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despairing lion roars at the bottom of a white marble rock at a melancholy eagle assisted by two grievous cu pids, who bear the princess's portrait aloft. Even in Italy good taste is not universal.

Apropos of dogs, we have often wondered at the way they are allowed to come into the churches here, just as the Scotch shepherds bring them to kirk in the Highlands. They walk in with their owners without the least ceremony, and nobody seemed at all shocked when the other day there was a regular dog-fight in St. Peter's Even at the sacred staircase, which men and women can only ascend on their knees, the dogs are privileged; and I have seen a little pug waiting at the bottom for his mistress, while a lively spaniel kept running up and down, evidently much puzzled by his lady's conduct, until at last he stationed himself a few steps above her, eagerly watching her, and when she reached him, once more moved up higher.

We are beginning to say good-bye to Rome by taking last looks at our favourite bits, but to-day we have been a new walk on the banks of the Tiber towards the Ponte Molle. Looking back at Rome, we were strongly reminded of Oxford as we saw it from the river on our return from Newnham; and if it is audacious to compare our beautiful city to Rome, the compliment is, on the other hand, great to father Tiber, who is an ugly, slovenly river, as inferior to the Isis in beauty as he is su perior in size; but it is from his muddy bed that the Roman sculptors get the clay which they mould into beauty.

(To be continued.)

IDA.

EAST-INDIAN LETTERS.

My dear Charlie,

LETTER IV.

My last letter, I think, left us on the banks of the Nerbudda, near Hindia. We marched on Sunday again for Sundulpoor; the country for several marches was not very interesting, but a place called Bugwaora was curious and well worth seeing. The road was bad, and we had a long, fatiguing march, nearly all the way through heavy jungle. On the top of some hills near our camp there were ruins of old Buddhist temples. I walked with a brother officer to see them. The hills seem to have had temples for a great distance along their summits. Wherever we walked, ruins and sculptured stones were on our way, and several figures as large as life seemed as if they were only just finished, the cutting of the stone appearing quite fresh, and the outlines perfect. We remained on the hills till we were nearly scorched, and then returned to camp. The following day we entered the table-land of Malwa, after a tiring march, ended by a ghât a mile in length. A few days more brought us to Indore, a large native city, and the last camp before reaching Inhow. We encamped in the

compound in which the Residency is built. It is a very English-looking place in the cold weather, and like a small park. The Residency is a very large house, and everything kept up in almost regal style by the Governor General's agent, Sir Robert Hamilton. We all called at the Residency during the day, and dined there in the evening. There was a large party staying in the house, so we were a very large party indeed when all our officers came in. A cheerful fire was blazing in the drawing-room, and it was difficult to fancy oneself in India, everything looked so thoroughly English; Sir Robert Hamilton himself the beau-ideal of an English

*

Sir R. H. is so well known in India, and often spoken and written of, that I give his name in full.

gentleman, looking as if he had never left his native country, though he has now been in India many years. We had a most pleasant evening, but found it rather cold returning to our tents. The next morning the trun pets sounded at dawn, and we marched for Imhow. The road (though what is called in India a pucha-made road) was very bad, and notwithstanding our having started early, the sun was very hot by the time we reached Inhow. As we approached, expressions of wonder at the barren desolate place we were bound for, escaped from everyone. 'No hedges'-'no walls between the houses -'the most wretched-looking places I ever saw,' uttered by the officers; 'jungles, nothing but jungles' by the sepoys. However, the climate was said to be beautiful and the station one of the most delightful in India. In the regiment we relieved, I met two officers, old Etonians. Our regiment dined with the regiment relieved the evening of our arrival, and you may imagine that with an Etonian on either side we had a good 'talk' of old times. What we thought of Imhow and the surrounding country, I must tell you in my next letter.

Ever, dear Charlie,

Yours affectionately,

M. L. C.

(To be continued.)

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We beg heartily to thank for their contributions towards the Bells at Auckland, New Zealand: S. D.-S.-A. J.-A. D.—A. L.

John and Charles Mozley, Printers, Derby.

CAMEO XLII.-THE KNIGHTS OF THE TEMPLE.

CRUSADES were over. The dream of Edward I. had been but a dream, and self-interest and ambition directed the swords of Christian princes against each other rather than against the common foe. The Western Church was lapsing into a state of decay and corruption from which she was only partially to recover at the cost of disruption and disunion, and the power which the mighty Popes of the twelfth century had gathered into a head, became for that very cause the tool of an unscrupulous monarch.

The colony of Latins left in Palestine had proved a most unsuccessful experiment; the climate enervated their constitutions, the poulains, as those were called who were born in the East, had all the bad qualities of degenerate races, and were the scorn and derision of Arabs and Europeans alike; nor could the defence have been kept up at all had it not been for the constant recruit from cooler climates. Adventurous young men tried their swords in the East, banished men there sought to recover their fame, the excommunicate strove to win pardon by his sword, or the forgiven to expiate his past crime; and besides these irregular aids, the two military and monastic Orders of Templars and Hospitaliers were constantly fed by supplies of young nobles trained to arms and discipline

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PART 80.

in the numerous commanderies and preceptories scattered throughout the West.

Admirable as warriors, desperate in battle, offering no ransom but their scarf, these knightly monks were the bulwark of Christendom, and would have been doubly effective save for the bitter jealousies of the two Orders against each other, and of both against all other crusders. Not a disaster happened in the Holy Land but the treachery of one Order or the other was said to have occasioned it, and on the whole the greater degree of obloquy seems usually, whether justly or not, to have lighted on the Knights of the Temple. They were the richest and the proudest of the two Orders, and as the duties of the hospital were not included in their vows, they neither had the same claims to gratitude, nor the softening influence of the exercise of charity, and were simply ster hated, dreaded soldiers.

After a desperate siege, Acre fell in 1292, and the last remnant of the Latin possessions in the East was lost The Templars and Hospitaliers fought with the utmos valour, forgot their feuds in the common danger, made such a defence that the Mussulmans fancied that when one Christian died, another came out of his mouth and renewed the conflict; but at last they were over powered by force of numbers, and were finally buried under the ruins of the Castle of the Templars. The remains of the two Orders met in the Island of Cyprus which belonged to Henry de Lusignan, claimant of the crown of Jerusalem. There they mustered their forces in the hope of a fresh crusade, but as time dragged on, and their welcome wore out, they found themselves obliged to seek new quarters. The Knights of the Hospital, true to their vows, won sword in hand the Isle of Rhodes from the Infidel, and prolonged their existence for five centuries longer as a great maritime power, the guardians of the Mediterranean, and the terror