Stamboul had ample funds to repay him on her account. This I had settled previously to leaving the Golden Horn. Afi herself came and kissed my hand, and I was astonished at her beauty now she appeared in her proper dress. Long could I linger in describing it, for there is a sweetness about her memory which fain would make me dwell upon it. And then the air of perfect happiness and heartfelt deep-seated joy with which she bent over and kissed my hand. I felt all she meant. Poor dear Afi! she had then one hour of bliss; she had her lover-her husband-what cared she for foes, or doubted for the future? But duty called me away, and well it was, for I too loved to gaze on that angel face. "Afi, I am thy brother, father, if thou wilt, or friend; remember that and me. Farewell, girl!" A few strong strokes, and I was alongside the flag-ship, begging the Pasha to cause all to be alert, prepared for a night-attack, which I felt sure the Russians would attempt with their boats; to order every light on board the vessels to be kept out of sight, and all prepared. My counsel was received with cold thanks, and an assurance that if the boats came they would be warmly welcome. The night was dark, but calm; large clouds scud across the moon, allowing occasional glimpses only of her full disc; the dogs on shore and the splash of the ripple alone disturbed the stillness; I turned in early, as I imagined that if attack was made it would be at the hour of Azrael, that darkest hour that precedes the dawn, when, according to Moslem tradition, the angel of death hovers abroad over the globe, collecting his tribute from the sons of earth. At two I came on deck, equipped for the fight; my prescience forewarning me, I had made every preparation, and. my oldfashioned boarding netting triced up, I was in all things ready. My vessel was third in the line; ahead of me was the mole, astern a large Turkish corvette, the Gull Sefit, inside the transports. I had moored a spar ahead and astern, to prevent the boats surrounding me, and a spare yard, that evening towed off, was on my beam at some twenty yards' distance; thus well prepared, I lit my pipe, or rather had it lit, and, taking my seat on the taffrail, left the rest to my old oracle Time. Hassan and the Doctor joined me, and began a conversation on wounds and amputation, a subject on which Hassan had very peculiar notions. Not liking an account of what I might soon know too well, I left and took my seat at the gangway; there I found Achmet, in a reverie of delight, contemplating his own happiness; too full for words. We did not disturb each other. The bell at last struck, and the sentry hailed the hour as the noise of cut water struck me. I listened so intently as to defeat my object, but it was true, and my call soon awoke the crew, who sprang to their guns. The other ships showed no sign of life; a slight pull of my bowspring called me out, and my whole broadside boomed towards the sound; every ship awoke, and lights flashed through their ports. For a moment all was silence, and now the lusty strokes of the oars as the boats advanced were plainly audible. The Russian boats have come to cut us out? and what for? Had not they got us safe? Why, in the morning they could have stood in, and taken us before breakfast; why then waste their strength? There must be spare men they wish killed. They say the Emperor little cares how many he offers as a sacrifice to the Moloch of his ambition. They shall pass through the fire. Ah! they come for our flank-well, it is bravely done; come on, come on, yellah! They make for us, the transports and the stores, and money is their goal; steady, men-double sht, grape-fire low, you cannot fire too low; fire slowly, keep half the guns loaded; so, so!" And as our shot flew, a crash-a splash - yells and shrieks arose from the distance; the night was dark, the sound alone directed the fire; and now a long line of boats came pulling from the dark wall into the visible horizon; near a long line converging towards our end of the squadron, passing round us, and rapidly advancing, my men kept up one incessant fire. "Lower, men, lower: you only blow their hair about. There, there," as oars flew splintered, and the struck boat yawed from the line; "now they open fire from their guns, while a crowd of light boats pull from the flanks upon us." Well did they fire; my bulwarks tore away beneath it fathoms at a time. A shot struck the gun above which I was standing. "Allah! Allah!" yelled the crew, as they fell on their own slippery blood. The fleet meanwhile belched forth fire for little purpose but to swell the din. Oh! for a force to sink their ships and send these beleaguering devils down to Hades: and now they come, the oars breaking with the weight of stroke. The boom, the boom; it takes their bows, they start back a second; the next, my whole broadside, scarce charged, to increase the blow, falls among them. Musquet, rifle, pistol,-all at themcrash, crash! shriek, yell, cheers, groans; they break, they sink, and our ready-manned boats from the off-side are on them, hacking and hewing the few who live. This closed the scene. With heavy discharges, to cover their retreat, the boats retired, reft of half their numbers, and calling threats of vengeance to efface their great defeat. This victory was to us a great injury; it increased our confidence, and caused neglect of future precautions. The next days were devoted to rejoicings over our success; the few killed were buried with every honour, and slept in triumph's grave, and the wounded, removed on shore, received all the commiseration of the returned and confident people; even the Greek population were struck dumb at witnessing the defeat of what they considered a heavenassisted power. But short was the triumph-my paint was hardly dry on the replaced sides, the swagger but well recovered of the saucy Sinopean, when "The fleet, the fleet!" was again the cry, and they appeared on the Eastern horizon, standing in with a leading wind. All hurried on board, and the drums beat the quick roll to arms, to quarters. On they came-rushing through the water as if impelled by demon power to overwhelm the right; as they approached they keep their luff, avoiding the battery on the point, which, with feeble fire, endeavoured to arrest them. Now in two lines, they stand for us, the lea our anchors, head and stern lowering their sails or let ting fly their sheets-foul pity to be beaten by such lubbers-one vessel stands on, and anchors abreast our headmost ships. Our fire had poured forth with incessant roar from the moment they neared our position. Now they are stationed; and one sheet of fire, poured from their broadsides, pelting huge iron balls with resistless force-ships, town and fortress, battery and mosque, cypress and minarets, bowed before the overwhelming shock, deprived us of our senses, beating us back paralysed from our guns. A huge three-decker lay on my beam- her first fire swept over. me, toppling down masts and spars, tearing up decks and bulwarks, smashing men and guns. Passing on, it fell on town and street, shattering all in one common destruction. My men were downfallen on the blood-stained decks, yet still the volleys poured fast. Dead men were cut with the wild shot, till human nature was appalled, and all were clinging, wounded, to splinters of wreck. Nobly rose our cries to fight-nobly stood the shattered remnant to their guns. Our bulwarks gone, we fought our uncovered battery with martyr courage. My forecastle quarters were swept away, foremast, booms, boats, gun, dead and dying, lying in one bloody writhing shattered mass! I cheered the men on, and we replied with deadly hate to our vile enemy's fiendish fire. Our cables cut, we drift! we drift! I whispered to my men. One answering shout arose at once from all. "Yes! yes! Allah, yes!" Hassan sprang to me, wrapped me in his mighty arms, and rushed below. The wind had changed, and blew from off the town, enveloped in smoke; we drifted slowly out. Nearing our huge foe, a mass of blood-red fire was canopied in smoke. “Quick, sons of my heart, fire, fire, everywhere! We near the Moscoff, and ye who live tell the tale-how, when the 'Jemili' could fight no more, she fired herself, and blowing up, enveloped friend and foe in one common destruction.-God! great God of mercy, hear my dying cry! To you, and to your justice I commit my soul! If this is sin, in pity pardon us who do our duty as poor earthly servants-who die in hope, in humble hope-Lord, mighty Lord, have mercy on Thy created!" The lofty stern of the three-decker rose above us, nearer and nearer drift we to her fire on every part; we advance to embrace her with the eagerness of a bridegroom to his long-loved bride. "Achmet, officers, overboard every soul! Drive every man overboard; throw spars, gratings, hatches, half-ports, over, over with them!-now, that 's well, lads. Farewell!-remember the 'Jemili,' -remember me!" They kissed my feet, my clothes, my hands; clung round me; hung on me, and then dropped over the stern, and I stood alone. Hassan, in the hatchway, gleamed like an angel, and in his countenance there was an expression of determination and resolve which demigods might envy; he stood with his pistols in his hands, waiting my word to rush down and fire the magazine. And I-my heart beat high with a strange feeling of joy and triumph-We cannot conquer, but we may not be overcome. We may not win, but we will not be beaten. And a light of happiness seemed to come over me. My toils, my pains, my doubts, were over. I stood at the portal of all glorious immortality. I, who had deemed the way of life long, tedious, toilsome, saw my road levelled, and home and Paradise waiting to receive me. Within was peace, calm, and triumph--the curtain seemed to rise, and I beheld the future opened. The blood of martyrs is the seed of freedom. "Hassan, now!"-he jumped below. I looked with a pleasant smile at our huge towering foe, who, perceiving us on him, had manned his stern with rifle-men, and was volleying bullets on our decks-they fell around me unheeded. I seemed wrapt in immortality. A pause-a fearful pause-and I moved, I stirred, and the action recalled me to being. My eyes opened-this is Paradise. I was and now am-the great mystery was solved; I awake to know— I was passing through the air, borne on angels' wings. My brow is cooled by spirits-I was dead-and now-but no! pain, pain, bitter racking pain-cold, biting cold. It is night, and I am alive-my dizzy senses half refuse the truth. Why, why am I alive? It was eve, the bay beneath was still-they had made a desert, and they called it peace. But consciousness returned. Achmet knelt by my side, Afi bathed my brow; the watchfire burnt at my feet; the remnant of our crew stood round. "And where is the Russian liner?"-"In Hell! in Hell!"-" And the 'Jemili,' what remains? Where? We must see the last of her." The first lieutenant laid his hand on a huge bar which I now saw was an anchor, thrown up in the explosion.* "Here, here," he cried, is our despatch to posterity the last, the tale of the gallant 'Jemili."" By the last positive news the fleets were still at Sinope, but it is believed that they are on their way to the Bosphorus for provisions, &c. Provisions at Sinope are scarce and dear. The aspect of Sinope is described as deplorable -the Turkish town a shapeless heap of ruins, the shore still littered plentifully with wreck and heaps of bodies, so scantily covered with sand that the French and English sailors have been obliged to dig trenches to bury them properly. A huge anchor, lying high and dry on a hill three hundred feet high, and one thousand feet from the sea, fearfully records the terrific explosion of one unfortunate ship."—Evening Journal. THE THEATRES OF LONDON. BY T. P. GRINSTED. INTRODUCTION. THE modern drama of Europe may be traced to two sourcesthe one an imitation of the ancient or classical, and the other, a refinement of the rude performances known as Mysteries and Moralities. That the art was known in England almost as early as the Conquest appears from the writings of Fitz-Stephen, a monk of Canterbury, who lived in the time of Henry the Second, and who particularly alludes to miracles and interludes. This allusion is made in a curious description of London, written in 1174; and proof exists of dramatic entertainments being known in this country at least a century previous to that date. It is doubtful whether any other European nation can place their theatrical representations at so remote a period. At the dawn of modern civilisation, most countries of Europe possessed a rude kind of drama, consisting, not in those exhibitions of natural character and incident which constituted the plays of ancient Greece and Rome, but in representations of the principal events of the Old and New Testaments, and of the history of the saints, whence they were denominated Miracles, or Miracle Plays. Originally they appear to have been acted by and under the management of the clergy, who are understood to have deemed them favourable to the diffusion of religious feeling; though, from the traces of them which remain, they seem to have been profane and indecorous in the highest degree. A Miracle Play upon the story of St. Katherine, and in the French language, was acted at Dunstable in 1119; and from 1268 to 1577 these Miracle Plays were performed almost every year in Chester. In 1378 the scholars of St. Paul's presented a petition to Richard the Second, praying his Majesty "to prohibit some unexpert people from presenting the history of the Old Testament, to the great prejudice of the said clergy, who have been at great expense, in order to represent it publicly at Christmas." On the 18th of July, 1390, the parish clerks of London played an interlude at Skinner's Well, from which circumstance is derived the name of the locality known as Clerkenwell. Nineteen years subsequently the clerks played the "Creation of the World" before the principal nobility of the country, the representation occupying eight days. Some idea of the "properties" required in the production of these mysteries may be gathered from the church-books of Tewkesbury, preserved for a considerable period, and which exhibit the following entry:-" A.D. 1578: Paid for the players' gear, six sheepskins VOL. XXXV. P P |