His sword was in its sheath,
His fingers held the pen,
When Kempenfelt went down
With twice four hundred men.

Weigh the vessel up,

Once dreaded by our foes!
And mingle with our cup

The tear that England owes.

Her timbers yet are sound,

And she may float again,2

3

Full-charged with England's thunder,3

And plough the distant main.1

But Kempenfelt is gone,

His victories are o'er;

And he and his eight hundred
Shall plough the waves no more.

BROKEN FRIENDSHIP.5-Coleridge.
ALAS! they had been friends in youth,
But whispering tongues can poison truth;
And constancy lives in realms above;8

And life is thorny; and youth is vain ;
And to be wroth with one we love

Doth work like madness in the brain.

1 Weigh, to hoist, or raise. 2 She may float again. This hope was never realised. After lying in the spot where it had sunk for more than fifty years, several of its guns, and some of its stores were raised by means of the diving-bell. The timbers of the hulk were burst asunder by large charges of gun. powder. 3 Thunder, the roar of cannon. 4 Main, see page 7. Taken from the unfinished poem of Christabel. Constancy, lasting affection. 7 Realms, kingdoms. Realms, above, heaven; the kingdom of heaven.

8

6

And thus it chanced, as I divine,1
With Ronald and Sir Leoline:
Each spoke words of high disdain,2
And insult to his heart's best brother;
They parted-ne'er to meet again!
But never either found another

To free the hollow heart from paining;
They stood aloof,3 the scars remaining,
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder:4
A dreary sea now flows between.
But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
Shall wholly do away, I ween,5

The marks of that which once hath been.

EXCELSIOR.6-Longfellow.

"Onward and upward."

THE shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine 7 village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device, 8
Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath ;10
And like a silver clarion rung

The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior!

1 Divine, judge, believe. 2 Disdain, scorn, contempt. 3 Alooy, apart. Rent asunder, parted with violence. 5 Ween, think, imagine, fancy. 6 Excelsior, higher in the sense of progress heavenward. 7 Alpine village, a village on the Alps, a range of mountains chiefly in Switzerland. 8 Device, emblem, motto. Falchion, a short crooked sword. 10 Sheath, scabbard or sword

case.

In happy homes he saw the light

Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral1 glaciers shone,

And from his lips escaped a groan,

Excelsior!

Try not the pass!"3 the old man said;
Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!"
And loud that clarion 5 voice replied,
Excelsior!

"O stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast!"
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered with a sigh,
Excelsior!

"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche !"

This was the peasant's last good-night;
A voice replied far up the height,
Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of St. Bernard7
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,

A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

'Spectral, ghost-like, from their whiteness., 2 Glaciers. In lofty regions, and on the tops of mountains, where the temperature seldom or never rises above the freezing point, ice and snow accumulate in masses, which, when they slide slowly down are known by the name of glaciers; fragments of them, called avalanches, sometimes descend with great violence into the valleys below, destroying trees, herds, and cottages. 3 Pass, a road over a mountain, or between two mountains. Passes are generally dangerous, especially in stormy weather. Lowers, threatens, see page 5. 5 Clarion, a trumpet. 6 Peasant, a labourer. 7 St. Bernard, a convent in the pass of St. Bernard, North Italy, where a number of dogs, of great sagacity and gentleness, are employed to search for lost travellers.

A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and grey,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay;
And from the sky, serene1 and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
Excelsior!

THE EVE OF THE BATTLE.2-Byron.

3

THERE was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gathered then
Her beauty and her chivalry,5 and bright
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous 6 swell,

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,

And all went merry as a marriage bell;

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell.

Did ye not hear it ?-No; 'twas but the wind,

Or the car rattling o'er the stony street ;

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined ;7

8

No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet,
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet-

1 Serene, calm, peaceful. The Battle, the battle of Quatre Bras is here referred to, not Waterloo, which took place two days afterwards (1815). 3 Revelry, merry-making, mirth. 4 Belgium's capital, Brussels. 5 Chivalry, soldiers. 6 Voluptuous, pleasurable, luxurious. 7 Unconfined, without limits or bounds. 8 No sleep, etc., when youth and pleasure meet to pass happy hours in the dance, let there be no thought of sleep till morn.

But, hark! that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat:

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!

Arm! Arm! it is—it is—the cannon's opening roar!

Within a windowed niche 1 of that high hall
Sat Brunswick's fated chieftain;2 he did hear
That sound the first amidst the festival,

And caught its tone with death's prophetic ear;
And when they smiled because he deemed 3 it near,
His heart more truly knew that peal too well
Which stretched his father on a bloody bier,

4

And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell :
He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.

Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro,
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago
Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness;
And there were sudden partings, such as press
The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs
Which ne'er might be repeated: who could guess
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,
Since upon night so sweet, such awful morn could rise?

And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,
Went pouring forward with impetuous 6 speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar;
And near, the beat of the alarming drum
Roused up the soldier ere the morning star;
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb,
Or whispering, with white lips-"The foe! They come!
They come !"

Niche, a recess. 2 Brunswick's fated chieftain, the Duke of Brunswick. 3 Deemed, thought, considered. 4 Father, the duke's father received his death-wound at the battle of Jena. 5 Squadron, a body of horse soldiers, about 200. 6 Impetuous fierce, furious.