also, beyond a doubt, so deposited. The chest, therefore, though not a real sarcophagus, may have been employed as the mimic coffin of Osiris Inferus, in which his effigy was deposited, as Plutarch tells us, for three days, after which he was said to be revived.

Nothing could be better calculated for a grand scenic representation of the "sun rising from the depths of darkness at midnight," which, as Stobæus informs us, was the final beatific vision of the mysteries at Eleusis, than the alabaster coffer, the adjoining rooms, and the stair-case and passage behind it, which latter has been traced for three hundred feet, and which Belzoni very reasonably concludes led out into the valley beyond the rock in which the excavation is hewn. That valley may have been the original Elysian Garden, and we have Strabo's authority for believing this; who states that all the rocks in the neighbourhood were covered with pensile or hanging gardens, when hundred-gated Thebes "was in its high and palmy state."

Here then is a double entrance, such as the initiatory cavern of Trophonius had; for Pausanias tells us, that a suspected servant of Demetrius having entered that cave in order to pry into the mysteries performed there," some few days after his dead body was thrown out by an outlet different from the common entrance." Lib. 9., chap. xxxix.

AFTER a season of extreme fatigue, I left town early in the summer of 18, in hopes to recruit my spirits and health by the excursion. I visited, in quick succession,

several watering-places, without experiencing the relief I had anticipated. At last, I fixed myself at the town of -, upon the coast, where the number of visitors were small, or, in the language of those places, where there was not much "company." Here I still found my self restless and uneasy. I felt conscious that I wanted quiet, but my mind had been wrought to such a state of excitement by my preceding labours, that it seemed to spurn repose: I was, for some time, extremely feverish and distressed. While so, I became naturally discontented, repining at my condition, which subjected me to toils so pernicious, as I deemed, to my health and peace. In this frame of mind it was my fortune to meet with a being, the knowledge of whom had the effect of completely reconciling me to all the troubles and vexations of my active course of life, and of sending me back to them again with a cheerful heart. After having passed the preceding evening at the library, to which I was a subscriber, and having gone home wearied with the bustle and noise, and my ears stunned by the incessant-"one, two, three, four yet remaining-four gone"-cry of the men engaged in vending the numbers in the Jeu de Roulette, I had returned one morning to the room, and was endeavouring to glean from the newspapers of the day some amusement, when I observed an elderly gentleman enter, and address to the keeper of the library an inquiry for lodgings, of which such people are used to keep, at watering-places, a registry. While he was speaking to the shopman, I had time to observe him: and from the instant his figure struck my eye, as he appeared at the door, my attention was rivetted by it. The gentleman might be about sixty, and was very thin and tall. That, in his appearance, which so deeply interested me was, the abstraction of his air, and the settled composure of his features. His motions were deliberate and cautious: in crossing the open floor, they seemed to be made with as much

wariness as if injury were to be apprehended from an encounter with some obstacle: each foot was advanced as cautiously, and laid down with as much precision, as if a gulf yawned beside it. In the manner, too, in which the body was carried forward, there was a strange evenness and equableness. Progress did not seem to be attained by the successive advances of the two limbs, but after the manner of creeping animals, by gliding onwards with a smooth sinuous motion. In the face every muscle was exactly composed; there was no spontaneous play of the features: the eyes did not move, there was a determination in their position, a peremptory fixedness in their direction; nay, the very eyelids scarce seemed to twinkle. The expression of the whole, however, was not the same as from the inert countenance of a simpleton: there was a very discernible effort, which took from it that character. It rather resembled the face of a strong-minded man, who, suffering acute pain, endeavours to prevent that distortion of the features which pain naturally produces. In the lineaments of the singular individual, whom I am attempting to describe, I could discover the indications of strong passion; and I soon saw that it was only by a constant and unremitted effort that they were constrained to wear the placid, tranquil air which they did. And yet there was that about this person which forbad the thought that he was at the moment suffering from any immediate affliction, or anxious on any particular account. It is scarcely possible I should have succeeded in conveying, by this description, an idea of the uncommon aspect of this being: I must content myself with saying, that it interested me more intensely than any object ever did. I heard the shopman inquire " how many beds the gentleman wanted-what family he had;" and the stranger replied, with an emphasis and decision that struck strangely upon my ear-" For myself and my servant alone." The man then said, he did not know, at the

moment, where any such accommodations were to be had and the stranger having begged him to look out for them, as he was anxious to leave his hotel, I, on the moment, recollected that I knew an house in which the apartments he needed were vacant; and, advancing just as the stranger was about to retire, I told him that, happening to have heard his conversation with the shopman, I begged leave to recommend his trying the house in my recollection, which I described. At my first address he almost started, but immediately regained his former composure, and having thanked me briefly, but with great politeness, made me a very low and formal, yet courteous, bow, and went out of the library.

I have omitted to speak of his voice; it was low and still, the tones subdued, and the utterance calm and articulate. But it seemed to be smothered; and, like a muffled drum, to be capable of producing a very different effect from that to which it was on the moment applied: there was, too, occasionally, a slight tremor in it, as though caused by strong emotion. And, on the whole, when I heard the stranger speak, and especially when he spoke to myself, I felt assured that there was more in him than might be at first imagined; and that, if the mystery of his character could be searched, it would be well worth the pains. After his departure I remained only a few minutes, and then sauntered forth, musing on the probabilities of what he might be. It chanced that my feet took the same direction which his had pursued on leaving the library, and I had not proceeded far, when, as I turned the corner of a street, I saw before me a crowd collected around a man, whom some people appeared to be in the act of raising from the ground. I quickened my pace, and recognised in the person, who was in the arms of the individuals so occupied, my recent acquaintance. He was insensible, and, I soon discovered, had fallen down in a fit. A fellow-creature with whom I had so

lately spoken, seemed, in the mortal peril thus immediately besetting him, to have a peculiar title to my good offices; I therefore, forthwith, took on myself the care of him, and the direction of the requisite measures. It happened that my residence was not far distant, and that the nearest surgeon lived close by it. I, accordingly, had the stranger conveyed to a vacant chamber in the house, where he had the necessary medical aid, and was shortly restored to animation. On recovering the power of speech and recollection, his first request was, that his servant might be sent for, and with that intent he disclosed his own name, and the hotel at which he was staying. Although I thus acquired a knowledge of the name, I shall continue to distinguish him by the designation of the stranger; as the reader can have no interest in my divulging it, and there may be reasons why I should suppress it. The servant was, accordingly, sent for; and, in the mean time, the doctor desired that we should all withdraw, and the patient be kept quiet. But ere the messenger, who had been despatched to the hotel, could return, the stranger's bell was thrice pulled violently, and he demanded, with singular impatience, whether his man had arrived. At last he did arrive, and by his appearance, immediately dispelled some of the suspicions of his master, which had crossed my mind. The servant was one of those sober-looking and respectable persons, who are, in this happy land, produced from a class which is, in many other countries, comprised of the basest and vilest of human creatures. His look, deportment, and language, at once vouched that his master was an English gentleman. He inquired for him with the most affectionate concern, and immediately repaired to the apartment where he lay. On returning, he thanked me for my attentions, in the short, yet pregnant, phrase which seems proper to the native, honest, unsophisticated Englishman; and, after prefacing something about the singularity of his master, in