THE PREUX CHEVALIERS.
THE doting chroniclers of the Royal progress tell us—so humaniz- ing is festivity—that while Sir ROBERT PEEL and Mr. Fox Attune were shooting on Aberfeldy moors, the young champion of Whig- gery and the Kirk held the horse of the Tory leader while he mounted. Aitiono has a little story much like that of our two Commoners. Angelica, it will be recollected, had been pursued by Rinaldo and Ferragus, just as Queen VICTORIA was pursued by Whig and Tory [and, to make the parallel the closer, our An- gelica has wedded her young Medoro, and made him King, not of Cathay, but of Cathay's terror, England] : Rinaldo and Ferragus fight about the possession of their Princess, [and who remembers not the hustings and public-dinner combats for the Queen ?]—when, Angelica having evaded, the combatants forget every hard blow and knock, [sneers at the Whig Budget, prognostications about the - Income-tax,] nay, forget differences of faith, [hostility on the Scotch Church question] ; and Ferragus is so chagrined at seeing his accomplished adversary on foot, that he invites him to mount in groppa—just as the Scotch Fergus (Anwar° would have called him Straecionolpe) condescended to the kindly office of helping the Tory Premier into the saddle. And Sir ROBERT did not start back, suspecting guile: he feared no covert touch with the whip, to induce the horse to vote no confidence in its rider, and make vault- ing ambition o'erleap itself. The faith was mutual.
"Oh gran bona dei cavalieri antiqui I Eran nvali, eran di fe diversi, E si sentian de gli aspri colpi iniqui Per tutta la persona anco dolersi ; E pur per selve oscure e calli obliqui Insieme van senza sospetto aversi."
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