which the half-starved soldiers could spare them from their meals. After many escapes, they at last reached Krasnoi; but during the action which took place there, they were frightened by the appearance of a squadron of Cossacks, and fled to conceal themselves in the forest; here they remained two days without food, till they were found by a Russian soldier, crawling as well as their little strength would permit, along the snow. Their feet were entirely bare, and being seized by the frost, had become useless; their language was not understood; and had they even been skilled in the Russian tongue, their voices feeble, and inarticulate, could have availed them nothing. Their appearance however, was sufficient in this country to proclaim their situation, and procure them commiseration. The Grand Duke Constantine happened to fall in with them soon after their discovery by the soldier, and ordered them to be well taken care of-finally, giving them a place in this asylum. Their countenances were intelligent, and they were said to possess some talent. We may hope that the singular story of the first part of their lives, will be followed by a more happy career in the land that has adopted them."

The reader will perceive that in some places, particularly in the early part of the narrative, I have deviated from the account given by Mr. JAMES, because it is intended for the amusement and instruction of the young, to whom the parentage, real or supposed, of these children might present an unpleasant example of immorality. I have then given them a pastoral education in the Pyre

nean mountains, and have represented them as the offspring of virtuous wedded love. To make the tale more complete, I filled up the outline, by marrying one of the female orphans to her preserver. For the history of the disastrous campaign in Russia, I am indebted to various celebrated French authors; from Dumas, I have taken the description of the Grand Duke Constantine.

In selecting the history of these Spanish orphans, for this little work, I have been influenced by the wish of presenting to the eyes of the young,-the all-sufficient Providence of God. Nothing could be more dreadful than the situation of these children, yet; though thousands and tens of thousands, fell around them, they were wonderfully preserved, and had a home and new country provided for them. The unprincipled ambition of Napoleon and his final fall, presents its striking moral to those whose parents or relatives, remember these events of modern times, to which, indeed, ancient history offers no parallel. In the patriotism of Count Rostopchin, we see what a disinterested man may do for his country; while in the retreat of the French army and its dreadful sufferings, we behold the consequences that arose from the desire of acquiring universal empire, at the expense of the lives of human beings. To make these truths more apparent to those whose minds, are now forming for the future, is the object of these unpresuming pages.

Reydon Hall,

1846.

"Domestic happiness thou only bliss

"Of Paradise that has survived the fall."-COWPER.

The boundless ambition of Napoleon, unsatisfied by the success of his military career, success that in modern times has no parallel,still lured him forward with the hope of the conquest of Europe, and if that could be achieved with the subjugation of the world.

In 1812, England and Russia alone opposed a bulwark to his power. The naval superiority of England rendered a successful invasion im

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possible; therefore he planned his celebrated expedition against the northern empire, where his colossal power was destined to find a grave. As France alone could not furnish troops for his armies, the conscription became general in all those countries into which his conquests had extended. These allies also furnished him with troops and equipments. The conscription resembles, in some respects, our own levies of the militia, with this essential difference; that the conscript becomes a soldier, and is engaged to serve in foreign wars, while the militia-man is only called upon to defend his own country, a duty that every citizen is bound to fulfil. We may readily imagine the general indignation this new conscription excited in those countries, where the inhabitants had struggled hard for liberty and had been but lately subdued. In Germany, Prussia, and the Tyrol, the new recruits murmured loudly at the moral wrong that forced them into an unholy warfare against a brave people struggling for their independence.