In the first illustration is presented the Varangian, or English exile, asleep at the Golden Gate of Constantinople. While the exile lay wrapped in sleep, on the stone benches outside the arch of Theodosius, two women of the humbler class cast their eyes upon him: "Holy Maria!" said one, "if he does not put me in mind of the Eastern tale, how a genie brought a gallant young prince from his nuptial chamber in Egypt, and left him sleeping at the gate of Damascus! I will awake the poor lamb, lest he catch harm from the night-dew." "Harm!" replied the older and crosser-looking woman: "ay, such harm as the cold water of the Cydnus does to the wild swan. A lamb, forsooth! why, he is a wolf, or a bear, at least a Varangian, and no modest matron would exchange a word with such an unmannered barbarian." ***** The sketch of Brenhilda, Agelastes, and Sylvan, is from the pencil of Mr Cruikshank. Agelastes, after looking with surprise and horror at the figures in the glass, turned round his head to examine the substance, which produced so strange a reflection. The object, however, had disappeared behind the curtain, under which it had probably lain hid; and, after a minute or two, the half-gibing, half-growling countenance showed itself again in the same position in the mirror. "By the gods," exclaimed the philosopher, "it is Sylvan! that mockery of humanity, but who shrinks before a philosopher as ignorance before knowledge." So speaking, he struck the animal a heavy blow; which so enraged him, that he flew on the man of letters, clasped him round the throat, and compressed it until life was extinct. [Illustration: 135] [Illustration: 136] End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Centenary Garland, by Anonymous