consultum was adopted without any oppo- | presidency of M. Barthélemy. M. Lambsition:

rechts rose, and moved" that the Emperor Napoleon and his family had forfeited the throne, the constitution having been despotically trampled on by him, and that, consequently, the French people and the army were released from their allegiance to him." This motion was supported by the entire Republican party, and by the friends of the provisional government. Some senators, personally devoted to the Bonaparte dynasty, quitted the Assembly. The question, without debate, was immediately put to the vote, and carried by a large majority. The provisional government were authorized to make public this important resolution.

Immediately after this, the Senate proceeded to the Hotel Talleyrand, and were introduced by Talleyrand to the Emperor Alexander. The Czar still continued to manifest the same state of uneasy excitement, ever seeming to consider himself called upon for self-justification.

"Messieurs" (said he, to the senators), "I am delighted to find myself among you. It is neither ambition nor the desire of conquest that has only to repel an unjust aggression. Your Empebrought me here. My armies have entered France ror has brought war to my very gates, when I earnestly desired peace. It is just and wise to give to France strong and liberal institutions."

M. Talleyrand having observed that the provisional government, when it would have prepared the draft of the constitution, would give notice to the Senate, with a view to receive its enlightened aid in so important a work: whereupon the Senate replied, that it charged the government to declare, in its address to the nation-1st. That the senate and legislative body should be declared integrant parts of the projected constitution, with such conditions as would ensure liberty of suffrage, and the free expression of opinion.-2d. That the army should retain its rank, pension, and honors. -3d. That the national debt should be guaranteed.―ith. That the sale of the national domains should be irrevocably maintained.—5th. That no one should be prosecuted for any political opinions he may have expressed.-6th. Freedom of Among the members of the provisional conscience and of the press to be esta-government, M. de Montesquiou alone was blished. a devoted partisan of the Bourbons; but even he admitted that no government, in the existing state of opinion, could hope to stand which would not give some guarantee for the public liberties. The first meeting of the members took place on the evening of the 1st April, the day of their appointment. Their first care was to put the National Guard, then the only recognised public force in the capital, under the command of a chief devoted to the new order of things. General Dessolle, a friend of Moreau, then in retirement, received this important charge. After a provisional ministry was formed, proclamations were issued, announcing to the army that although it no longer was under Napoleon, it did not. therefore cease to belong to France. was invited to submit to the authority of the senate. In fine, the following proclamation, prepared by Talleyrand, was issued:

Such were to be the bases of the new constitution, to which the provisional government was to pledge itself in its address to the people. There were sixty-five members of the senate present at this meeting, who, at its close, affixed their signatures to the procès-verbal, and thus pledged themselves to the views of the provisional go

vernment.

Not a word had yet been uttered as to the head of the future government, nor any allusion made to the Emperor, then at Fontainbleau, with a large and devoted army. It was necessary, however, that a decided and immediate step be taken-in short, the forfeiture of Napoleon must be proposed; and, to effect this, Talleyrand, as we have already said, directed his views to the Republican party, whom he flattered with the prospect of a very liberal constitution. One of that party readily offered to make the proposition in the Senate. That body was accordingly convoked again the following evening, 2d April, under the

It

Frenchmen!-Emerging from the civil discord, you selected as your chief a man who appeared upon the theatre of the world, surrounded with the

characters of greatness. In him you placed all your hopes. He has disappointed you. He has not governed in the interests of the nation, nor even in those of his own dynasty. This despotism has ceased! The allied powers have occupied the capital. The senate have declared that Napoleon has forfeited the throne. The country is not for him. Frenchmen, rally round us! Peace is going to put a term to the confusion of Europe. The august allies have pledged themselves to this. The country, after its long agitations, will have repose; and having been enlightened by the trials through which it has passed, first of anarchy and then of despotism, it will recover its happiness in the return to a paternal government."

government. Talleyrand, however, desiring still to give his proceedings every legal sanction, which, in such an emergency, was attainable, urged the members of the legislative body to assemble and express their collective opinion on what had been done. This body had some time previously been dissolved by Napoleon, and contained a strong party opposed to him. A large number of its members were now dispersed in the provinces, but still a considerable number remained in the capital. These, by the instigation of Talleyrand, assembled propria motu, and passed a resolution in Meanwhile, most of the civil authorities of accordance with that already adopted by Paris gave their adhesion to the provisional | the Senate.

From Fraser's Magazine.

A CHRONICLE OF KENILWORTH CASTLE, ITS HEROES AND ITS

HEROINES.

* How many hours have I trifled what we should call, in modern parlance, away, seated on an angle of one of its tur- his shooting-box, there. This, in time, rets, gazing on the flat but smiling scene grew into a sort of mansion, or, as our forebelow, unheeding, meantime, as the dews fathers called it, worthe, signifying a house; of evening fell around me, that the bat sped and here poor Sir William Dugdale, that by me, beating its wing on my forehead, best and most prosy of men, stops short. and that the starling had gone to its rest! Here is half a name, but he cannot find the And this was from one of the Lancastrian other half. He, therefore, observes that, towers, the centre of the ruined buildings, doubtless, the name Kenilworth " came that portion which had once rung with from some ancient possessor of the place;" shouts of revelry when Elizabeth tarried but whether "his name were Kenelm or there, and where the lordly Dudley had Kenulph," he cannot say; or whether this reigned supreme in his dark councils. fine bold forester, sometimes called Richard Chinew in documents too old to think of without a headache, were the original owner, he does not determine. Certain it is the place has been called Kenil-worthe from time immemorial, and certain it is that it will be so for ever, since we shall now have chronicles in railway-bills and historians in policemen.

Yet was not Kenilworth Castle the first of its name, for before the Conquest there stood, on the banks of the river Avon, within the then royal demesne of Stonely, a castle in the woods opposite to the Abbey of Stonely, or Stoneleigh. But in the wars of King Canute's time that parent edifice was destroyed, and none arose in its stead until the days of the lettered Henry I.

The woods and the lake might please At this period let your chronicler picture Richard Forestarius, and they seem also to to you all this district covered with thick have pleased the monarchs of England, who woods, save and except where, in the hol-quietly took possession of them after their low beneath a rising eminence, called by accustomed fashion. But no new castle the inhabitants of the village in Dugdale's arose in place of that ancient fort on the time the High Town, a lake flowed, aug- banks of the Avon, until a certain Norman mented (I wish I could improve its name) knight, named Geoffrey de Clinton, received by a stream denominated the Sow. And the manor as a present from his sovereign, in these woods hunted a certain Richard Beauclerk. Now this De Clinton found it, Forestarius, who had his dwelling-house, doubtless, a very convenient de from his

own place, Clinton in Oxfordshire, his first abode in poor, pillaged England, to Kenilworth; and coming into the woods, and observing what Dugdale calls "that large and pleasant lake" (gone now, soaked up for ever!), he built there, adds the antiquary, warming with his subject into a sort of eloquence, that great and strong castle, which was the glory of all these parts, and, for many respects, may be ranked in a third place, at the least, with the most stately castles of England."

Geoffrey, it seems, notwithstanding that our dear lover of the aristocracy, Dugdale, must needs own him to have been of mean parentage, and, indeed, raised from the το dust," a strong word for our author, by King Henry, was a man of extraordinary parts; and being promoted to the office of Lord Chamberlain and Treasurer, together with the seemingly incongruous post of Lord Justice of England, he might be worthy, perhaps, to set his mean and dusty foot in Warwickshire.

clothed, they solemnly paraded, as their need might be, the stately chambers of the Clinton buildings. I feel myself shiver at the thought, for dark were sometimes their hearts as well as their garments.

De Clinton died, and when he was consigned to that dust from which, as Dugdale expresses it, he so manifestly sprang, his son succeeded to his honors and employments. And now, in the troublous times of the second Henry, Kenilworth rose in importance as a fortress; many people, paying a rent, obtaining leave to reside in it for the security of their persons and goods; and even the king found it expedient to fortify Cæsar's Tower, and to replenish its stores of provisions, and eventually to take possession of it altogether. So it passed out of the hands of the Clintons, Geoffrey, the son of its founder, possessing it scarcely seven years. In short, the sheriff of the county, an office then perpetual, took upon himself the charge of the castle in the king's name; and, among other suitable additions, that of a gaol formed a main feature in the items expended upon Geoffrey de Clinton's edifice. The canons, meantime, had prospered: manors, farms, mills-that, for instance, at Guy's Cliff, near Warwick-had been added to their appurtenances; and still they fished in the pool, still claimed their tithes. Their hour was not yet come. In those ages which were reputed dark in our younger days, but which we know, on the testimony of great philosophic writers around, to have been light, their power was pre-eminent. Farewell to the Clintons, who, returning to their village of Clinton, now called Glimpton, and enjoying other estates, founded that great family of which his Grace the Duke of Newcastle is the present representative.

De Clinton forthwith began erecting those strong, dauntless towers, which have survived their younger and fairer sisters. But such was his piety, that he did not think it seemly to build his castle without a monastery accompanying. Together with the thick walls of Cæsar's Tower, which he built, arose those of a monastery of Black Canons; and there still remain the relics of that monument of superstition, or work of faith, begun "for the redemption of his soul." An arch, overgrown with ivy, standing isolated over a pathway which leads from the village below the castle to the church, is yet to be seen and pondered upon, and, it is hoped, reverenced. From this, ere yet Geoffrey de Clinton was gathered to his forefathers, emerged grave men, with eyes uplifted, canons regular of the Order of St. Augustin, clad in white coats with linen surplices under a black cloak, with a hood covering their heads and necks, and reaching to their shoulders, having under it doublets, breeches, white shoes or slippers; these, when they walked abroad, visiting their patron, perchance, at the castle, or going to shrive some wounded knight, or to sing mass in the church, or to ride over to Warwick, or to visit the Grey Friars of Coventry, assumed a three-cornered cap, which surmounted their shaven crowns; or wore, perchance, as the weather The career of Simon de Montfort is well dictated, a broad hat; and thus arrayed, known: a course of oppression varied by a and looking, it may be presumed, sackcloth journey to the Holy Land was the prelude and ashes, though they were so comfortably to the insurrection of the barons, of which

The castle, nevertheless, flourished ; Henry III. taking an evident delight in that fort, which is said to have given him shelter from the treasons of the profligate John. And, therefore, the king chose to line the chapel with wainscot: he made seats there for himself and his queen; he repaired the tower wherein the bells rang, and he renewed the walls to the south, where still they stand in honor of his memory. ill was he repaid, and those very walls were soon barricaded against him.

But

De Montfort was the very soul and spirit. | abbey-steeple, that he might have a better He had not, however, during that turbulent view. By this time, Edward had taken career, neglected to provide for the security down the young De Montfort's banner, and of his castle, which contained his dearest erected his own. The alarm was soon given, hostage, Simon, his son and heir. He for- and De Montfort, assembling his troops, tified that place, and appointed Sir John told them it was for the laws of the landGiffard, a knight of renowned courage, its yea, for the cause of truth and justice, that governor; and that the neighboring castle they were to fight." But God, says Dugof Warwick might not interfere with its se- dale, owned "him not in this un-Christian curity, De Montfort made no scruple of enterprise." surprising it, and carrying off the earl, his wife, and family, prisoners to the gaol of Kenilworth. But his knowledge as well as his power was formidable, and he introduced many new warlike engines for the defence of the now kingly fortress; so that it was," says the historian, "wonderfully stored."

Henceforth Kenilworth was to become a

That princely building was still however king's terms. No undue advantage of spared. Simon fled to France, for he saw their misery was taken by the merciful that his ruin was impending; and he left Henry; the governor had four days allowed the castle under the control of Henry de him to remove his goods from the castle; Hastings, telling him to defend it stoutly, and Henry, journeying to Osney, near Oxand assuring him that he should be relieved. ford, celebrated the nativity of our Saviour On the day after the Feast of St. John the with great joy. Baptist, however, it was begirt by the king's troops; and a message was sent to sum-royal residence; for Henry bestowed it on mon it to surrender. his younger son, Edmund, created after the But the garrison was inflexible; the mes- death of De Montfort, Earl of Leicester sengers were repulsed with engines casting and Duke of Lancaster. And here, with great stones; and the king, and even the a modified and respectable degree of power, pope's legate, Ottabon, who excommunicat- this young prince seems to have made himed them at once, did not daunt De Has- self comfortable enough. He had his two tings and his men. mills standing on the lake; and several A wise and merciful resource for storm-freeholders, who held of him by suit and ing the castle was then adopted. For the fealty. He owned two woods; the one king dreaded again "imbruing the kingdom called the Frith the other the Park, then in streams of blood." He therefore called common. He had his court-leet, his galtogether, under the authority of the legate, lows, assize of bread and beer, and a mara convention of the clergy and laity, to de-ket-or as my dear and respected Sir Wiltermine what was to be done with the es- liam Dugdale, Garter King-at-Arms, writes tates of those who were disinherited; and it doubtless with great propriety, "mercat" hence was framed the famous Dictum de -on Tuesdays. Not only was this everyKenilworth, published in 1266, in the fifty-day power exhibited to the enthralled tenfirst year of Henry III. Of this, the chief antry, but galas were held, such as we article of import to our subject is the pow-moderns would give half our fortunes-such er given to every disinherited person to re- as have any, since the railroads-to have deem his land, by a fine, proportioned ac- witnessed. I mean the famous Round Tacording to the nature of his offence; and ble, which was established at Kenilworth, this dictum was proclaimed in the col-in 1279, by Roger Mortimer, earl of March, legiate church of St. Mary, at Warwick, the following Sunday, the king, his council, and a great auditory of all estates and degrees attending.

more.

So Kenilworth stood in all her integrity and beauty, and again set her foes at defiance. But the De Montforts owned it no Still danger threatened the noble pile, for De Montfort contemptuously rejected the proffered mercy of the king, which travelled after him to Ely, and disclaimed the authority of the council, since "he had no voice in it;" "at which the king," writes our grave and loyal historian, แ was greatly moved, and gave orders to storm the castle."

its chief, "and the occasion thereof." Now the Round Table was a knightly game, consisting of one hundred knights and as many ladies, who, for exercise of arms, came together to assemble in the stately chambers of Kenilworth. And the very cause and spirit of this institution were derived from feudal pride and power. It was suggested in order to avoid contention about precedency, and was rather a revival than a novelty, the custom of the Round Table being one of great antiquity. Gaily and gallantly were the games conducted, from the feast of St. Mathew the Apostle, even unto Michalmas. The tilt yard was thronged with brave competitors, and the hall with ladies dancing, and clad, when they assembled round the table, in silk mantles to show their degree. The banquet was afterwards held at the Round Table. Many knights came from foreign countries for the exercise of arms. The Round TaMeantime, however, an epidemic raged ble was eventually perpetuated by Edward within the towers of Kenilworth, and the III., who built at Winchester a house callhearts of the garrison sank within them. ed the Round Table, of "an exceeding Their provisions became scarce, and, after compasse to the exercise of like, or farre some deliberation, they agreed to the greater chevalry within.”

He issued, therefore, a special writ to the sheriff of Warwickshire to bring in all the masons and other laborers within his precinct (now called pioneers), with their hatchets, pickaxes, and tools, to Northampton, to await his orders.