nkling of an eye the bodies of the aga
and his Arabian lay naked to the skin. It would have been happy for her,
had she been contented with these first-fruits, reaped from the fortune
of the day, and retired with her spoils, which were not inconsiderable;
but, intoxicated with the glory she had won, enticed by the glittering
caparisons that lay scattered on the plain, and without doubt prompted by
the secret instinct of her fate, she resolved to seize opportunity by the
forelock, and once for all indemnify herself for the many fatigues,
hazards, and sorrows she had undergone.

Thus determined, she reconnoitred the field, and practised her address so
successfully, that in less than half an hour she was loaded with ermine
and embroidery, and disposed to retreat with her burden, when her regards
were solicited by a splendid bundle, which she descried at some distance
lying on the ground. This was no other than an unhappy officer of
hussars; who, after having the good fortune to take a Turkish standard,
was desperately wounded in the thigh, and obliged to quit his horse;
finding himself in such a helpless condition, he had wrapped his
acquisition round his body, that whatever might happen, he and his glory
should not be parted; and thus shrouded, among the dying and the dead, he
had observed the progress of our heroine, who stalked about the field,
like another Atropos, finishing, wherever she came, the work of death.
He did not at all doubt, that he himself would be visited in the course
of her peregrinations, and therefore provided for her reception, with a
pistol ready cocked in his hand, while he lay perdue beneath his covert,
in all appearance bereft of life. He was not deceived in his prognostic;
she no sooner eyed the golden crescent than, inflamed with curiosity or
cupidity, she directed thitherward her steps, and discerning the carcase
of a man, from which, she thought, there would be a necessity for
disengaging it, she lifted up her weapon, in order to make sure of her
purchase; and in the very instant of discharging her blow, received a
brace of bullets in her brain.

Thus ended the mortal pilgrimage of this modern Amazon; who, in point of
courage, was not inferior to Semiramis, Tomyris, Zenobia, Thalestris, or
any boasted heroine of ancient times. It cannot be supposed that this
catastrophe made a very deep impression upon the mind of young Ferdinand,
who had just then attained the ninth year of his age, and