ival took its name was not that on which she fled into Egypt, but the
ass of Balaam. We rely on the authority of Maitland, whose "Essays on the
Dark Ages" we have before alluded to--a not very amiable writer, by the
way, and far more acrimonious than the importance of his contributions to
our knowledge entitles him to be, but evidently a very formidable
antagonist to those who deal in loose and careless statements. "The
_dramatis personae_ of this celebrated interlude," he tells us, "were
miscellaneous enough. There were Jews and Gentiles, as the representatives
of their several bodies--Moses and Aaron and the prophets--Virgilius
Maro--Nebuchadnezzar--The Sibyl, &. &c. Among them, however, was Balaam on
his ass; and this (not, one would think, the most important or striking
part of the show) seems to have suited the popular taste, and given the
name to the whole performance and festival. I should have supposed, that
Nebuchadnezzar's delivering over the three children to his armed men, and
then burning them in a furnace made on purpose, in the middle of the
church, would have been a more imposing part of the spectacle; but I
pretend not to decide in matters of taste, and certainly Balaam's ass
appears to have been the favourite. The plan of the piece seems to have
been, that each of the persons was called out in his turn to sing or say
something suitable to his character, and among others, 'Balaam ornatus,
sedens super asinam,' having spurs on his heels, and holding the reins in
his hands, struck and spurred his ass, and a youth holding a sword in his
hand, barred his progress. Whereupon another youth, under the belly of the
ass, and speaking for the abused animal, cries out, 'Why, &c., &c.'"--in
the well-known terms of the colloquy.

"Indeed the ass," says the same writer in a note, "seems to be always a
favourite with the public, and to give the tone and title wherever he
appears. In the twelfth century, an order of monks was formed whose
humility (or at least their rule) did not permit them to ride on
horseback. The public (I hope to the satisfaction of these humble men)
entirely overlooked _them_, eclipsed as they were by the animals on which
they rode, and called it _ordo Asinorum_."

There is an account here of "Prussia in the Old Times," which will be read
with interest; the more so as we suspect it is a portion of history not
very familiar to English readers. We mean the period from the conquest of
Prussia, and i