the genealogical problem, we think, is fairly wrought out, and the last of the descendants of the Roman Caesars traced to his final resting-place beyond the Atlantic.  A curious anecdote is mentioned by Sir Robert Schomburgk as to the revival of the tradition of one of the Palaeologi being in Barbadoes.  He says, but without vouching for its truth, that during the last conflict for Grecian independence and deliverance from the Turkish yoke, a letter was received from the provisional government at Athens, addressed to the authorities in Barbadoes, inquiring whether a male branch of the Palaeologi was still existing in the island, and conveying the request that if such were the case he should be provided with the means of returning to Greece, and the government would, if required, pay all the expenses of the voyage.  This story was not current in Europe, at all events; and we on this side the water never dreamed that among the competitors of King Leopold for the throne was a veritable scion of the old imperial sovereigns of Constantinople.

The events detailed in the preceding narrative are fitted to suggest various interesting reflections and amusing speculations.  The fate of the Palaeologi—­one day on a throne, the next in a dungeon, passing from regal state to wretched exile—­may have been the bitter lot of other imperial families.  If we find the descendants of the Greek emperors in the humble occupation of sailors and churchwardens, and vestrymen and road-trustees, there is nothing extravagant in the supposition, that we may have royal porters and scavengers on our streets, the sceptre having degenerated into the besom, and the truck taken the place of the chariot of state.  The family of Nimrod may still exist, and retain their ancestral propensities in the craft of sportsmen and deer-stalkers, or in the lower grade of Jehus and jockeys.  Who knows but the posterity of Solomon may be retailing old clothes, and the heirs of the Nebuchadnezzar dynasty still exist somewhere—­perhaps among our graziers or cattle-dealers, our keepers of dairies or secretaries of agricultural associations.  The line of Tamerlane may have ended in a grave-digger, and that of Frederick Barbarossa in a hair-dresser.  The ideal transmigration of Pythagoras was not more improbable or more wonderful than the strange metamorphoses through which, in the course of centuries, the living representatives of kings and emperors are sometimes doomed to pass.

* * * * *

[Footnote 1:  There is a slight error in the date of the inscription, as the entry of his burial is October 20th 1636.]

[Footnote 2:  Only two sons of Thomas are mentioned by Gibbon—­Andrew and Manuel; but the evidence of the Landulph tablet shews that he must have had a third, John.]

[Footnote 3:  Her name is entered in the register as ’Dorothea Paleologus de Stirpe Imperatorious.’]

[Footnote 4:  British Empire in America, vol. ii. p. 111.]