Select Poetry,

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 30, 9 April 1862, Page 4

Select Poetry,

ALBERT. DECEMBER FOURTEENTH, 1861. How should the Princes die? Witli red spur deep in maddening charger's flank, Leading the rush that cleaves the foeman's rank, And shouting some time-famous battle-cry ? Ending a pleasure day, Joy's painted goblet fully drained, and out, While wearied vassals coldly stand about, And con new homage which they long to pay ? So have the Princes died. Nobler and happier far the fate that falls On Him who, 'mid yon aged Castle walls, Hears, as he goes, the plash of Thames' s tide. Gallant, high-natured, brave, O, had his lot been cast in warrior days, No nobler knight had won the minstrel's praise, Than he, for whom the half-reared banners wave. Or, graced with gentler powers, The song, the pencil, and the lyre hie own, Deigned he to live fair pleasure's thrall alone, None had more lightly sped the laughing hours. Better and nobler fate His, whom we claimed but yesterday, His, ours no more, his, round whose sacred day, The death-mute pages and the heralds wait. It was too soon to die. Yet, might wo count his years by triumphs won, By wise, and bold, and Christian duties done, It were no brief eventless history. This was his princely thought : With all his varied wisdom to repay Our trust and love, which on that Bridal Day The Daughter of the Isles for dowry bought. For that he loved our Queen, i And, for her sake, the people of her love, Few and far distant names Bhall rank above His own, where England's oherished names are seen. Could there be closer tie 'Twixt us, who, sorrowing, own a nation's debt And Her, our own dear Lady, who as yet Must meet her sudden woe with tearless eye : When with a kind relief Those eye? rain tears, O might this thought employ ! Him whom she loved we loved. We shared her joy, And will not be denied to share her grief. — Punch. Amebican Pbess on Pbince Albert's Death. — Although the English Ministers have sacrificed for ever all hold upon the friendly feelings of this country for Great Britain, we may say that none, perhaps, will entertain a warmer sympathy for Victoria in this period of her domestic affliction than the people of the United States.— New York Serald. Thb Countess of Waldegbave. — The Dowager Countess of Waldegrave has passed into another phase of her remarkable history. She is the daughter of John Braham, the noted singer. She first married John James Henry Waldegrave, an illegitimate son of the Earl of Waldegrave, who died without issue ; and then she married the Earl of Waldegrave, the eldest legitimate son of the father of her former husband. This she could do because the law does not recognize the relationship which subsisted between her first and second husbands ; but the second husband died without issue, and then she married Mr. Harcourt, the member for Oxfordshire ; and now he is dead, and ■he is again a widow. This is not, however, all her remarkable history. The father of her first husband, wonderful to say, left all the property of the earldom, the entail having, I suppose, been cut off, to his illegitimate son, her first husband. Her husband left it to her, and she still retains it 5 whilst the late Earl, who succeeded her second hußband, had scarcely enough to live on, until be married a rich widow. The present Earl is a minor. He is a grandson of the late Earl. The father of this youth, Lord Chewton, was killed in the Crimea. The Dowager Countess, Braham'a daughter, is of course, as everybody knows, of Jewish extraction. Braham is only a shortening by a letter of Abraham. — Caledonian Mercury. Habd to Believe. — A death, attended with extraordinary circumstances, has just taken place et Cesena (Romagna) in the person of a resident of that town, the Countess Cornelia, who had reached the age of sixty-two, without any kind of infirmity. One night her attendants observed that, contrary to her usual habits, she appeared rather heavy and sleepy immediately after supper, but she nevertheless sat up three hours talking with her maid, and then said her prayers, and went to bed. The next morning her maid, alarmed at not being summoned by the Countess long after the ordinary hour, entered the chamber, and called to her. Hearing no answer, and fearing something had happened, she opened the shutters, and was horror-struck at seeing the body of her mistress in the state we are about to describe: — Not more than a yard from the bed was a heap of ashes, in which Uy two legs, entire from the foot to the knee, and two arms. The head was between the legs. All the rest of the body had been converted into ashes, which, when touched, left a greasy and fetid humidity on the fingers. On the floor was a small lamp without oil, and on the table stood two candlesticks, the candles of which had lost all then* tallow, but the wioks remained unburnt; the bed was uninjured ; the clothes lying as they usually do when a person has risen; all the hangings of the bed were covered with a greyish soot, which had even penetrated into some drawers, and soiled the linen they contained. This soot bad also found its way into an adjoining kitchen, and covered the walls, furniture, and utensils. The bread in the safe was also covered with it, and when offered to several dogs they would not touch it. In the chamber over the countess's room, the lower part of the windows was soiled with a fatty yellow fluid. The whole atmosphere around waa impregnated with an indesoribable and most disagreeable smell, and the floor of the chamber was coated with a thick, clammy, and extremely adhesive moisture. The Countess had evidently been consumed by an internal fire. Dr. Bianchi, a physician of the town, who has published « pamphlet on the case, thinks that the fire began in the lungs, and was developed during sleep ; that the Countess, being awakened by the dreadful pain, had no doubt risen to get air, perhaps intending to open the window, but had only been able to leave her bed, when she sank under the fire that was devouring her. The Marquis Scipio Maffei, who has also written on the same subject, Bays that the Countess was in the habit of rubbing her body with camphorated spirits of wine, whioh she used frequently, and he thinks that the frequent use of that liquid was'one of the causes of her death. — Court Journal. Watebpboof Cabtbidge Bags.— Captain Peterson's waterproof cartridge bag having been subjected to a series of experiments, in the presence of the select committee at the Royal Arsenal, has been fully approved for the service. The bags when filled with boiling water were found to sustain no injury ; and others, containing powder, were placed in salt and water for twelve hours, and found quite impervious. Ancibnt Men-of-Wab. — The batoh of sailing men-of-war, which were lately put up for sale by orders of the Board of Admiralty, realized nearly £18,000. This is probably about a twentieth part of what they originally cost j but when we state that the largest purchases were made by Messrs. Castle and Co., the extensive ship-breakers and vendors of firewood, we need say no more in reference to their commercial value. Gabibaldi. — Garibaldi has accepted the Presidency of the Rifle Association at Genoa, and has addressed a letter to the members of that body, in which he says : — " Hasten to prepare yourselves to take up arms, for the moment approaches when you will have to give fresh proofs of your valour." Accident with Fibe-abms.— A double-barrelled Sin was sent to a Birmingham gun-maker, named ayliss, a short time ago, to be re-stocked. In the course of repairing it he had occasion to heat the breech of the barrels, but he had no sooner put it to the fire than it turned out to be loaded, and weut off. Mr. Bayliss was wounded in the arm. The limb was Amputated, but he died in two days. Lord Ranelagh, it is stated, intends to have another great Volunteer fight, in the neighbourhood of Brighton, on Ejutar Monday.