drew herself up with all her natural stateli- | it. "And now in to breakfast," said he, ness in a manner that augured ill for his "since I can enter in the character that Í success. Firmly, but not ungraciously, she wished-that of one of your family." And declined his proposal, alleging that blighted he gallantly led in his promised bride. as her fortunes had been, she could not endure to enter his family a portionless bride. She had too much delicacy to allude to her former unfortunate engagement, or to urge any personal objection; but it is asserted that she afterwards acknowledged to her friends, that she refused Mr. Osborne because he was but a "( new man" in the country.*

"I have sped but ill," said the gallant to the matron, when her daughter had retired; "yet my desire of marrying into your family remains the same. Permit me an audience of your second daughter, perhaps I may be more successful with her."

What a strange courtship! how antipodal to Sir Charles Grandison's ceremonious proposals for Miss Harriet Byron, that our grand-dams delighted to peruse, with all the bowings, and the speeches, and the leadings in and out of the Cedar Parlor, and preliminaries, and references to grandsires, and guardians, and aunts, and uncles. Yet, the straightforward Osborne courtship on horseback, eccentric though it be, has in it so much of bonhomie, that though it raises a smile, it leaves a favorable impression-it reminds us of Shakspeare's delineation of Henry the Fifth's blunt wooing of Catherine of France. "I know no ways to The widow, who appreciated the value of mince in love, but directly to say, I love the connexion to her unprotected girls, you; then, if you urge me farther than to complied, and led forward her daughter say, do you in faith? I wear out my suit. Catherine, to whom the gentleman ad- Give me your answer, faith do! and so clap dressed himself in much the same terms as hands, and a bargain. How say you, lady!" he had used to her sister. But whether it After "sweet Mary" became the wife of was that Catherine's heart still retained too the wealthy Osborne, she had ample opporlively an impression of her soldier-lover-ortunities of indulging her natural benevothat she was hurt at the want of etiquette lence; and to this day the country people in her present suitor, she likewise negatived dwell with fondness on many traditional his offer in nearly the same words as Margaret had spoken.

"Well, madam," observed the rejected wooer, "this is but sorry encouragement to a farther essay, yet I have one remaining chance; allow me to try it with your youngest daughter."

The lady acquiesced, and presented Mary, who was addressed by the persevering gallant as her sisters had been. Mary was of an affectionate and grateful disposition, and apparently she thought she could more easily conduce to her mother's comfort as the wife of a wealthy man, whose disinterestedness demanded her gratitude, than as a helpless mourner over the irretrievably lost. She listened to the proposal with varying blushes, signs of good omen that had not appeared on her sisters' cheeks; and when the speaker had concluded, with all grace, and gentleness, and modesty, she accepted his proffered hand. Then, instantly springing from his horse, he caught her in his arms, and ratified the treaty with an energetic salute; thus terminating his suit as unceremoniously as he had commenced

*If tradition errs not in assigning this reason for Margaret M'Grath's refusal, the murdered officer, who was said to have been of noble family, must have been the one who was her accepted lover. VOL. XIV. No. I.

anecdotes of her munificence and her charities, which were so unbounded, that her husband was often obliged to limit her powers of bestowing, otherwise her generosity would have exceeded even his ample means. She was often known to empty to the last grain the meal bins of the household, to feed the hungry, and to denude herself of part of her apparel during her walks, to clothe the naked who crossed her path. It is related of her, that in her affectionate zeal to give her mother consequence, she prevailed on her husband to pass to his Sledy tenantry receipts for their rents, in the name of her parent, in order to preserve for her a semblance of her authority, and a shadow of her former rights to deck her fallen fortunes.

In some time after Mary's marriage, Margaret M'Grath became the wife of a gentleman of her own country, and of sufficiently long standing to satisfy her pride of pedigree. She is remembered as a religious woman; and I have been shown by her descendants, a silver chalice which she caused to be made for the celebration of private masses in her house. Round the base is the following inscription:-" Margaretha Cragh, uxor Joannis Power de Clashmore, Equitis, me fieri fecit in honorem

sanctæ Trinitatis, Beataque V. Maria, containing a great deal of local history, and A. D., 1668."* some curious information which tradition has now dropped from her loosened grasp. Some gentlemen of that period, who had seen the manuscript, were anxious it should be published; and the schoolmaster made several efforts to get it printed at Clonmel (Dublin was then beyond the reach of men in his humble sphere), but he was unsuccessful-that was not the age of literary enterprise, especially in Ireland. I have been unable to learn what became of the MS. after the death of its writer; but, as the Irish peasantry, in general, have great respect for manuscripts, especially if relating to old families, or to the histories of their own counties, it is, probably, still extant among the country-people; unless, indeed, it perished amid the commotions of 1798.

The remaining sister, Catherine, was also married, but to whom I am unable to say with any certainty. To the romantic and sentimental it will appear, no doubt, quite a spoiling of the legend that the sisters should have ever married after the tragical fate of their first loves. But they were very young when that melancholy circumstance took place; allowance must be made for the elasticity of the youthful mind, and for the healing powers of time. Besides, there are often amiable as well as valid reasons for second love; and it is creditable to the good feeling of those young girls, that their affections could be conciliated by the rare disinterestedness of those who sought them for their intrinsic worth alone, after they had lost the usually more prized gifts of fortune. After the schoolmaster's decease, Sledy Sledy Castle was left deserted from the Castle remained wholly deserted, and protime of the forfeiture, and it fell to ruin by gressing in decay. Short, indeed, had been slow degrees. Occasionally some poor, the period of its palmy state; from the houseless person took up his abode, unper- completion of the building, to the day of mitted, yet unforbidden, among the empty its desolation, by the decree of forfeiture, chambers. The last lonely dweller there it had scarce numbered fully twice seven was a country schoolmaster, about seventy years ago, when the castle was much more perfect than at present: he taught his ragged scholars in the kitchen, but chose for his own use a room on the upper floor. He was the descendant of some old follower of the M'Graths, whose former greatness was his favorite theme. He wrote a book, being a kind of chronicle of that family,† and

• "Margaret Cragh, wife of John Power, of Clashmore, Knight, caused me to be made in honor of the Holy Trinity, and of the blessed Virgin Mary, in the year of our Lord 1668."

years. The ancient family of the M'Graths has passed away-their place knoweth them no more-their lands are held by other lords

their strongholds and mansions are in ruins-their very name has now but a legendary existence

"Omnia tempus edax depascitur, omnia carpit ; Omnia sede movit, nil sinit esse diu."

of Kilronan. It begins at A. D. 1014, and ends at A. D. 1571. This work was supposed to be lost; but an imperfect copy was discovered by John O'Donovan, and is now in the library of Trinity College, The Irish, in the elder times, were very fond of Dublin. There is (or was) a "Book of Kilronan," preserving pedigrees, and writing family chronicles. a different work, being a chronicle of events written Various books of this kind are still extant, in MS., by the clergy of Kilronan church, and commencwritten by the hereditary bards and annalists of an- ing at A. D. 900. "The Book of Ballymote," written cient races, e. g., "The Book of the O'Kellys of Hy-under the patronage of Tomaltach M'Donah (chief Maine" (a district that comprised the present county of a district now comprised in Sligo, Leitrim, and of Galway, and part of Roscommon), compiled for part of Roscommon), at his residence, Ballymote, that family, in whose hands it remained till 1757. containing, amongst a mass of other matter, pediAmongst a variety of other matter, it contains pedigrees of the ancient families of Ireland-as the Hygrees and accounts of the chief races, derived from the Nial of the Nine Hostages; a list of the princes of Hy-Maine, from Ceallach, the great ancestor of the O'Kellys, down to 1427; pedigrees of the principal families of Ulster; filiations of the races descended from Heber; many historical poems, &c. "The Book of Fermor," containing accounts of the possessions of the Roches of Fermoy, with some historical tracts. "The Book of the O'Duigenans, or Annals of Kilronan," a family chronicle of the M'Dermotts compiled by the O'Duigenans, hereditary historians

Briuin Heremonians, the O'Connors, Clan-Colla, &c. Early in the 17th century, Muireadach O'Daly wrote a poem on the Fitzgerald family, recording both the chief and the minor branches-the name of the head of each tribe that branched off from the main stock-the principal actions of the familythe castles, abbeys, and monasteries they built, &c. At the same period, Mac Bruodin, hereditary poet of the O'Gormans, wrote a poem on that family, tracing their pedigree, and showing the tribes that sprang from the same root.

1848.]

THE SIX DECISIVE BATTLES OF THE WORLD-THE METAURUS.

51

From Bentley's Miscellany.

THE SIX DECISIVE BATTLES OF THE WORLD.

BY PROFESSOR CREASY.

Those few battles of which a contrary event would have essentially varied the drama of the world in all its subsequent scenes.-HALLAM.

The consul Nero, who made the unequalled march, which deceived Hannibal, and defeated Hasdrubal, thereby accomplishing an achievement almost unrivalled in military annals. The first intelligence of his return, to Hannibal, was the sight of Hasdrubal's head thrown into his camp. When Hannibal saw this, he exclaimed with a sigh, that "Rome would now be the mistress of the world." To this victory of Nero's it might be owing that his imperial namesake reigned at all. But the infamy of the one has eclipsed the glory of the other. When the name of Nero is heard, who thinks of the consul? But such are human things."-BYRON.

ABOUT midway between Rimini and An- the struggle of the highest individual genius cona a little river falls into the Adriatic, against the resources and institutions of a after traversing one of those districts of great nation; and in both cases the nation Italy in which the present Roman Pontiff has been victorious. For seventeen years is striving to revive, after long centuries of Hannibal strove against Rome; for sixteen servitude and shame, the spirit of Italian nationality, and the energy of free institutions. That stream is still called the Metauro; and wakens by its name recollections of the resolute daring of ancient Rome, and of the slaughter that stained its current two thousand and sixty years ago, when the combined consular armies of Livius and Nero encountered and crushed near its banks the varied host, which Hannibal's brother was leading from the Pyrenees, the Rhone, the Alps, and the Po, to aid the great Carthaginian in his stern struggle to trample out the growing might of the Roman Republic, and to make the Punic dominion supreme over all the nations of the world.

The Roman historian, who termed that struggle the most memorable of all wars that ever were carried on,* wrote in no spirit of exaggeration. For it was not in ancient, but in modern history, that parallels for its incidents and its heroes are to be found. The similitude between the contest which Rome maintained against Hannibal, and that which England was for many years engaged in against Napoleon, has not passed unobserved by recent historians. "Twice," says Arnold," has there been witnessed

*LIVY, Lib. xxi., Sec. 1.

+ Vol. iii., p. 62. See also Alison, passim.

years Napoleon Bonaparte strove against England: the efforts of the first ended in Zama,-those of the second in Waterloo." One point, however, of the similitude between the two wars has scarcely been adequately dwelt on. That is the remarkable parallel between the Roman general who finally defeated the great Carthaginian, and the English general, who gave the last deadly overthrow to the French emperor. Scipio and Wellington both held for many years commands of high importance, but distant from the main theatres of warfare. The same country was the scene of the principal military career of each. It was in Spain that Scipio, like Wellington, successively encountered and overthrew nearly all the subordinate generals of the enemy before being opposed to their chief champion and conqueror himself. Both Scipio and Wellington restored their countrymen's confidence in arms, when shaken by a series of reverses. And each of them closed a long and perilous war by a complete and overwhelming defeat of the chosen leader and the chosen veterans of the foe.

Nor is the parallel between them limited to their military characters and exploits. Scipio, like Wellington, became an important leader of the aristocratic party among his countrymen, and was exposed to the

unmeasured invectives of the violent section | remarks, "It is not without reason that so of his political antagonists. When, early universal and vivid a remembrance of the in the last reign, an infuriated mob assault- Punic wars has dwelt in the memories of ed the Duke of Wellington in the streets men. They formed no mere struggle to of the English capital on the anniversary determine the lot of two cities or two emof Waterloo, England was even more dis- pires; but it was a strife, on the event of graced by that outrage, than Rome was by which depended the fate of two races of the factious accusations which demagogues mankind, whether the dominion of the brought against Scipio, but which he proud-world should belong to the Indo-Germanic ly repelled on the day of trial by reminding or to the Semitic family of nations. Bear the assembled people that it was the anni- in mind, that the first of these comprises, versary of the battle of Zama. Happily, besides the Indians and the Persians, the a wiser and a better spirit has now for Greeks, the Romans, and the Germans. years pervaded all classes of our communi- In the other are ranked the Jews and the ty; and we shall be spared the ignominy Arabs, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginof having worked out to the end the parallel ians. On the one side is the genius of of national ingratitude. Scipio died a heroism, of art, and legislation on the voluntary exile from the malevolent tur- other, is the spirit of industry, of commerce, bulence of Rome. Englishmen of all ranks of navigation. The two opposite races and politics have now long united in affec- have everywhere come into contact, everytionate admiration of our modern Scipio: where into hostility. In the primitive hisand, even those who have most widely dif- tory of Persia and Chaldea the heroes are fered from the Duke on legislative or ad- perpetually engaged in combat with their ministrative questions, forget what they industrious and perfidious neighbors. The deem the political errors of that time-hon- struggle is renewed between the Phoenicians ored head, while they gratefully call to and the Greeks on every coast of the Medimind the laurels that have wreathed it. If terranean. The Greek supplants the Phoa painful exception to this general feeling nician in all his factories, all his colonies in has been recently betrayed in the expres- the east: soon will the Roman come, and sions used by a leading commercial states- do likewise in the west. Alexander did man, the universal disgust which those far more against Tyre than Salmanasar or expressions excited among men of all parties Nabuchodonosor had done. Not contented has served to demonstrate how wide-spread with crushing her, he took care that she and how deep is England's love for her never should revive; for he founded Alexveteran hero. andria as her substitute, and changed for Scipio at Zama trampled in the dust the ever the track of the commerce of the world. power of Carthage; but that power had There remained Carthage-the great Carbeen already irreparably shattered in an- thage, and her mighty empire,-mighty in other field, where neither Scipio nor Han- a far different degree than Phoenicia's had nibal commanded. When the Metaurus been. Rome annihilated it. Then occurwitnessed the defeat and death of Hasdrubal, it witnessed the ruin of the scheme by which alone Carthage could hope to organize decisive success, the scheme of enveloping Rome at once from the north and the south of Italy by two chosen armies, led by two sons of Hamilcar.* That battle was the determining crisis of the contest, not merely between Rome and Carthage, but between the two great families of the world, which then made Italy the arena of their oft-renewed contest for pre-eminence.

The French historian, Michelet, whose "Histoire Romaine" would have been invaluable, if the general industry and accuracy of the writer had in any degree equalled his originality and brilliancy, eloquently

* See Arnold, vol. iii., 387.

red that which has no parallel in history,an entire civilization perished at one blowvanished, like a falling star. The Periplus of Hanno, a few coins, a score of lines in Plautus, and, lo, all that remains of the Carthaginian world!

"Many generations must needs pass away before the struggle between the two races could be renewed; and the Arabs, that formidable rear-guard of the Semitic world, dashed forth from their deserts. The conflict between the two races then became the conflict of two religions. Fortunate was it that those daring Saracenic cavaliers encountered in the East the impregnable walls of Constantinople, in the West the chivalrous valor of Charles Martel, and the sword of the Cid. The crusades were the natural reprisals for the Arab invasions, and