SHAKSPEARE.

"Ambition is a great man's madness,
That is not kept in chains and close-pent rooms
But in fair lightsome lodgings, and is girt
With the wild noise of prattling visitants,
Which makes it lunatic beyond all cure."
WEBSTER.

In a room belonging to the lower apartments of the old palace of the
Louvre, reclined, in one of the large but incommodious chairs of the
time, a young man, whose pale, haggard face, and prematurely furrowed
brow, betrayed deep suffering both from moral and physical causes. The
thick lids of his heavy dark eyes closed over them with languor, as if
he no longer possessed the force to open them; whilst his pale thin
lips were distorted as if with pain. His whole air bore the stamp of
exhaustion of mind and body.

The dress of this personage was dark and of an extreme plainness and
simplicity, in times when the fashion of attire demanded so much
display--it bore somewhat the appearance of a hunting costume. The
room, on the contrary, betrayed a strange mixture of great richness
and luxury with much confusion and disorder. The hangings of the doors
were of the finest stuffs, and embroidered with gold and jewellery;
tapestry of price covered the walls. A raised curtain of heavy and
costly tissue discovered a small oratory, in which were visible a
crucifix and other religious ornaments of great value. But in the
midst of this display of wealth and greatness, were to be seen the
most incongruous objects. Beneath a bench in a corner of the room was
littered straw, on which lay several young puppies; in other choice
nooks slept two or three great hounds. Hunting horns were hung against
the tapestry, or lay scattered on the floor; an arquebuss rested
against the oratory door-stall--the instrument of death beside the
retreat of religious aspiration. Upon a standing desk, in the middle
of the room, lay a book, the coloured designs of which showed that it
treated of the "noble science of venerye," whilst around its pages
hung the beads of a chaplet. Against the wall of the room opposite the
reclining young man, stood one of the heavy chests used at that period
for seats, as much as depositories of clothes and other objects; but
the occupant of this seat was a strange one. It was a large ape, the
light brown colour of whose hair bordered so much upon the green as to
give the animal, in certain lights, a perfectly verdant aspect. It