ted, many points of defence.
That the Duke's grave was dug before the judgment was pronounced, has
been denied by Savary. Sir Walter Scott in a note says, "This is not
of much consequence. The illegal arrest--the precipitation of the
mock-trial--the disconformity of the sentence from the proof--the hurry
of the execution--all prove the unfortunate prince was doomed to die
long before he was brought before the military commission." The affair
is similarly regarded in the Life of Napoleon in the _Family
Library_, where the writer emphatically says, "If ever man was
murdered, it was the Duke d'Enghien." Fouche's remark on this act has
even passed into a proverb: "It was worse than a crime--it was a
blunder." Lastly, although many pages have been written on Napoleon's
conduct, his anxiety to justify or clear up his conduct on this occasion
is not less worthy of attention.

We pass from this atrocious incident in the history of the prison-house
to its last eventful scene, which is closely associated with the
political mischief of the past year in France--the imprisonment of the
ministers of Charles X. which has been too recently described in the
journals of the day to render necessary its repetition.

* * * * *

ANECDOTE GALLERY

* * * * *

PETRARCH AND DANTE.

(_For the Mirror._)

Petrarch had a gay and captivating exterior: his complexion was fair,
with sparkling blue eyes, and a ready smile. He was very amusing on the
subject of his own coxcombry; and tells us how cautiously he used to
turn the corner of a street, lest the wind should disorder the elaborate
curls of his fine hair! Dante, too, was in his youth eminently handsome,
but in a style of beauty that was characteristic of his mind: his eyes
were large and intensely black; his nose aquiline; his complexion of
a dark olive; his hair and beard very much curled; his step slow and
measured; and the habitual expression of his countenance grave, with
a tinge of melancholy abstraction. When Petrarch walked the streets
of Avignon, the women smiled, and said, "There goes the lover of
Laura!" The impression which Dante left, on those who beheld him was far
different. In allusion to his own personal appearance, he used to relate
an incident that once occurred to him. When years of persecution and
exile had added to the natural sternness of his countenance, the deep
lines left by grief, and the broo