Daily Richmond Whig

SELECTIONS.

A Passage from Cloudesley.—Julian, while in Italy, becomes seized with an admiration of Bernardino, a celebrated improvisatore, whose delivery of the following narrative appears to have entranced him.

"One of the subjects was the leaping of Signor Constantino Boccali on horseback, from the bridge into the river of the Adige, at the command of his scornful mistress, as recorded by Bandello, in the forty-seventh novel of his first book, which Bernardino was called on to describe in extempore verse. It was done to perfection. The disdain of the lady, and the generous devotedness of the lover, were painted in the most glowing colours. You saw the desperate leap which the cavalier made; you saw the deep and rapid course of the river, swelled as it were with autumnal rains, and chilled with the bleak wind that swept over the Alps. The horse and his rider sank to the bottom, and then rose like a ball, Boccali still maintaining his seat with firmness. He directed his steed towards the bank; but more attentive to the observing his mistress than his own safety, he approached where the cliff was perpendicular, and it was impossible to land.—Turning the bridle to correct his error and struggling with the swiftness of the stream, an unexpected start of the animal deprived him of his stirrups and his seat, while he had still hold of the reins. He threw away them and his cloak, and set himself to swim with all his force. The spectators on the bridge shivered and screamed at sight of the imminent peril to which he was exposed; and his mistress, hitherto so unfeeling, was drowned in tears, and expressed the bitterest agony. The sight of her sympathy gave him tenfold courage. Through tremendous dangers he reached a more accessible part of the shore, and stood on dry land. His horse freed from the load that confined him, was equally successful. Dripping as he was, the lover hastened to the feet of his mistress: and moved by the sight of the daring and terrible act by which he had proved the sincerity of his passion, she at once dismissed the severity in which she had prided herself, and ever after considered the attachment of her cavalier as her chiefest glory."