district of Poland; the which town, because it is situated on the river Dineper, seemed most opportune to them for cutting off the provisions from the whole of the district, whereby the enemy hoped, that by these means it would come to pass, that all the other places in the neighbourhood, as in the former expedition, would fall into their hands, and become their property, for evermore.

For this reason they began by sending before them four thousand of the six thousand Tartars which were among them, into the deserts and wildernesses, who were to destroy everything far and near by fire and by sword, up to the very walls of the City; imagining, perchance, that after having visited that whole district with such a calamity, they would meet with the same good fortune in the siege of this town as they had done before.

Amongst other things most dreadful to relate, the Muscovite sent word unto the Polish King, that he carried about with his army a Bier, such as those used in burying the Dead, which was made of silver, and that he did not mean to make peace with him, until either the King's or his own head were placed on that Bier.

The army with which the Muscovite makes this plundering expedition, amounts (if report be true) to two hundred and sixty thousand men and more.

May the most good and most great God preserve us from such a furious and cruel enemy, and instil the right wisdom into those Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, who have the government in their hands, and may He instil into the whole of Europe such counsels as be most proper to revenge the enormity of this crime and to drive away those pests!

FINIS.

"You, O Books, are the golden vessels of the Temple; burning lamps
to be ever held in the hand."

RICHARD AUNGERVYLE.

PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE AUNGERVYLE SOCIETY, EDINBURGH.

Impression limited to 150 copies, of which this is No

HE "Basia" of Johannes Secundus are known to every reader: it may therefore be interest

ing to have, in a collected form, such other

poetical fragments as relate to "Kisses." Those here given were issued as an Appendix to the rare edition of Secundus published in 1803.

S. H.