ons (says his biographer) imply much
good-humour in this last extremity. The day before his execution, he was
seized with a bleeding at the nose. "I shall not now let blood to divert
this distemper," said he to Burnet, who was present; "that will be done
to-morrow." A little before the sheriffs conducted him to the scaffold,
he wound up his watch. "Now I have done," said he, "with time, and
henceforth must think solely of eternity." The sad tragedy of the death
of the virtuous Lord Russel, (says Pennant,) who lost his head in the
middle of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, took place on July 21st, 1683. Party
writers assert that he was brought here in preference to any other spot,
in order to mortify the citizens with the sight. In fact, it was the
nearest open space to Newgate, the place of his lordship's confinement.
Without the least change of countenance, he laid his head on the block,
and at two strokes it was severed from his body. He was, at the time of
his death, only forty-two years of age. To his character for probity,
sincerity, and private worth, even the enemies to his public principles
bear testimony. At Woburn Abbey is preserved, in gold letters, the
speech of Lord Russel to the sheriffs, together with the paper delivered
by his lordship to them at the place of execution.

P.T.W.

* * * * *

INDEPENDENCE OF PORTUGAL.

(_For the Mirror._)

Portugal was first created into a monarchy on the 27th of July, 1139;
on which day, Dom Alphonso I., son of Henry, Count of Burgundy, the
son of Robert, king of France, was proclaimed at Lisbon, after having
vanquished and slain five Moorish kings in the battle of Campo
d'Ourique, where he was unanimously chosen as sovereign of Portugal by
his army. This dignity was confirmed to him by the first assembly of the
states-general at Lamego. In commemoration of this event, the Portuguese
arms bear five standards and five escudets.[1] After the unfortunate
expedition of Dom Sebastian I. to Africa, where he was slain in the
battle of Alcazar, the crown devolved upon his great uncle, the Cardinal
Dom Henry, a man of 67 years of age, and who reigned but 17 months.
At his death there were several claimants for the succession, and the
kingdom in consequence became the theatre of civil war. Philip II. of
Spain, the most powerful of these, sent an army, under the Duke of Alba,
into Portugal, and completed the conquest of the country with little
opposition