I have deserted my When the headsman and

"Nothing,' was the melancholy answer. charge; the banner intrusted to me is lost. block are prepared, the head and trunk are ready.' "Nay, then, God have mercy!' said De Vaux; yet would I rather than my best horse I had taken that watch myself. There is mystery in it, young man, as a plain man may descry, though he cannot see through it. Cowardice? pshaw! No coward ever fought as I have seen thee do. Treachery, I cannot think traitors die in their treason so calmly. Thou hast been trained from thy post by some deep guile; some well-devised stratagem: the cry of some distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or the laughful look of some merry one has taken thine eyes. Never blush for it, we have all been led aside by such gear. Come, I pray thee, make a clean conscience of it to me, instead of the priest. Richard is merciful when his mood is abated. Hast thou nothing to intrust to me?'

"The unfortunate knight turned his face from the kind warrior, and answered Nothing.'

In the character of Kenneth, his self-imposed military obedience is well contrasted with the high spirit of a prince; and both set off by the tinge of shrewd Scots canniness, which is required to preserve his incognito successfully. He somewhat reminds us of Harry Bertram, in the fearless frankness, and backwardness to take offence slightly, which commonly attends on the consciousness of mental and bodily strength. His liege lady Edith we prefer to Eveline on the whole, not because her positive merits as a heroine are greater, but because they are brought more familiarly under our notice. We chiefly behold Eveline as at a distance, doing her devoir after the example of other heroines of beleaguered castles, and fair ghost-seers; while in Edith, though she says and does less, we behold the gratitude and tenderness of the woman overcoming the pride of the Plantagenet, and bearing up against the domestic war of taunts and menaces which assails her; while, as in the following animated scene, the energy of a strong mind breaks through the little decorums imposed by rank and station:

"Hasten to your post, valiant knight; you are deceived in being trained hither-ask no questions.'

"I need ask none,' said the knight, sinking upon one knee, with the reverential devotion of a saint at the altar, and bending his eyes on the ground, lest his looks should increase the lady's embarrassment.

"Have you heard all ?' said Edith, impatiently. Gracious saints, then wherefore wait you here, when each minute that passes is loaded with dishonour.'

"I have heard that I am dishonoured, lady, and I have heard it from you. What reck I how soon punishment follows? I have but one

petition to you, and then I seek, among the sabres of the infidels, whether dishonour may not be washed out with blood.'

"Do not so, neither,' said the lady. 'Be wise; dally not here; all may yet be well, if you will but use despatch.'

"I wait but for your forgiveness,' said the knight, still kneeling, 'for my presumption in believing my poor services could have been required or valued by you.'

"I do forgive you-O, I have nothing to forgive-I have been the means of injuring you-But O, begone-I will forgive-I will value you that is, as I value every brave crusader-if you will but begone.' "Receive, first, this precious yet fatal pledge,' said the knight, tendering the ring to Edith, who now showed gestures of impatience. “Oh no, no,' she said, declining to receive it. Keep it-keep it as a mark of my regard-my regret, I would say. O begone, if not for your own sake, for mine.'

"Almost recompensed for the loss even of honour, which her voice had denounced to him, by the interest which she seemed to testify in his safety, Sir Kenneth rose from his knee, and, casting a momentary glance on Edith, bowed low and seemed about to withdraw. At the same instant, that maidenly bashfulness, which the energy of Edith's feelings had till then triumphed over, became conqueror in its turn, and she hastened from the apartment, extinguishing her lamp as she went, and leaving, in Sir Kenneth's thoughts, both mental and natural gloom behind her.'

Much as we approve of the Homeric diversity of character with which the back ground is filled up by princes and warriors, their attendants abuse rather too far their privilege of dull foolery; excepting indeed, which is very probable, the wits of Jonas and the spruch-sprecher are purposely blunted down to the Austrian court-standard.-Nor can we see much necessity for such coups de théâtre as the assassination of Conrad, (who is taken out of the hands of the Old Man of the Mountain,) or the prompt decapitation of the Templar. After this latter circumstance, it is less perhaps to be wondered at that Richard grew riotous at the smell of blood, and so modestly proposed to his munificent host the friendly amusement of having his brains knocked out.

The romance of Thomas a'Kent is somewhat improved from the old fablian of "The Three Knights and the Smock," though the whole is not worth one magic line of " County Gay." In most respects, however, we are pleased to find that the chivalrous vein of Quentin Durward is fresh and unexhausted; and inclined to hope, that leaving the Lady Penelopes and Sir Bingos to the inferior pens of the mob of " young men about town," the author of Waverley will continue to exercise on the chiefs and heroes of old, the fabled power of

the eastern dervise, who could throw his spirit into dead bones, and speak from their mouths the language which they uttered when living.

ART. VI.-An Essay on Dr. Young's and M. Champollion's Phonetic System of Hieroglyphics, with some Additional Discoveries, by which it may be applied to decipher the Names of the Ancient Kings of Egypt. By Henry Salt, Esq. F.R.S. Longman and Co. 1825.

ALTHOUGH many important discoveries have been effected by means of the system of phonetic hieroglyphics, we fear that much remains to the developement of the whole plan, and that many symbols, like the cuneiform characters of the Gabr and Chaldee, will defy the utmost ingenuity, and most acute researches of inquirers into these monuments of antiquity. Horapollo, indeed, led the way; yet, we cannot wholly rely upon his declarations; for his writings merely exhibit the original idea communicated by the symbols, without any reference to their phonetic powers. If, from his works, we pass to those of Kircher, a labyrinth of fanciful theories and strained etymologies is presented to us, to which neither history nor philology extends any clue; and even after an examination of Jablonski and more accurate authors, notwithstanding their acknowledged illustrations of obscure facts, we shall be forced to conclude, that the hieroglyphics are covered with a veil, like that of Isis, which no mortal, in these latter times, has been able entirely to raise.

But, since our acquaintance with the Rosetta stone, a new light has been darted upon this perplexed subject; and the researches of Young and Champollion have holden the torch to future explorers of Ægyptian antiquities. They have advanced beyond the disclosures of Horapollo and Jamblichus, and shown, by indisputable documents, that these mystical envelopements of ancient wisdom are also phonetic; from whence we ascertain the curious fact, that there were hieroglyphics which were phonetic, and hieroglyphics, properly so called, which expressed the names and offices of deities without any alphabetical arrangement; and these (although they may have been distinct at first,) were interblended in the inscriptions of the Hierophants; but which description of them was originally adopted on the stones and pillars of the earlier

ages, we can never with accuracy find out. The inscriptions on the Babylonian bricks and the Chehel Minar, which essentially differ from each other, prove, that the secret characters in which the sacred legends and deeds of heroes were veiled were alphabetical; and possibly, we shall not err in comparing them to the phonetic hieroglyphics; for we not only discern figures of Gods, and representations of illustrious men, but alphabetical characters; whether cuneiform, as in Babylon and Persia; or Sassanian, as in the latter alone, describing their history and adventures. The Chinese characters, also, attest a similar practice, although they be different in their application: here, an immense combination of primitives appears, emblematical, not of words but of ideas, and intelligible by men of various languages, to whom the secret of deciphering them is known; and if to these we add the picture-writing of the American Indians, we shall perceive a somewhat similar system of unlimited extension prevailing in different countries; and, in each, adapted to national peculiarity.

Few things, therefore, are more desirable, than an accurate knowledge of the Egyptian hieroglyphics and enchorial characters; from them the history and antiquities of the place may be elucidated, the language may be restored to a great extent, and some insight may be afforded into the sacred tongue. From thence may be decided the great question, whether any analogy subsisted between the lepà dialeкTOS Of Ægypt, Babylon, India, and Persia; since, from the similar roots existing between these on the one hand, and the Coptic and Sahidic on the other, the extraordinary dissimilarity of grammar, in the latter, prevents us from arguing to a certain conclusion; but, if such a tongue existed, as we have every reason to believe, and if traces of one not entirely reducible to Coptic grammar, but analogous to the Zend, and the surviving sacred language of the Indians, could be discovered, immense difficulties, which now oppose themselves to a critical inquiry into the respective mythologies, would be radically removed.

The essay which we are now passing under review, has advanced one important step in investigations of this nature. Whilst Mr. Salt justly assigns the first idea of the phonetic powers to Dr. Young, he awards the credit due to the labours of his rival Champollion. To the names which have been already explained, he adds, in plate I., those of Arsinoe, and Philip, the father of Alexander; and in that of Berenice, corrects Dr. Young's and Champollion's error respecting the

goose of the Nile, which, as in the name of Cleopatra, evidently appears to have been " an hawk, or a crow, or eagle." The latter writer is proved, by his own phonetic alphabet, to be decidedly wrong; since he makes the goose representative both of A and Σ, which could not have been the case, without inducing an inextricable confusion in the whole system. The specimens of the name of Arsinoe, from Gau Kibeer, Edfou, and Dakké, exhibit most complete illustrations of the characters hitherto discovered. Here we notice symbols united with the phonetic hieroglyphics, the figure of Isis as ordinarily sculptured, indicating the goddess, the egg and the half-circle denoting her sex. The name of Philip, changed into Greek characters, will show the singular order in which the letters were often placed :

But here we must notice an omission in Mr. Salt's alphabet, which assigns to the O the hieroglyphic @, but not its inverted form, which actually occurs in this name. This mode of arranging the letters has some faint parallel in the modern as well as ancient coins of the Arabs and Persians.

In plate II. the names of Nero, Commodus, Adrian, Antoninus," and one which appears to be Marcus Verus Antonine Sebastos Autokrator Cæsar, forming the ornaments of a cornice in the interior of a small propylon, on the west of the island of Phila," were observed in these symbolical charac

From hence, Mr. Salt digresses into a statement of his reasons for believing the correctness of the phonetic system, into which we shall not follow him, being convinced by the testimony of the Rosetta stone, independently of his own researches, that it may be most perfectly substantiated; and contenting ourselves with citing, from p. 17, a valuable criticism, in which he has felicitously indulged :