiences was at first to discourage all enterprise, and superinduce a very imperfect and exhaustive mode of cultivation; but, soon convinced of the impolicy and folly of this suicidal mode of procedure, a large number of English yeomen, possessed of a more than average share of intelligence and capital, rousing themselves from their lethargy, and manfully looking their altered circumstances full in the face, resolved to seek, in an improved system of tillage, a remedy for the loss of their former privileges. Science was appealed to on behalf of impoverished lands; chemistry was studied with avidity by a new order of graduates; while mechanical ingenuity became all at once astonishingly fertile in novel implements and other contrivances for economising time, labour, and expense.

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As was to have been expected, however, many blunders were committed by tyros in agricultural science, until at last discredit was thrown upon what was contemptuously termed new-fangled farming." Still, common sense has triumphed, and in spite of past failures there is rapidly growing up among us a race of intelligent farmers, who are cultivating the soil with success upon scientific principles. To aid in this good work, a popular little volume has recently been published, to which we shall with pleasure devote a few of our columns. Nor need our town reader drop our pages in apprehension of having a dry agricultural treatise fastened upon him. Talpa," we beg to assure

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"Our love and prayers," said Eustachia. Here their conversation was interrupted by the entrance of their trusty servant Michael, the only one of the few retainers whom they had brought Talpa; or, The Chronicles of a Clay Farm. An Agriculfrom Lithuania, in charge of the wagon, drawn tural Fragment. By C. W. II. London: Reeve & Co.

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