age and infirmities, and before chafed to think his glories were about to be eclip ed by a star, to which his example had at first given light, was so far from being pleased at this proof of his fon's respect, that he rather looked upon it as oftentation; and that he defired not this monument of his father's victories, but to fhew his own had furpassed thein; and that what grateful recompence was made, was made in confideration of his later and more meritorious services. This imagination, however unjust, sunk so deeply in his foul, that he retired to his country-feat, full of the utmost discontent against his fon, whom he forbad ever to see him more, and renounced with the most bitter imprecations.

THE young general was, beyond all measure, afflicted at the displeasure his father conceived against him; and finding all the fubmiffion he could make, served rather to encrease than diminish it, fell into a melancholy, which all the honours he received had not the power to dispel.

In the mean time the princess of Candy, fifter to the late king, and aunt to the present, fell desperately in love with him ;---insomuch that she forgot her dignity, and made him an offer of her person and treasures: but he, insensible to her charms, and wholly devoted to make peace with his father, would consent to marry her on no other conditions, than first to send a sum of money to his father to redeem some lands, which by his former liberality among the soldiers, he had been obliged to mortgage; and in the next, to keep the thing an inviolable secret.

THIS implacable old man received thankfully the donation, as coming from the princess; but being unhappily informed afterwards by some one she had trusted, of the love she bore his fon, and that it was by his instigation she conferred this favour on him, instead of being appeased by this new proof of filial affection, he became infinitely more irritated against him than ever; and to be revenged on the infult, as he termed it, formed a resolution the most strange and unnatural that ever was harboured by the heart of man.

BORNE on the wings of fury, and deaf to all the remonstrances that were made him, he flew to the capital, and demanded justice in the execution of the law against his fon, whom, in a moit pathetic speech, he accused of ingratitude; repeated the various obligations he had to him, both as a father and preceptor; proved that in the heat of battle, while yet a novice in the art of war, he had thrown himself between him and impending danger, received the wounds designed for him, and times unnumbered shielded him from death;--" for all which bounties," added he, "he stripped me of the glories I had gained before he had a being; ravished from me the prize of fame, more dear to me than life, and is bringing my age with forrow to the grave."

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THE young general refused to make any defence, and hating a life his father's unkindness had made wretched, fubmitted to the sentence the senate, though unwillingly, were obliged to pass on him.

THIS intelligence no fooner reached the princess, than, wild with grief, she ran to the senatehouse, and first by soft perfuafions endeavoured to move the heart of the old general; but he continuing obdurate, she vowed then she would suffer the fame fate with his innocent fon; and accused him of the highest ingratitude to her, as, being obliged obliged to her for the redemption of his lands, he had contrived to deprive her of what he knew was the most dear to her.

HER charge was too justly founded to be denied, and the senate were compelled to fatisfy the demand she made.

THE young general, who had heard with an unfhaken courage his own doom pronounced, could not fupport that of his father; and revok ving in his mind what he should do to save him, became in his turn the accuser of the princess :he urged, that having for a long time fought his affections, she had at last obtained a promise of marriage from him, on which the pretended her life depended; yet after she had won him to her will, had most ungratefully betrayed a fecret he had bound her to conceal, and by that fatal difcovery irritated his father, and been the cause of both their ruin.

To this the amorous princess pleaded guilty, defirous of dying with him the loved, even cruel as he now seemed; and as no person whatever was exempted by this law from the penalty, she also was condemned to suffer with the rest.

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THE power of preventing so tragic a scene lay wholly in the old general, who, by remitting the offences of his son, had obtained of the princess remission for himself, as she had alfo from her lo ver; but not all the arguments made use of by the fenate for this falutary purpose, nor even their tears and intreaties, could prevail on his inflexible heart; and these three illustrious personages were about to be conducted to their fate, when a young virgin, daughter to the general, rushed into the council council hall, crying with a loud voice, as the pressed through the crowd, "Stop, stop the exe"cution till my claim is heard :-if these must "suffer, it is fit others more guilty should par"take of their fate."

THE guards on this were ordered to bring back the prisoners; and all waited with impatience what this new wonder was to produce, when the maid, with an undaunted courage, began to speak to this effect :

father

"I THINK, said she, the law against ingrati" tude falls indiscriminately on all found guilty " of it:" to which being answered by the prefident, that it did; " Then I accuse you all, re"fumed she, all you of the fenate! - All you " having the power and treasure of the public in"vested in you, forgot the services of this old " man my father, fifty years your general, and "stiled the guardian angel of his country, and " suffered him in age to feel the stings of poverty, " to be reduced even to beggary, but for the com" paffion of the princess; while you yourselves " were rioting in that affluence preserved for you " by the best part of his blood. If this is not " ingratitude, nothing can be called so:-quit "then your seats, and be content to suffer the " punishment of your crime."

NEVER was confternation equal to that which this demand occafioned; the populace seconded the accufation, and cried out for justice: -all the lords who composed this august assembly looked one upon another without the power of speech. -What indeed could they say! how reply to so just, so self-convicting a charge!---The law, by which they were condemned, was wrote in

terms too plain for an evasion:---there was no remedy to be found, and those who but a moment past had pronounced the sentence of death against others, were now compelled to submit to it themselves: the foldiers immediately stript those late judges of their robes, and ranged them with those who were before their prisoners, in order to conduct them to the place appointed for the execution of criminals.

How dreadful a spectacle was this, the princess, the two generals, with all the nobility and magiftracy of the kingdom, about to be destroyed at once! Who, when they were no more, would be left to maintain order among the people!--Where could there one be found to protect the peace of Candy !---All administration of public justice must cease, all laws be abolished, and the whole realm involved in a wild confufion.

THE old general could now hold out no longer, all his obduracy melted at the reflection of his country's ruin; and as he knew his breath was the hinge on which the lives of all depended, forgave his fon, his fon with tears of joy the princess, and the no less readily remitted the offences of his father;---the young lady, by whose stratagein this happy change was wrought, defired the senate to refume their places, and all was now reftored to its ancient form; but the sad consequences which this law had like to have occafioned, and which it would always have been liable to draw on, made them unanimoufly agree to repeal it.

THIS little abstract from the Cretan annals may serve to shew of how ambiguous and perplexed a nature ingratitude is in reality: how impoffible it is to be entirely free from it ourselves, and how readily