affections, and made to be loved. But in those political vicissitudes through which men almost always are doomed to pass when struggling for political change, Riego perishedperished on the scaffold. One of his aid-de-camps was an Irishman, named George Matthewes.

It happened that many Englishmen were engaged in these contests, which ended in the subjugation of freedom and the re-establishment of despotic power; and many of these Englishmen occupied the prisons of Spain. I was called upon to inquire into the fate of one of them, who was believed to be immured in the dungeons of the Spanish capital. I employed a banker of some influence to ascertain whether any Englishman, who corresponded to the description I gave of the party, was really confined in any of the jails of Madrid. He could not be found, notwithstanding the most anxious and persevering search of my friend. But while he was engaged in his investigations, a dirty memorandum was put into his hand by a soldier who was guarding one of the condemned cells in which a human being-had been long kept in solitary confinement-excluded from all communication, except such verbal conversation as, in opposition to the orders of his superior, might be charitably entered on by the soldier stationed at the door of the cell. No writing materials-no pen, ink, or paper-no means of intercourse with any person beyond the four walls of the dungeon, were ever allowed to the unhappy prisoner. The name of the prisoner was unknown to his guard; all he knew was that he had been captured with Riego, and confined in the cell adjacent to that from whence Riego had been led out to execution; but the soldier had mentioned to the prisoner that inquiries had been made about an Englishman of the name of Harper, and the answer had been, that no such person was within the prison walls. The prisoner entreated the soldier to convey the scrap of paper that he gave him to the gentleman who had been making the inquiries: he consented to do so; the banker received it, and sent it to me. It was signed "George Matthewes." It was scarcely legible; but it stated that the writer had been long in solitary confinement, without accusation, without judgment, yet in apprehension of sentence of death, and that he was an Englishman.

Mr. Canning was then Prime Minister. I wrote to him immediately, and a despatch was sent off without delay to Madrid, directing the British minister to claim the person

who, without the forms of legal proceeding, had been thus arbitrarily detained. The intervention was successful, and the prisoner was released.

He accompanied the returning messenger to England; he brought with him the funeral mementos of Riego-the pockethandkerchief with which he wiped his last mortal but manly tears and gave it to his widow. Poor thing! she was then drooping like a lily on its stem, fair and pure; and the weight of grief soon overwhelmed a broken heart, and loosened the silver cord of an existence attenuated by long disease. I remember her, a saint-like beauty, disassociated, as it were, from earth.

Matthewes brought with him one other treasure-it was a white dove. While excluded from all knowledge of what was passing in the world, hopeless of ever communicating his forlorn condition to any living soul, that dove had flown into his cell. He plucked a feather from its wing, and, with his teeth and nails, shaped it into a pen. He made ink of the filth he gathered in the corners of his miserable abode; he tore out the lining of his hat, on which he wrote the account that led to his deliverance that was the memorandum I received. What became of the dove I know not; but George Matthewes died some years afterwards, a prisoner in Portugal.

THE TURKISH BATH.

(From the "Family Tutor.") THE TURKISH bath is one of the greatest luxuries enjoyed by the Easterns. The rich have baths in their own houses, but they go to the public ones occasionally, to chat, or meet their friends; and the private baths being necessarily small, are incapable of accommodating more than six or eight persons at a time, so that on grand occasions, fasts, feasts, &c., the women are obliged to hire one of the public baths. Some large towns have a bath for the women, and another for the men, but the small ones admit the women on certain days, and the men on the intervening days: or the men from morning until noon, and the women from noon till sunset, which is the most usual arrangement.

We paid our fee-about eighteenpence, at the door, to an old Turk who was regaling himself with a pipe, and sipping coffee;

and then passing through a narrow passage, we entered the outer apartment or entrance-chamber, which was spacious and surrounded by a platform, on which reclined, supported by cushions, and enveloped in large white towels, several persons who had undergone the process of parboiling-for the Turkish bath is certainly akin to it-and were now endeavouring to refresh themselves with sherbet, coffee, or smoking. In the centre of the paved floor was a very large marble basin, "Where a spring

Of living waters from the centre rose,

Whose bubbling did a genial freshness fling."

Flowers were ranged round the fountain; and innumerable wooden clogs assisted to fill up the vacancy at the base. The whole apartment was paved with marble; it had a flat roof, with small round blue-glazed windows at the side, and the walls fantastically coloured, red and blue on a white ground. Above the platform were strings, on which towels were hung, some half dry, and others thoroughly wet, just as they had been taken from the bathers.

Our guide conducted us to the platform, which was carpeted and cushioned, and each one having undressed, and placed a towel round the waist, and another over the shoulder, the làwingee, or bath attendant, directed each of us to slip on a pair of wooden clogs, called cob-cobs, and follow him into the preparatory warming apartment, as we termed it.

This chamber was surrounded with seats, paved with marble, and coloured like the one we had just left, but the roof had domes with small blue-glazed apertures, instead of being flat; and the temperature was about 90° Fahr., and humid.

After remaining a short time in this chamber, we were conducted into the inner one.

The khararah, or inner chamber, is very hot, and when we entered, it seemed almost impossible to remain there; but the humid heat produced by the hot water of the tanks, fountain, and boiler (which ranges from 103° to 112° Fahr.) soon produced a profuse perspiration. Almost before we could recover our surprise at the scene within this chamber-one in which we were soon to take an active part, or to write more correctly, a passive one, the attendants seized upon us, and commenced cracking our joints to render them supple, and kneading the flesh as if we really had not any feeling. When we afterwards became accustomed to such proceedings it was

rather agreeable, but at that time it really was anything but pleasant, for the attendants appeared to us, inexperienced in such matters, to be utterly regardless of European life, by the manner in which they twisted the head on each side, and sat upon the chest. We can assure you, gentle reader, that the operation looks very formidable, but custom prevails, and your fears speedily subside. Having sufficiently amused themselves by proving the quality of our flesh by its firmness, and the pliability of our joints, the attendants directed us to lie down flat upon low stages placed in various parts of the chamber. Kneeling with one knee upon the ground, my attendant put on a pair of horse-hair gloves, and seizing one of my arms, rubbed away in first-rate style, the effect of which was to bring long solid rolls from my skin, and make it as smooth as satin: every six or eight rubs the attendant removed his hands, rubbed them together, and slapped them down again with tolerable force. My head, chest, and legs, were submitted to the operation, and then I was well soused with hot water, dipped from the hanafeyeh, or tank, with small bowls. "Surely we are clean now," we exclaimed, and were preparing to depart, when our tormentors again approached, each with a bowl in his hand, rubbing away with a lump of raw silk at some almond soap, so furiously as to create a fine lather; and without any intimation of what was coming, dabbed it in our eyes and mouths, and then finished their amusement by upsetting the remainder over our heads; another scalding or sousing completed the operation. We were then supplied with clean towels. for the shoulders, loins, and head, à la Turque, and conducted to the first or entrance chamber, where the towels were again removed and fresh ones supplied. Thus enveloped, we reclined upon the carpets supported with musnuds, in the manner we had seen the persons on our first entrance, and like them sipped coffee or sherbet; while those that felt inclined smoked the nargélèh, or Persian water-pipe, called by our sailors hubblebubble, from the peculiar bubbling noise it makes during the time it is being used.

The effect of the Turkish bath is to restore vigour to the weary and jaded traveller, and give a feeling of elasticity that it is difficult to describe. It must be felt to be appreciated; and those who have enjoyed its luxury after a fatiguing journey will probably dwell with pleasurable remembrance on the foregoing passages, descriptive of its varied stages.

SHOPS AND SHOP WINDOWS.

(From OLD HUMPHREY'S " Walks in London.") WHAT A wide-spread page is London to gaze upon! and how full of absorbing interest and instruction! Human life is there depicted its glare and its gloom, its sunshiny joys, and its shadowy griefs. A word on shops and shop windows.

Here is a grocer's shop: but the profusion, the absolute prodigality of the scene oppresses me. There seems enough of grocery in the window to supply the neighbourhood. The fresh, fragrant, and delectable teas in the finely formed wooden bowls are enticing; to say nothing of the ample chests, lined with lead, and ornamented by Chinese artists, whose neglect of perspective is so well known. How significantly the mandarins bow their heads, and beckon with their hands! what beautifully painted canisters! what stores of coffee, chocolate, and cocoa! what boxes of figs, and loaves of refined sugar!

And the raisins and currants, the spices and the candied lemon-peel! Oh, how the Christmas times of my youth burst upon me at the very sight of them!

Days of my youth, the long pass'd years
Of childhood round me rise;

I see them glistening through the tears
That start into my eyes.

The joys that round my bosom press'd,
When thoughtless, young, and wild,
Come, like a sunbeam, o'er my breast;-
Again I am a child.

Raisins are brought from Spain and Turkey; currants from the isles of the Archipelago; lemons grow in Portugal, Spain, and Italy; and spices, as well as sugar, are the produce of the East and West Indies.

The latter article is brought to England in hogsheads. See! there are two empty ones standing at the door, with a swarm of flies and a crowd of boys round them. One youngster is picking the sugar from the bung-hole; another is reaching up to the top, where the rough hoop and rusty nails are likely enough to tear his ragged jacket; and a third has his head and body in the cask, with his legs in the air, like a duck getting up something from the bottom of a shallow pond. There they are, all licking their sugary fingers, with more than common joy.

What have we here? An oil and colour shop, where they