Then bow’d the stubborn knees, as backward sped The self-accusing thoughts in dread array, And slowly, from their long-congealèd bed, Forced the remorseful tears their silent way. Bitter, yet healing drops! in mercy sent, Like soft dews falling on a thirsty plain,— And ’ere those chimes their last faint notes had spent, Strengthen’d and calm’d, I stood erect again. Strengthen’d, the tasks allotted to fulfil;— Calm’d, the thick-coming sorrows to endure; Fearful of nought but of my own frail will,— In His Almighty strength and aid secure. For a sweet voice had whisper’d hope to me,— Had through my darkness shed a kindly ray;— It said: “The past is fix’d immutably, Yet is there comfort in the coming day!” THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. Before we give a more exclusive attention to the “illustrious stranger,” we think it will be advisable to present the reader with a brief authentic account of the circumstances which led to the honour conferred upon England by the visit of this extraordinary personage. These circumstances are little known to the world; indeed, we have reason to believe they have never before been published. The British Consul at Cairo had frequently intimated to His Highness the Pasha of Egypt, that a live hippopotamus would be regarded as a very interesting and valuable present in England. Now, there were sundry difficulties of a serious nature involved in this business. In the first place, the favourite resort of the hippopotami is a thousand or fifteen hundred miles distant from Cairo; in the second place, the hippopotamus being amphibious, is not easily come-at-able; when he is environed, he is a tremendous antagonist, by reason of his great strength, enormous weight, his wrathfulness when excited, and we may add his prodigious mouth with its huge tusks. We are speaking of the _male_ hippopotamus. He is often slain by a number of rifle-balls (he only makes a comic grin of scorn at a few) and laid low from a distance: but as to being taken alive, that is a triumph which has scarcely ever been permitted to mortal man of modern times. It is quite a different matter in respect of the elephant. He cannot take to the water, and neither dive clean away, nor upset your boat with a plunge of his forehead; besides which you cannot get two tame renegade hippopotami to assist in the capture and subjugation of a relative, as is the case with elephants. Accordingly, His Highness the Pasha, not liking to compromise the dignity of despotism, and his own position as sovereign of Egypt, by promising anything which he might, perhaps, be unable to perform, turned a deaf ear to the repeated overtures of the British Consul. He never refused his request; he simply did not hear what he said, or could not be made to have a clear understanding as to what the Consul really wanted. His