native bounty, and
not to increase its own power, or honour, in compassion to the world,
the celestial mourner was then first seen to turn her regard to things
below; and taking the branch out of the warrior's hand, looked at it
with much satisfaction, and spoke of the blessings of peace, with a
voice and accent, such as that in which guardian spirits whisper to
dying penitents assurances of happiness. The air was hushed, the
multitude attentive, and all nature in a pause, while she was speaking.
But as soon as the messenger of peace had made some low reply, in
which, methought, I heard the word Iberia, the heroine assuming a more
severe air, but such as spoke resolution, without rage, returned him
the olive, and again veiled her face. Loud cries and clashing of arms
immediately followed, which forced me from my charming vision, and
drove me back to these mansions of care and sorrow.[151]

[Footnote 143: A very coarse play by Edward Ravenscroft, produced in
1682, and often acted on Lord Mayors' days and other holidays.]

[Footnote 144: Charles Le Brun, who was born in 1619, and died in 1690,
was the son of a sculptor, of Scotch extraction. Under Colbert's
patronage he founded the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, at Paris,
and he received many honours from Louis XIV. Le Brun's painting of the
Defeat of Porus is 16 feet high and 39 feet 5 inches long.]

[Footnote 145: Porus was an Indian king who was defeated and put to
death by Alexander the Great. See Q. Curtius, viii. 12, 14.]

[Footnote 146: "Bell. Catil." cap. 61.]

[Footnote 147: Steele seems to have forgotten that he was Isaac
Bickerstaff, Esq., and had only an old maid-servant. (Nichols.)]

[Footnote 148: Prince George of Denmark, the consort of Queen Anne, died
on October 21, 1708, after a few days' illness. This dream gives a
picture of the state of England from his death until the conclusion of
the negotiations at the Hague in 1709.]

[Footnote 149: The mourning of Queen Anne was so long that the
manufacturers remonstrated, and secured a limit to the duration of
public mournings.]

[Footnote 150: About this time the D[uke]. of M[arlborough]. returned
from Holland with the preliminaries of a peace.--(Steele.)]

[Footnote 151: "Mr. Bickerstaff thanks Mr. Quarterstaff for his kind and
instructive letter dated the 26th instant" (folio).]

No. 9. [STEELE.

From _Thursday, April 28_, to _Saturday, April 30_, 1709.

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