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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories of the Olden Time, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Stories of the Olden Time
+       (Historical Series--Book IV Part I)
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: October 16, 2010 [EBook #34083]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES OF THE OLDEN TIME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Larry B. Harrison and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  _HISTORICAL SERIES--BOOK IV PART I_
+
+  STORIES
+  OF THE OLDEN TIME
+
+  COMPILED AND ARRANGED
+  BY JAMES JOHONNOT
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  NEW YORK  CINCINNATI  CHICAGO
+  AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1889,
+  BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+  E. P. 12
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+When we go back to the early history of any people, we find that fact
+and fiction are strangely blended, and that the stories told are
+largely made up of traditions distorted and exaggerated by imagination
+and time. The myth, however, is valuable as representing the first
+steps of a nation in the evolution of its literature from a barbaric
+state, and as indicating special national characteristics.
+
+The myths of Greece, for example, are chiefly derived from the
+traditions extant when the alphabet was invented, and are preserved in
+the poetic stories of Homer and Virgil. Combined, they make that
+mythology which grew up in Greece, and which now so largely permeates
+the literature of every civilized language.
+
+The first stories given in this book are myths. They stand first in
+the order of precedence because they stand first in the order of time.
+
+The myths are followed by a few parables and fables, forms of stories
+which from the earliest times have been used to apply some
+well-established principle of morals to practical conduct.
+
+Next follow legends, where we are called upon to separate the probable
+from the improbable, the true from the false. Herodotus, the father of
+history, wrote his account of the "Persian Empire" several hundred
+years after the events took place which he has recorded. The stories
+had been preserved to his day by tradition.
+
+In the traditional stories and in the truer records which follow, the
+pupil will see the play of the same emotions and passions which
+actuate men at the present time, and the careers of the great
+conquerors, Frederic and Napoleon, differ little essentially from
+those of Alexander and Cæsar. Tyranny remains the same forever,
+encroaching upon human liberty and limiting the field of human
+conduct. It will be seen also that from the state of barbarism there
+has been a gradual evolution which more and more places men under the
+protection of equal laws.
+
+These books are to be used mainly for the stories they contain. By a
+simple reproduction in speech or in writing, we have the best possible
+language lesson. The value of the books may be entirely lost by
+catechisms which demand the literal reproduction of the text.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  MYTHS.
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+        I. Arion                                                7
+       II. Arachne                                             12
+      III. Polyphemus                                          15
+       IV. Ulysses's Return                                    17
+        V. Thor's Visit to Jotunheim                           20
+
+
+  PARABLES AND FABLES.
+
+       VI. The Wolf and the Dog                                24
+      VII. Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard             26
+     VIII. Parable of the Sower and the Seed                   28
+       IX. Pairing-Time anticipated                            30
+
+
+  LEGENDS.
+
+        X. The Gift of Tritemius                               33
+       XI. Damon and Pythias                                   36
+      XII. King Canute                                         40
+     XIII. A Norseman's Sword                                  43
+       IV. The Story of King Alfred and St. Cuthbert           46
+       XV. A Roland for an Oliver                              49
+      XVI. The Legend of Macbeth                               52
+
+
+  OLD BALLADS.
+
+     XVII. Chevy-Chase                                         59
+    XVIII. Valentine and Ursine                                65
+
+
+  EARLY EASTERN RECORD.
+
+      XIX. Sennacherib                                         71
+       XX. Glaucon                                             75
+      XXI. Cyrus and his Grandfather                           80
+     XXII. Cyrus and the Armenians                             83
+    XXIII. The Macedonian Empire                               90
+     XXIV. Alexander's Conquests                               98
+      XXV. Judas Maccabæus, the Hebrew William Tell           106
+
+
+  ROMAN RECORD.
+
+     XXVI. Tarquin the Wicked                                 117
+    XXVII. The Roman Republic                                 127
+   XXVIII. Cincinnatus                                        137
+     XXIX. The Roman Father                                   141
+      XXX. Archimedes                                         150
+     XXXI. The Death of Cæsar                                 154
+    XXXII. How Romans lived                                   161
+
+
+  MEDIÆVAL RECORD.
+
+   XXXIII. Conversion of the English                          169
+    XXXIV. Leo the Slave                                      173
+     XXXV. The Moors in Spain                                 179
+    XXXVI. Charlemagne                                        183
+
+
+  WESTERN RECORD.
+
+   XXXVII. The Norsemen                                       191
+  XXXVIII. Rolf the Ganger                                    200
+    XXXIX. The True Story of Macbeth                          206
+       XL. Duke William of Normandy                           211
+      XLI. The Norman Conquest                                217
+     XLII. King Richard Cœur de Lion in the Holy Land      224
+    XLIII. King John and the Charter                          230
+     XLIV. An Early Election to Parliament                    237
+      XLV. The Battle of Cressy                               245
+     XLVI. The Battle of Agincourt                            251
+
+
+
+
+MYTHS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+_I.--ARION._
+
+
+1. Arion was a famous musician, and dwelt at the court of Periander,
+King of Corinth, with whom he was a great favorite. There was a
+musical contest in Sicily, and Arion longed to compete for the prize.
+He told his wish to Periander, who besought him like a brother to give
+up the thought. "Pray stay with me," he said, "and be contented. He
+who strives to win may lose." Arion answered: "A wandering life best
+suits the free heart of a poet. A talent which a god bestowed upon me
+I would fain make a source of pleasure to others; and if I win the
+prize, how will the enjoyment of it be increased by the consciousness
+of my wide-spread fame!"
+
+2. He went, won the prize, and embarked with his wealth in a
+Corinthian vessel for home. On the second morning after setting sail,
+the wind breathed mild and fair. "O Periander!" he exclaimed, "dismiss
+your fears. Soon shall you forget them in my embrace. With what lavish
+offerings will we display our gratitude to the gods, and how merry
+will we be at the festal board!" The wind and sea continued favorable,
+not a cloud dimmed the firmament. He had not trusted too much to the
+ocean, but to man he had. He overheard the seamen plotting to get
+possession of his treasure. Presently they surrounded him, loud and
+mutinous, and said: "Arion, you must die! If you would have a grave on
+the shore, yield yourself to die on this spot; but if otherwise, cast
+yourself into the sea."
+
+3. "Will nothing satisfy you but my life?" said he; "take my gold in
+welcome. I willingly buy my life at that price." "No, no; we can not
+spare you. Your life would be too dangerous to us. Where could we go to
+escape Periander if he should know that you had been robbed by us? Your
+gold would be of little use to us, if, on returning home, we could never
+more be free from fear." "Grant me, then," said he, "a last request,
+since naught will prevail to save my life, that I may die as I have
+lived, as becomes a bard. When I shall have sung my death-song, and my
+harp-strings cease to vibrate, then I will bid farewell to life, and
+yield to my fate." This prayer, like the others, would have been
+unheeded--they thought only of their booty--but to hear so famous a
+musician moved their hearts. "Suffer me," he added, "to arrange my
+dress. Apollo will not favor me unless I am clad in my minstrel garb."
+
+4. He clothed himself in gold and purple, fair to see, his tunic fell
+around him in graceful folds, jewels adorned his arms, his brow was
+crowned with a golden wreath, and over his neck and shoulders flowed
+his hair, perfumed with odors. His left hand held the lyre, his right
+the ivory wand with which he struck the chords. Like one inspired he
+seemed to drink the morning air and glitter in the morning ray. The
+seamen gazed in admiration. He strode forward to the vessel's side,
+and looked down into the blue sea.
+
+5. Addressing his lyre, he sang: "Companion of my voice, come with me
+to the realm of shades! Though Cerberus may growl, we know the power
+of song can tame his rage. Ye heroes of Elysium, who have passed the
+darkling flood--ye happy souls, soon shall I join your band. Yet can
+ye relieve my grief? Alas! I leave my friend behind me. Thou, who
+didst find thy Eurydice, and lose her again as soon as found, when she
+had vanished like a dream, how thou didst hate the cheerful light! I
+must away, but I will not fear. The gods look down upon us. Ye who
+slay me unoffending, when I am no more your time of trembling shall
+come! Ye Nereids, receive your guest, who throws himself upon your
+mercy!" So saying, he sprang into the deep sea. The waves covered him,
+and the seamen held their way, fancying themselves safe from all
+danger of detection.
+
+6. But the strains of his music had drawn around him the inhabitants
+of the deep to listen, and dolphins followed the ship as if charmed by
+a spell. While he struggled in the waves a dolphin offered him its
+back, and carried him mounted thereon safe to shore. At the spot where
+he landed, a monument of brass was afterward erected upon the rocky
+shore to preserve the memory of the event.
+
+7. When Arion and the dolphin parted, each returning to his own
+element, Arion thus poured forth his thanks: "Farewell, thou faithful,
+friendly fish! Would that I could reward thee! but thou canst not wend
+with me, nor I with thee; companionship we may not have. May Galatea,
+queen of the deep, accord thee her favor, and thou, proud of the
+burden, draw her chariot over the smooth mirror of the deep!"
+
+[Illustration: _Arion and the Dolphin._]
+
+8. Arion hastened from the shore, and soon saw before him the towers
+of Corinth. He journeyed on, harp in hand, singing as he went, full of
+love and happiness, forgetting his losses, and mindful only of what
+remained, his friend and his lyre. He entered the hospitable halls,
+and was soon clasped in the embrace of Periander. "I come back to
+thee, my friend," he said. "The talent which a god bestowed has been
+the delight of thousands, but false knaves have stripped me of my
+well-earned treasure." Then he told all the wonderful events that had
+befallen him. Periander, who heard him in amazement, said: "Shall such
+wickedness triumph? Then in vain is power lodged in my hands. That we
+may discover the criminals you must lie here concealed, so that they
+come without suspicion."
+
+9. When the ship arrived in the harbor, he summoned the mariners
+before him. "Have you heard anything of Arion?" he inquired. "I
+anxiously look for his return." They replied, "We left him well and
+prosperous in Tarentum." As they said these words, Arion stepped forth
+and faced them. He was clad in all his glory as when he leaped into
+the sea. They fell prostrate at his feet, as if a lightning-bolt had
+struck them. "We meant to murder him, and he has become a god! O
+earth, open and receive us!" Then Periander spoke: "He lives, the
+master of the lay! kind Heaven protects the poet's life. As for you, I
+invoke not the spirit of vengeance; Arion wishes not your blood. Ye
+slaves of avarice, begone! Seek some barbarous land, and never may
+aught beautiful delight your souls!"
+
+
+
+
+_II.--ARACHNE._
+
+
+1. In the old mythology it was considered a great sin for any mortal
+to enter into a contest with a god, and whenever one did so he
+incurred a fearful penalty. The maiden Arachne early showed marvelous
+skill in embroidery and all kinds of needle-work. So beautiful were
+her designs that the nymphs themselves would leave their groves and
+fountains, and come and gaze delighted upon her work. It was not only
+beautiful when it was done, but was beautiful in the doing. As they
+watched the delicate touch of her fingers they declared that the
+goddess Minerva must have been her teacher. This Arachne denied, and,
+grown very vain of her many compliments, she said: "Let Minerva try
+her skill with mine, and if beaten I will pay the penalty!"
+
+2. Minerva heard this, and was greatly displeased at the vanity and
+presumption of the maiden. Assuming the form of an old woman she went
+to Arachne and gave her some friendly advice. "I have much
+experience," she said, "and I hope you will not despise my counsel.
+Challenge mortals as much as you like, but do not try and compete with
+a goddess!" Arachne stopped her spinning, and angrily replied: "keep
+your counsel for your daughters and handmaids; for my part, I know
+what I say, and I stand to it. I am not afraid of the goddess."
+
+3. Minerva then dropped her disguise, and stood before the company in
+her proper person. The nymphs at once paid her homage. Arachne alone
+had no fear. She stood by her resolve, and the contest proceeded. Each
+took her station, and attached the web to the beam. Both worked with
+speed; their skillful hands moved rapidly, and the excitement of the
+contest made the labor light.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+4. Minerva wrought into her web the scene of her contest with Neptune.
+The gods are all represented in their most august forms, and the
+picture is noble in its perfect simplicity and chaste beauty. In the
+four corners she wrought scenes where mortals entered into contest
+with gods and were punished for their presumption. These were meant as
+warnings to her rival to give up the contest before it was too late.
+
+5. Arachne filled her web with subjects designedly chosen to exhibit
+the failings and errors of the gods. Every story to their discredit
+she appears to have treasured up. The last scene she represented was
+that of Jupiter in the form of a bull carrying off Europa across the
+sea, leaving the heart-broken mother to wander in search of her child
+until she died.
+
+6. Minerva examined the work of her rival, and doubly angry at the
+presumption and the sacrilege manifested in her choice of subjects,
+struck her web with a shuttle and tore it from the loom. She then
+touched the forehead of Arachne and made her feel her guilt and shame.
+This she could not endure, and went out and hanged herself. Minerva
+pitied her, as she saw her hanging by a rope. "Live, guilty woman,"
+said she; "and that you may preserve the memory of this lesson,
+continue to hang, you and your descendants, to all future times." She
+sprinkled her with the juice of aconite, and immediately her form
+shrunk up, her head grew small, and her fingers grew to her sides and
+served as legs. All the rest of her is body, out of which she spins
+her thread, often hanging suspended by it in the same attitude as when
+Minerva touched her and transformed her into a spider.
+
+
+
+
+_III.--POLYPHEMUS._
+
+
+1. When Troy was captured, Ulysses, the King of Ithaca, set sail for
+his native country. With favorable winds he should have reached home
+in a few months, but he met with so many adventures that it was ten
+years before he saw the shores of his beloved Ithaca. At one time he
+and his companions landed upon an unknown shore in search of food.
+Ulysses took with him a jar of wine as a present should he meet with
+any inhabitants. Presently they came to a large cave, and entered it.
+There they found lambs and kids in their pens, and a table spread with
+cheese, fruits, and bowls of milk. But soon the master of the cave,
+Polyphemus, returned, and Ulysses saw that they were in the land of
+the Cyclops, a race of immense giants. The name means "round eye," and
+these giants were so called because they had but one eye, and that was
+placed in the middle of the forehead.
+
+2. Polyphemus drove into the cave the sheep and the goats to be
+milked, and then placed a huge rock at the mouth of the cave to serve
+as a door. While attending to his supper he chanced to spy the Greeks,
+who were hidden in one corner. He growled out to them, demanding to
+know who they were, and where from. Ulysses replied, stating that they
+were returning from the siege of Troy, and that they had landed in
+search of provisions. At this Polyphemus gave no answer, but seizing a
+couple of Greeks, he killed and ate them up on the spot. He then went
+to sleep, and his snoring sounded like thunder in the ears of the
+terrified Greeks all the livelong night. In the morning the giant
+arose, ate two more men, and went out with his flocks, having
+carefully secured the door so that the remainder could not get away.
+
+3. Then Ulysses contrived a plan to punish the giant, and get away
+from his clutches. He found a great bar of wood which the giant had
+cut for a staff. This his men sharpened at one end and hardened at the
+fire. Then a number were selected to use it, and they awaited events.
+In the evening Polyphemus returned, and having eaten his two men he
+lay down to sleep. But Ulysses presented him with some of the wine
+from the jar which the giant eagerly drank, and called for more. In a
+short time he was quite drunk, and then he asked Ulysses his name, and
+he replied: "My name is Noman."
+
+[Illustration: _Polyphemus._]
+
+4. When the giant was fairly asleep, the sailors seized the sharpened
+stick, and, aiming it directly at his single eye, they rushed forward
+with all their might. The eye was put out, and the giant was left
+blind. He felt around the cave trying to catch his tormentors, but
+they contrived to get out of his way. He then howled so loud that his
+neighbors came to see what was the matter, when he said, "I am hurt,
+Noman did it!" Then they said, "If no man did it, we can not help
+you." So they went home, leaving him groaning.
+
+5. In the morning Polyphemus rolled away the stone to let out his
+sheep and goats, and the Greeks contrived to get out with them without
+being discovered. Once out, they lost no time in driving the flocks
+down to the shore, and then with their vessels well provisioned they
+set sail once more for their native land.
+
+
+
+
+_IV.--ULYSSES'S RETURN._
+
+
+1. Ulysses, the lord of Ithaca, went to assist the Greeks in the siege
+of Troy. For ten long years the war lasted, and when Troy fell,
+Ulysses was ten more years in reaching his home. He met with so many
+accidents and adventures that delayed him, that even his stout heart
+almost gave out as he thought of the wife and children waiting for him
+through all these weary years. In the mean time his son Telemachus had
+grown to manhood, and had gone in search of his father.
+
+2. During all this time his wife, Queen Penelope, never lost hope, but
+lived daily looking for her husband to come sailing over the sea. But
+while the master was away, more than a hundred young lords laid claim
+to the hand of Penelope, so as to obtain the power and riches of
+Ulysses. They lorded it over the palace and people as if they were the
+owners of both, and they paid no attention to the wishes of Penelope,
+as she was but a woman, and could not protect herself. Her only safety
+lay in the fact that the suitors were jealous of each other, and no
+one could make any advance until Penelope had made her selection.
+
+[Illustration: _Ulysses and his Dog._]
+
+3. At last Ulysses returned in the disguise of a beggar. No one knew
+him except his old dog Argus, who, in his excess of joy, died while
+licking his hands. He made himself known to Eumæus, a faithful
+servant, and by him was presented to Telemachus, who had just
+returned. Great was the joy of father and son at thus meeting each
+other. Then the three laid a plan to punish the suitors and to rid
+Ithaca of their presence. In carrying out this plan, Telemachus went
+to his mother's palace publicly, and the suitors bade him welcome,
+though they secretly hated him, and had tried to take his life. Here
+he found feasting going on, and, at his request, the supposed beggar
+was admitted to the foot of the table.
+
+4. Penelope had put off her decision on various pretexts until now,
+when there appeared no other reason for delay. So she announced that
+she would accept the one who would shoot an arrow through twelve rings
+arranged in a line. A bow formerly used by Ulysses was brought in and
+all other arms removed. All things being ready, the first thing to be
+done was to attach the string to the bow, which required the bow to be
+bent. Telemachus tried and failed. Then each of the suitors tried in
+turn, and all failed. They even rubbed the bow with tallow, but it
+would not bend.
+
+5. Here Ulysses spoke and said: "Beggar as I am, I once was a soldier,
+and there is some strength in these old limbs of mine yet. Let me
+try." The suitors hooted at him, and would have turned him out of the
+hall; but Telemachus said it was best to gratify the old man, and so
+put the bow in his hand. Ulysses took it and easily adjusted the cord.
+Then he selected an arrow and sent it through the twelve rings at the
+first shot. Before the suitors recovered from their astonishment he
+sent another through the heart of the most insolent of them.
+Telemachus, Eumæus, and another faithful servant sprang to their aid.
+The suitors looked around for arms, but there were none. Ulysses did
+not let them remain long in doubt; he announced himself as the
+long-lost chief whose house they had invaded, whose substance they had
+squandered, and whose wife and son they had persecuted for ten long
+years, and told them he meant to have ample vengeance. All the suitors
+were slain but two, and Ulysses was left master of his own palace and
+the possessor of his kingdom and wife.
+
+[Illustration: _Penelope and Ulysses's Bow._]
+
+
+
+
+_V.--THOR'S VISIT TO JOTUNHEIM._
+
+
+1. Thor, the god of the Northmen, who always carried a hammer to make
+his way or obtain his wishes, heard of the giant's country, Jotunheim,
+of which Utgard was the capital, and he resolved on a visit to that
+region to try his strength with any one whom he might find. So,
+accompanied by his servants, Thiolfi and Loki, he set out. Thiolfi was
+of all men the swiftest on foot. At nightfall they took refuge from a
+storm in a very large building which they imperfectly saw in the dim
+light, but were kept awake by loud thunder which shook their abode
+like an earthquake. In the morning it was found that the thunder was
+the snoring of a huge giant sleeping near by, and that the building in
+which they had taken shelter was the giant's glove.
+
+2. The giant, whose name was Skrymer, knew Thor, and proposed that
+they should travel together, to which the god consented. At night they
+encamped, and soon the giant was asleep. Thor, finding that he could
+not untie the provision-bag which the giant had carried all day, went
+into a rage and struck the sleeper a mighty blow with, his hammer.
+Skrymer awoke and said, "The leaves are falling, for one just now fell
+upon my breast." They lay down again, and soon the giant began to
+snore so loud that Thor could get no sleep, so he grasped the hammer
+in both hands and dealt him another blow. Skrymer awoke and called
+out, "How fares it with thee, Thor? A bird must be overhead--a bunch
+of moss has just now fallen upon me." Just before daylight Thor
+thought that he would end this matter then, so he seized his hammer
+and threw it with all his might. Skrymer awoke, and stroking his cheek
+said, "An acorn fell upon my head. But let us be stirring, as we have
+a long day before us."
+
+3. When within sight of the city Skrymer turned off, as his route lay in
+another direction, and soon Thor and his companions were in presence of
+the giant king. Addressing Thor, the king asked if he or his companions
+could do anything better than others, for he said that no one was
+permitted to remain in the city unless he excelled in something.
+
+4. Loki, who was a great eater, proposed a feast, and the king called
+Logi to come out and compete with him. A trough filled with meat was
+placed in the midst of the hall, and Loki beginning at one end soon
+ate all the flesh to the middle of the trough; but it was found that
+Logi had devoured both flesh and bones and the trough to boot. So the
+company adjudged Loki vanquished.
+
+5. Next Thiolfi presented himself to run a race, and the king brought
+out a young man named Hugi to run with him. Hugi ran over the course
+and turning back met Thiolfi but just started. Then the king remarked
+that if Thor could not do better than his servants, it were well that
+he stay at home. Then a drinking-match was proposed, and a drinking
+horn was brought in. It was not very large, but was of great length,
+and the king remarked that any one of his subjects ought to empty it
+at a single draught, but none would fail to do so in three draughts.
+Thor drank long and deep, but the horn was as full as before; a second
+trial met with a similar failure. Then Thor straightened himself for a
+mighty effort and drank as the thirsty earth drinks of the rains from
+heaven. The liquor was diminished, but still the horn was nearly full.
+"I perceive," said the king, "that thou canst not be very thirsty, or
+thou wouldst drink more."
+
+6. "What new trial do you propose?" said Thor. "We have a trifling
+game here," said the king, "in which we exercise none but children. It
+consists in merely lifting my cat from the ground, and I should not
+have mentioned it to the great Thor if I had not observed that thou
+art by no means what we took thee for." As he finished speaking, a
+large gray cat sprang into the hall. Thor put forth all his mighty
+strength three times without lifting her, though on the third trial
+one foot was raised from the floor.
+
+7. "Well," said the king, "only one trial remains for thee. Thou must
+wrestle with somebody, and after thy failures to-day none of our men
+will wrestle with thee." So saying, the king called upon his old
+nurse, a toothless crone, shaking and trembling on the edge of the
+grave. Thor grasped her and put forth a mighty effort, but the old
+woman stood fast. At last she grasped him in turn, and he was thrown
+upon his knee. The king here interfered, and the contests came to an
+end. The travelers, however, were royally entertained, and after a
+good night's rest, and a bountiful breakfast, they bade the king
+good-by, and set out on their return.
+
+8. Toward night they overtook a traveler, who proved to be Skrymer,
+their former companion and guide, and they encamped together in the
+very wood where they passed their first night together. The giant,
+perceiving the dejected looks of Thor, said, "Something appears to
+trouble thee; has thy journey gone amiss?" Thereupon Thor related the
+whole story of his failures. "Then," said the giant, "take heart, for
+thou hast performed great wonders, but hast been the victim of
+delusions. Observe me closely!" Thor looked, and saw that Skrymer and
+the king were one and the same person.
+
+9. "Now," said the king, "Loki devoured all that was set before him,
+but Logi was Fire, and consumed trough and all. Hugi, with whom
+Thiolfi was running, was Thought, and not the swiftest runner can keep
+pace with that. The horn that thou failedst to empty had its lower end
+in the sea, and thou wilt see how the very ocean is lowered by thy
+draught. The cat is the animal that bears up the world, and thy last
+mighty effort caused the solid earth to shake as with an earthquake.
+The old woman with whom thou wrestledst was old age, and she throws
+everybody." The king then pointed out the place where Thor dealt his
+blows on the night of their first meeting, and lo! three mighty chasms
+showed where the solid mountains had been rent asunder.
+
+
+
+
+PARABLES AND FABLES.
+
+
+
+
+_VI.--THE WOLF AND THE DOG._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Lean, hungry wolf, fell in one moonlight night with a jolly, plump,
+well-fed mastiff, and after the first greetings were passed, the wolf
+accosted him: "You look extremely well," said he, "I think I never saw a
+more graceful, comely personage; but how comes it about, I beseech you,
+that you should live so much better than I? I may say, without vanity,
+that I venture fifty times more than you do, and yet I am almost ready
+to perish with hunger." The dog answered very bluntly: "Why, you may
+live as well as I if you will do the same services for it." The wolf
+pricked up his ears at the proposal, and requested to be informed what
+he must do to earn such plentiful meals. "Very little," answered the
+dog; "only to guard the house at night, and keep it from thieves and
+beggars." "With all my heart," rejoined the wolf, "for at present I have
+but a sorry time of it; and, I think, to change my hard lodging in the
+woods, where I endure rain, frost, and snow, for a warm roof over my
+head and plenty of food, will be no bad bargain." "True," said the dog,
+"therefore, you have nothing more to do than to follow me."
+
+2. As they were jogging along together, the wolf spied a circle, worn
+round his friend's neck, and, being almost as curious as some of a
+higher species, he could not forbear asking what it meant. "Pooh!
+nothing," said the dog, "or at most a mere trifle." "Nay, but pray,"
+urged the wolf, "inform me." "Why, then," said the dog, "perhaps it is
+the collar to which my chain is fastened; for I am sometimes tied up
+in the day-time, because I am a little fierce, and might bite people,
+and am only let loose at night. But this is done with design to make
+me sleep in the day, more than anything else, that I may watch the
+better in the night-time. As soon as the twilight appears, I am turned
+loose, and may go where I please. Then my master brings me plates of
+bones from the table with his own hands; and whatever scraps are left
+by the family fall to my share, for you must know I am a favorite with
+everybody. So, seeing how you are to live, come along! Why, what is
+the matter with you?" "I beg your pardon," replied the wolf, "but you
+may keep your happiness to yourself. I am resolved to have no share in
+your dinners. Half a meal, with liberty, is, in my estimation, worth a
+full one without it."
+
+
+
+
+_VII.--PARABLE OF THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD._
+
+
+1. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder,
+which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.
+
+2. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent
+them into his vineyard.
+
+3. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle
+in the market-place,
+
+4. And said unto them; go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is
+right I will give you. And they went their way.
+
+5. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
+
+6. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing
+idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
+
+7. They say unto him, because no man hath hired us. He saith unto
+them, go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that
+shall ye receive.
+
+8. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his
+steward, call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from
+the last unto the first.
+
+9. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they
+received every man a penny.
+
+10. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have
+received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
+
+11. And when they had received it, they murmured against the good man
+of the house,
+
+12. Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made
+them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+13. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong:
+didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
+
+14. Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last,
+even as unto thee.
+
+15. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine
+eye evil, because I am good?
+
+16. So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be
+called, but few chosen.
+
+                                        (_St. Matthew, xx. 1-16._)
+
+
+
+
+_VIII.--PARABLE OF THE SOWER AND THE SEED._
+
+
+1. The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.
+
+2. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he
+went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
+
+3. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a
+sower went forth to sow;
+
+4. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way-side, and the fowls
+came and devoured them up:
+
+5. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and
+forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
+
+6. And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had
+no root, they withered away.
+
+7. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked
+them:
+
+8. But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a
+hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold.
+
+9. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
+
+10. And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto
+them in parables?
+
+11. He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know
+the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
+
+[Illustration: _A Sower went forth to Sow._]
+
+12. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more
+abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even
+that he hath.
+
+13. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see
+not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
+
+                                      (_St. Matthew xiii, 1-13._)
+
+
+
+
+_IX.--PAIRING-TIME ANTICIPATED._
+
+
+    1. I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau
+       If birds confabulate or no;
+       'Tis clear that they were always able
+       To hold discourse,--at least in fable;
+       And even the child, who knows no better
+       Than to interpret by the letter
+       A story of a cock and bull,
+       Must have a most uncommon skull.
+
+    2. It chanced then on a winter's day,
+       But warm and bright and calm as May,
+       The birds, conceiving a design
+       To forestall sweet Saint Valentine,
+       In many an orchard, copse, and grove,
+       Assembled on affairs of love,
+       And with much twitter and much chatter,
+       Began to agitate the matter.
+
+    3. At length a bull-finch, who could boast
+       More years and wisdom than the most,
+       Entreated, opening wide his beak
+       A moment's liberty to speak,
+       And silence publicly enjoined,
+       Briefly delivered thus his mind:
+       "My friends! be cautious how ye treat
+       The subject upon which we meet;
+       I fear we shall have winter yet."
+
+    4. A finch, whose tongue knew no control,
+       With golden wings and satin poll,
+       A last year's bird, who ne'er had tried
+       What marriage means, thus pert, replied:
+       "Methinks the gentleman," quoth she,
+       "Opposite in the apple-tree,
+       By his good will, would keep us single
+       'Till yonder heaven and earth shall mingle,
+       Or, what is likelier to befall,
+       'Till death exterminate us all.
+       I marry without more ado!
+       My dear Dick Redcap, what say you?"
+
+    5. Dick heard, and tweedling, ogling, bridling,
+       Turning short round, strutting and sidling,
+       Attested glad his approbation
+       Of an immediate conjugation.
+       Their sentiments so well expressed,
+       Mightily influenced all the rest.
+       All paired and each pair built a nest.
+
+    6. But though the birds were thus in haste,
+       The leaves came out not quite so fast,
+       And destiny, that sometimes bears
+       An aspect stern on men's affairs,
+       Not altogether smiled on their's.
+       The wing of late breathed gently forth,
+       Now shifted east and east by north.
+       Bare trees and shrubs, but ill, you know
+       Could shelter them from rain or snow.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    7. Stepping into their nests they paddled;
+       Themselves were chilled, their eggs were addled;
+       Soon every father bird and mother,
+       Grew quarrelsome and pecked each other,
+       Parted without the least regret--
+       Except that they had ever met--
+       And learned in future to be wiser
+       Than to neglect a good adviser.
+
+    8. Moral:
+           Misses, the tale that I relate,
+             This moral seems to carry--
+           Choose not alone a proper mate,
+             But proper time to marry.
+
+                                      _Cowper._
+
+
+
+
+LEGENDS.
+
+
+
+
+_X.--THE GIFT OF TRITEMIUS._
+
+
+    1. Tritemius, of Herbipolis, one day,
+       While kneeling at the altar's foot to pray,
+       Alone with God, as was his pious choice,
+       Heard from without a miserable voice,
+       A sound which seemed of all sad things to tell,
+       As of a lost soul crying out of hell.
+
+    2. Thereat the abbot paused; the chain whereby
+       His thoughts went upward broken by that cry;
+       And, looking from the casement, saw below
+       A wretched woman, with gray hair a-flow,
+       And withered hands held up to him, who cried
+       For alms as one who might not be denied.
+
+[Illustration: _The gift of Tritemius._]
+
+    3. She cried, "For the dear love of Him who gave
+       His life for ours, my child from bondage save,--
+       My beautiful, brave first-born, chained with slaves
+       In the Moor's galley, where the sun-smit waves
+       Lap the white walls of Tunis!" "What I can
+       I give," Tritemius said: "my prayers." "O man
+       Of God," she cried, for grief had made her bold,
+       "Mock me not thus; I ask not prayers, but gold.
+       Words will not serve me, alms alone suffice;
+       Even while I speak, perchance, my first-born dies."
+
+    4. "Woman," Tritemius answered, "from our door
+       None go unfed; hence are we always poor;
+       A single soldo is our only store.
+       Thou hast our prayers; what can we give thee more?"
+
+    5. "Give me," she said, "the silver candlesticks
+       On either side of the great crucifix;
+       God may well spare them on his errands sped,
+       Or he can give you golden ones instead."
+
+    6. Then spake Tritemius: "Even as thy word,
+       Woman, so be it! (Our most gracious Lord,
+       Who loveth mercy more than sacrifice,
+       Pardon me if a human soul I prize
+       Above the gifts upon his altar piled!)
+       Take what thou askest, and redeem thy child."
+
+    7. But his hand trembled as the holy alms
+       He placed within the beggar's eager palms;
+       And as she vanished down the linden shade,
+       He bowed his head, and for forgiveness prayed.
+
+    8. So the day passed, and when the twilight came
+       He woke to find the chapel all aflame,
+       And, dumb with grateful wonder, to behold
+       Upon the altar candlesticks of gold!
+
+                                        _Whittier._
+
+
+
+
+_XI.--DAMON AND PYTHIAS._
+
+
+1. About four hundred years before the Christian era, the government
+of Syracuse fell into the hands of Dionysius, a successful general of
+the army. He dispossessed the magistrates whom the people elected, and
+was therefore a usurper. While ruling justly in the main, he had a
+capricious temper, and often in his rage performed actions which he
+sincerely regretted in his sober moments. He was a good scholar, and
+very fond of philosophy and poetry, and he delighted to have learned
+men around him, and he had naturally a generous spirit; but the sense
+that he was in a position that did not belong to him, and that every
+one hated him for assuming it, made him very harsh and suspicious. It
+is of him that the story is told, that he had a chamber hollowed in
+the rock near his state prison, and constructed with galleries to
+conduct sounds like an ear, so that he might overhear the conversation
+of his captives; and of him, too, is told that famous anecdote which
+has become a proverb, that on hearing a friend, named Damocles,
+express a wish to be in his situation for a single day, he took him at
+his word, and Damocles found himself at a banquet with everything that
+could delight his senses, delicious food, costly wine, flowers,
+perfumes, music, but with a sword with the point almost touching his
+head, and hanging by a single horse-hair! This was to show the
+condition in which a usurper lived.
+
+[Illustration: _Damon and Pythias._]
+
+2. Thus Dionysius was in constant dread. He had a wide trench round his
+bedroom, with a drawbridge that he drew up and put down with his own
+hands; and he put one barber to death for boasting that he held a razor
+to the tyrant's throat every morning. After this he made his young
+daughters shave him; and by-and-by he would not trust them with a
+razor, and caused them to singe off his beard with hot nut-shells.
+
+3. One philosopher, named Philoxenus, he sent to a dungeon for finding
+fault with his poetry, but he afterward composed another piece, which
+he thought so superior that he could not be content without sending
+for this adverse critic to hear it. When he had finished reading it,
+he looked to Philoxenus for a compliment; but the philosopher only
+turned round to the guards, and said dryly, "Carry me back to prison."
+This time Dionysius had the sense to laugh, and forgive his honesty.
+
+4. All these stories may not be true; but that they should have been
+current in the ancient world, shows what was the character of the man
+of whom they were told, how stern and terrible was his anger, and how
+easily it was incurred. Among those who came under it was a
+Pythagorean called Pythias, who was sentenced to death, according to
+the usual fate of those who fell under his suspicion.
+
+5. Pythias had lands and relations in Greece, and he entreated as a
+favor to be allowed to return thither and arrange his affairs,
+engaging to return within a specified time and suffer death. The
+tyrant laughed his request to scorn. Once safe out of Sicily, who
+would answer for his return? Pythias made reply that he had a friend
+who would become security for his return; and while Dionysius, the
+miserable man who trusted nobody, was ready to scoff at his
+simplicity, another Pythagorean, by name Damon, came forward and
+offered to become surety for his friend, engaging that, if Pythias did
+not return according to promise, to suffer death in his stead.
+
+6. Dionysius, much astonished, consented to let Pythias go, marveling
+what would be the issue of the affair. Time went on, and Pythias did
+not appear. The Syracusans watched Damon, but he showed no
+uneasiness. He said he was secure of his friend's truth and honor, and
+that if any accident had caused his delay, he should rejoice in dying
+to save the life of one so dear to him.
+
+7. Even to the last day Damon continued serene and content, however it
+might fall out; nay, even when the very hour drew nigh and still no
+Pythias. His trust was so perfect that he did not even grieve at having
+to die for a faithless friend who left him to the fate to which he had
+unwarily pledged himself. It was not Pythias's own will, but the winds
+and waves, so he still declared, when the decree was brought and the
+instruments of death made ready. The hour had come, and a few moments
+more would have ended Damon's life, when Pythias duly presented himself,
+embraced his friend, and stood forward himself to receive his sentence,
+calm, resolute, and rejoiced that he had come in time.
+
+8. Even the dim hope they owned of a future state was enough to make
+these two brave men keep their word, and confront death for one
+another without quailing. Dionysius looked on more struck than ever.
+He felt that neither of such men must die. He reversed the sentence of
+Pythias, and calling the two to his judgment-seat, he entreated them
+to admit him as a third in their friendship.
+
+                                              _Charlotte M. Yonge._
+
+
+
+
+_XII.--KING CANUTE._
+
+
+    1. Upon his royal throne he sat
+         In a monarch's thoughtful mood;
+       Attendants on his regal state,
+         His servile courtiers stood,
+       With foolish flatteries, false and vain,
+       To win his smile, his favor gain.
+
+    2. They told him e'en the mighty deep
+         His kingly sway confessed;
+       That he could bid its billows leap,
+         Or still its stormy breast!
+       He smiled contemptuously and cried,
+       "Be then my boasted empire tried!"
+
+    3. Down to the ocean's sounding shore
+         The proud procession came,
+       To see its billows' wild uproar
+         King Canute's power proclaim,
+       Or, at his high and dread command,
+       In gentle murmurs kiss the strand.
+
+    4. Not so thought he, their noble king,
+         As his course he seaward sped;
+       And each base slave, like a guilty thing,
+         Hung down his conscious head:
+       He knew the ocean's Lord on high!
+       They, that he scorned their senseless lie.
+
+    5. His throne was placed by ocean's side,
+         He lifted his scepter there,
+       Bidding, with tones of kingly pride,
+         The waves their strife forbear;
+       And while he spoke his royal will,
+       All but the winds and waves were still.
+
+[Illustration: _Canute and his Courtiers._]
+
+    6. Louder the stormy blast swept by,
+         In scorn of idle word;
+       The briny deep its waves tossed high,
+         By his mandate undeterred,
+       As threatening, in their angry play,
+       To sweep both king and court away.
+
+    7. The monarch, with upbraiding look,
+         Turned to the courtly ring;
+       But none the kindling eye could brook
+         Even of his earthly king;
+       For in that wrathful glance they see
+       A mightier monarch wronged than he!
+
+    8. Canute, thy regal race is run;
+         Thy name had passed away,
+       But for the meed this tale hath won,
+         Which never shall decay:
+       Its meek, unperishing renown
+       Outlasts thy scepter and thy crown.
+
+    9. The Persian, in his mighty pride,
+         Forged fetters for the main,
+       And, when its floods his power defied,
+         Inflicted stripes as vain;
+       But it was worthier far of thee
+       To know thyself than rule the sea!
+
+                        _Bernard Barton._
+
+
+
+
+_XIII.--A NORSEMAN'S SWORD._
+
+
+1. The smelting of iron in the north of Europe is believed to have
+commenced with the Finns or Laplanders, the original inhabitants of
+Scandinavia, who then occupied the localities where the best ores are
+still found. The diminutive stature of these people compared with that
+of their Gothic invaders, their skill in penetrating the bowels of the
+earth in search of ores, the smoke of their collieries, the flame and
+thunder of their furnaces and forges, and, above all, the excellent
+temper of the weapons wrought by them--all these conspired to render
+them objects of superstitious wonder to the Goths.
+
+2. The legendary stories of that people are filled with strange tales
+of the northern dwarfs, who lived in the solid rock, and possessed
+magic skill in all the various arts of the smith. One of these legends
+may be worth citing, and the rather, because it relates to Vanlander,
+the Scandinavian Vulcan, of whom many traditions are extant, even in
+England, where he is styled Wayland Smith. At the age of thirteen
+Vanlander was apprenticed by his father, the giant Vade, to two of the
+dwarfs who dwelt in the interior of the mountain, and he applied
+himself so faithfully to their instructions, that in two years he
+equaled his masters in knowledge of all the arts of smithery, both
+black and white.
+
+3. Being at the court of King Nidung, where his dexterity as a smith
+became known, a rivalship arose between him and Amilias, principal
+smith to the king. Amilias challenged Vanlander to a trial of skill,
+upon condition that the life of the vanquished should be at the
+disposal of the victor. The terms proposed were that Vanlander should
+forge a sword, and Amilias a helmet, cuirass, and other defensive
+armor, and a twelvemonth was allowed for preparation. If the sword of
+Vanlander penetrated the armor of Amilias, the former was to be
+declared the victor, if otherwise, his life was forfeited to his rival.
+
+[Illustration: _A Norseman's Sword._]
+
+4. Amilias spent the whole year at his task, but Vanlander did not
+commence his labors until two months before the trial. He now, after
+seven days' labor, exhibited to the king a sword of great beauty and
+excellent temper, but too heavy for use. By way of testing its edge,
+he took a cushion stuffed with wool a foot in thickness, threw it into
+the river, and let it float with the current against the edge of the
+sword, which cut it fairly in two. The king thought this a sufficient
+proof, but Vanlander was not satisfied.
+
+5. He took the sword to his smithy, filed it quite to dust, and after
+subjecting the filings to an odd process of animal chemistry, he
+forged from them another sword of somewhat smaller size than the
+first, though still rather heavy. Upon testing this sword in the same
+manner as before, it readily divided a cushion two feet in thickness,
+and the king thought it the finest weapon in the world, but Vanlander
+said he would have it half as good again before he was done with it.
+
+6. It was now reduced to filings, which were treated as in the former
+instance, and in three weeks Vanlander produced a sword of convenient
+size, inlaid with gold, and with an ornamental hilt, all of the
+highest finish and beauty. The king and the smith went again to the
+river with a cushion three feet in thickness, which was thrown into
+the water and driven against the blade as before. The sword divided
+the cushion as easily as the water, and without even checking its
+progress as it floated with the current, and King Nidung declared its
+fellow could not be found on earth.
+
+7. At the appointed day Amilias put on his armor, all of which was of
+double plates, and, declaring himself ready for the trial, seated
+himself in a chair, and defied his rival to do his worst. Vanlander
+stepped behind him, gave him a blow upon the helmet, and asked him if
+he felt the edge. "I felt as if cold water were running through me,"
+replied Amilias. "Shake yourself," said Vanlander. His rival did so,
+and fell asunder, the sword having cleft him to the chine.
+
+                                                _George P. Marsh._
+
+
+
+
+_XIV.--THE STORY OF KING ALFRED AND ST. CUTHBERT._
+
+
+1. Now King Alfred was driven from his kingdom by the Danes, and he
+lay hid three years in the Isle of Glastonbury. And it came to pass on
+a day that all his folk were gone out to fish, save only Alfred
+himself and his wife and one servant whom he loved. And there came a
+pilgrim to the king and begged for food. And the king said to his
+servant, "What food have we in the house?" And his servant answered,
+"My lord, we have but one loaf and a little wine." Then the king gave
+thanks to God, and said, "Give half of the loaf and half of the wine
+to this poor pilgrim." So the servant did as his lord commanded him,
+and gave to the pilgrim half of the loaf and half of the wine, and the
+pilgrim gave great thanks to the king.
+
+2. And when the servant returned he found the loaf whole, and the wine
+as much as there had been aforetime. And he greatly wondered, and he
+wondered also how the pilgrim had come into the isle, for that no man
+could come there save by water, and the pilgrim had no boat. And the
+king greatly wondered also. And at the ninth hour came back the folk
+who had gone to fish. And they had three boats full of fish, and they
+said, "Lo, we have caught more fish this day than in all the three
+years that we have tarried in this island!" And the king was glad,
+and he and his folk were merry; yet he pondered much upon that which
+had come to pass.
+
+3. And when night came the king went to his bed, and the king lay
+awake and thought of all that had come to pass by day. And presently
+he saw a great light, like the brightness of the sun, and he saw an
+old man with black hair, clothed in priest's garments, and with a
+miter on his head, and holding in his right hand a book of the Gospels
+adorned with gold and gems. And the old man blessed the king, and the
+king said unto him, "Who art thou?" And he answered: "Alfred, my son,
+rejoice; for I am he to whom thou didst this day give thine alms, and
+I am called Cuthbert the Soldier of Christ.
+
+4. "Now be strong and very courageous, and be of joyful heart, and
+hearken diligently to the things which I say unto thee; for henceforth
+I will be thy shield and thy friend, and I will watch over thee and
+over thy sons after thee. And now I will tell thee what thou must do:
+Rise up early in the morning and blow thine horn thrice, that thine
+enemies may hear it and fear, and by the ninth hour thou shalt have
+around thee five hundred men harnessed for the battle. And this shall
+be a sign unto thee that thou mayst believe. And after seven days thou
+shalt have, by God's gift and my help, all the folk of this land
+gathered unto thee upon the mount that is called Assaudun. And thus
+shalt thou fight against thine enemies, and doubt not that thou shalt
+overcome them.
+
+5. "Be thou, therefore, glad of heart, and be strong and very
+courageous, and fear not, for God hath given thine enemies into thine
+hand. And he hath given thee also all this land and the kingdom of thy
+fathers, to thee and to thy sons and to thy sons' sons after thee. Be
+thou faithful to me and to my folk, because that unto thee is given
+all the land of Albion. Be thou righteous, because thou art chosen to
+be the king of all Britain. So may God be merciful unto thee, and I
+will be thy friend, and none of thine enemies shall ever be able to
+overcome thee."
+
+6. Then was King Alfred glad at heart, and he was strong and very
+courageous, for that he knew that he would overcome his enemies by the
+help of God and St. Cuthbert his patron. So in the morning he arose
+and sailed to the land, and blew his horn three times, and when his
+friends heard it they rejoiced, and when his enemies heard it they
+feared. And by the ninth hour, according to the word of the Lord,
+there were gathered unto him five hundred men of the bravest and
+dearest of his friends.
+
+7. And he spake unto them and told them all that God had said unto them
+by the mouth of his servant Cuthbert, and he told them that, by the gift
+of God and by the help of St. Cuthbert, they would overcome their
+enemies and win back their own land. And he bade them, as St. Cuthbert
+had taught him, to be pious toward God and righteous toward men. And he
+bade his son Edward, who was by him, to be faithful to God and St.
+Cuthbert, and so he should always have victory over his enemies. So they
+went forth to battle and smote their enemies and overcame them, and King
+Alfred took the kingdom of all Britain, and he ruled well and wisely
+over the just and the unjust for the rest of his days.
+
+                                                  _E. A. Freeman._
+
+
+
+
+_XV.--A ROLAND FOR AN OLIVER._
+
+
+1. Milon, or Milone, a knight of great family, and distantly related
+to Charlemagne, having secretly married Bertha, the emperor's sister,
+was banished from France. After a long and miserable wandering on foot
+as mendicants, Milon and his wife arrived at Sutri, in Italy, where
+they took refuge in a cave, and in that cave Orlando was born. There
+his mother continued, drawing a scanty support from the compassion of
+the neighboring peasants, while Milon, in quest of honor and fortune,
+went into foreign lands. Orlando grew up among the children of the
+peasantry, surpassing them all in strength and manly graces.
+
+2. Among his companions in age, though in station far more elevated,
+was Oliver, son of the governor of the town. Between the two boys a
+feud arose, that led to a fight, in which Orlando thrashed his rival;
+but this did not prevent a friendship springing up between the two
+which lasted through life.
+
+3. Orlando was so poor that he was sometimes half naked. As he was a
+favorite of the boys, one day four of them brought some cloth to make
+him clothes. Two brought white and two red; and from this circumstance
+Orlando took his coat-of-arms, or quarterings.
+
+4. When Charlemagne was on his way to Rome, to receive the imperial
+crown, he dined in public in Sutri. Orlando and his mother that day had
+nothing to eat, and Orlando, coming suddenly upon the royal party, and
+seeing abundance of provisions, seized from the attendants as much as he
+could carry off, and made good his retreat in spite of their resistance.
+
+5. The emperor, being told of this incident, was reminded of an
+intimation he had received in a dream, and ordered the boy to be
+followed. This was done by three of the knights, whom Orlando would
+have encountered with a cudgel on their entering the grotto, had not
+his mother restrained him. When they heard from her who she was, they
+threw themselves at her feet, and promised to obtain her pardon from
+the emperor. This was easily effected. Orlando was received into favor
+by the emperor, returned with him to France, and so distinguished
+himself that he became the most powerful support of the throne and of
+Christianity.
+
+6. On another occasion, Orlando encountered a puissant Saracen
+warrior, and took from him, as the prize of victory, the sword
+Durindana. This famous weapon had once belonged to the illustrious
+prince Hector of Troy. It was of the finest workmanship, and of such
+strength and temper that no armor in the world could stand against it.
+
+7. Guerin de Montglave held the lordship of Vienne, subject to
+Charlemagne. He had quarreled with his sovereign, and Charles laid
+siege to his city, having ravaged the neighboring country. Guerin was
+an aged warrior, but relied for his defense upon his four sons and two
+grandsons, who were among the bravest knights of the age. After the
+siege had continued two months, Charlemagne received tidings that
+Marsilius, King of Spain, had invaded France, and, finding himself
+unopposed, was advancing rapidly in the southern provinces. At this
+intelligence, Charles listened to the counsel of his peers, and
+consented to put the quarrel with Guerin to the decision of Heaven, by
+single combat between two knights, one of each party, selected by lot.
+
+8. The proposal was acceptable to Guerin and his sons. The name of the
+four, together with Guerin's own, who would not be excused, and of the
+two grandsons, who claimed their lot, being put into a helmet,
+Oliver's was drawn forth, and to him, the youngest of the grandsons,
+was assigned the honor and the peril of the combat. He accepted the
+award with delight, exulting in being thought worthy to maintain the
+cause of his family. On Charlemagne's side Roland was designated
+champion, and neither he nor Oliver knew who his antagonist was to be.
+
+9. They met on an island in the Rhône, and the warriors of both camps
+were ranged on either shore, spectators of the battle. At the first
+encounter both lances were shivered, but both riders kept their seats
+immovable. They dismounted and drew their swords. Then ensued a combat
+which seemed so equal, that the spectators could not form an opinion
+as to the probable issue. Two hours and more the knights continued to
+strike and parry, to thrust and ward, neither showing any sign of
+weariness, nor ever being taken at unawares.
+
+10. At length Orlando struck furiously upon Oliver's shield, burying
+Durindana in its edge so deeply that he could not draw it back, and
+Oliver, almost at the same moment, thrust so vigorously upon Orlando's
+breastplate that his sword snapped off at the handle. Thus were the two
+warriors left weaponless. Scarcely pausing a moment, they rushed upon
+one another, each striving to throw his adversary to the ground, and,
+failing in that, each snatched at the other's helmet to tear it away.
+Both succeeded, and at the same moment they stood bareheaded face to
+face, and Roland recognized Oliver, and Oliver Roland. For a moment they
+stood still; and the next, with open arms, rushed into one another's
+embrace. "I am conquered," said Orlando. "I yield me," said Oliver.
+
+11. The people on the shore knew not what to make of all this.
+Presently they saw the two late antagonists standing hand-in-hand, and
+it was evident the battle was at an end. The knights crowded around
+them, and with one voice hailed them as equal in glory. If there were
+any who felt disposed to murmur that the battle was left undecided,
+they were silenced by the voice of Ogier the Dane, who proclaimed
+aloud that all had been done that honor required, and declared that he
+would maintain that award against all gainsayers.
+
+12. The quarrel with Guerin and his sons being left undecided, a truce
+was made for four days, and in that time, by the efforts of Duke Namo
+on the one side, and of Oliver on the other, a reconciliation was
+effected. Charlemagne, accompanied by Guerin and his valiant family,
+marched to meet Marsilius, who hastened to retreat across the frontier.
+
+                                                      _Bullfinch._
+
+
+
+
+_XVI.--THE LEGEND OF MACBETH._
+
+
+1. Soon after the Scots and Picts had become one people, there was a
+king of Scotland called Duncan, a very good old man. He had two sons,
+Malcolm and Donaldbane. But King Duncan was too old to lead out his
+army to battle, and his sons were too young to help him. Now it
+happened that a great fleet of Danes came to Scotland and landed their
+men in Fife and threatened to take possession of that province. So a
+numerous Scottish army was levied to go out to fight with them. The
+king intrusted the command to Macbeth, a near kinsman.
+
+2. This Macbeth, who was a brave soldier, put himself at the head of
+the Scottish army and marched against the Danes. And he took with him
+a near relative of his own called Banquo, a brave and successful
+soldier. There was a great battle fought between the Danes and the
+Scots, and Macbeth and Banquo defeated the Danes and drove them back
+to their ships, leaving a great many of their soldiers killed and
+wounded. Then Macbeth and his army marched back to Forres in the north
+of Scotland, rejoicing on account of their victory.
+
+3. Now, at this time, there lived in the town of Forres three old
+women, whom people thought were witches, and supposed they could tell
+what was to come to pass. These old women went and stood by the
+way-side, in a great moor near Forres, and waited until Macbeth came
+up. And then stepping before him as he was marching at the head of his
+soldiers the first woman said, "All hail Macbeth! hail to the Thane of
+Glamis!" The second said, "All hail to the Thane of Cawdor!" Then the
+third wishing to pay him a higher compliment, said: "All hail Macbeth,
+that shall be King of Scotland!" While Macbeth stood wondering what
+they could mean, Banquo stepped forward and asked if they had not
+something good to say to him. And they said he should not be so great
+as Macbeth, yet his children should succeed to the throne of Scotland
+and reign for a great number of years.
+
+4. Before Macbeth had recovered from his surprise, there came a
+messenger to tell him that his father was dead; so that, he was Thane
+of Glamis; and then came a second messenger from the king to thank
+Macbeth for the great victory over the Danes, and to tell him that the
+Thane of Cawdor had rebelled against the king, and that the king had
+taken his office from him, and had sent to make Macbeth Thane of
+Cawdor. Macbeth, seeing that a part of their words came true, began to
+think how he might become king as the three old women had predicted.
+Now Lady Macbeth was a very wicked woman, and she showed Macbeth that
+the only way to become king was to kill good King Duncan. At first
+Macbeth would not listen to her, but at last his ambition to be king
+became so great that he resolved to murder his kinsman and best friend.
+
+5. To accomplish his purpose he invited King Duncan to visit him in
+his own castle near Inverness, and the king accepted the invitation.
+Macbeth and his lady received their distinguished guests with great
+seeming joy and made for them a great feast. At the close of the feast
+the king retired to rest, and all the other guests followed his
+example. The two personal attendants of the king whose duty it was to
+watch over him while asleep, were purposely made drunk by Lady
+Macbeth, and they fell upon their couch in a profound slumber.
+
+[Illustration: _Macbeth._]
+
+6. Then Macbeth came into King Duncan's room about two o'clock in the
+morning. It was a terrible stormy night, but the noise of the wind and
+the thunder could not awaken the king, as he was old and weary with
+his journey; neither could it awaken the two sentinels. They all slept
+soundly. So Macbeth stepped gently over the floor and took the two
+dirks which belonged to the sentinels and stabbed poor old King Duncan
+to the heart, so he died without a groan. Then Macbeth put the bloody
+daggers into the hands of the sleeping sentinels and daubed their
+hands and faces with blood. Macbeth was frightened at what he had
+done, but his wife made him wash his hands and go to bed.
+
+7. Early in the morning the nobles and gentlemen who attended on the
+king assembled in the great hall of the castle, and then they began to
+talk of what a dreadful storm there had been the night before. They
+waited for some time, but finding the king did not come out, one of the
+noblemen went to see whether he was well or not. But when he came into
+the room he found King Duncan dead, and went back and spread the alarm.
+The Scottish nobles were greatly enraged at the sight, and Macbeth made
+believe he was more enraged than any of them, and drawing his sword he
+killed the two attendants of the king, still heavy with sleep in
+consequence of the drink furnished by Lady Macbeth the night before.
+
+8. Malcolm and Donaldbane, the two sons of Duncan, when they saw their
+father dead, fled from the castle, as they believed that Macbeth had
+committed the murder. Malcolm, the eldest son, made his way to the
+English court, and solicited aid to get possession of his father's
+throne. In the mean time Macbeth took possession of the kingdom of
+Scotland. The remembrance of his great crime continually haunted him,
+and he became so sleepless as to be nearly insane. He remembered that
+the witches had said that the children of Banquo should reign as kings
+in Scotland, and he became terribly jealous of his old friend and
+companion. At last he hired ruffians to waylay Banquo and his sons and
+murder them. The scheme was partially successful--Banquo was killed
+but the sons escaped, and from him descended a long line of the early
+Scottish kings.
+
+9. But Macbeth was not more happy after he had slain his friend and
+cousin Banquo. He knew that people began to suspect him of his evil
+deeds, and he was constantly afraid that some of his nobles would
+treat him as he treated King Duncan. In his perplexity he sought the
+three witches he had met before, to ask them what was to happen to him
+in the future. They answered him that he should not be conquered nor
+lose the crown of Scotland until a great forest, called Birnam Wood
+should come to attack him in his strong castle on Dunsinane hill. As
+the distance between the two was about twelve miles, Macbeth thought
+it was impossible that the trees should ever come to assault him in
+his castle. He immediately summoned all his nobles to assist him in
+strengthening his castle at Dunsinane. All the nobles were obliged to
+furnish oxen and horses to drag the heavy stones and logs used on the
+fortification up the steep hill.
+
+10. One day Macbeth noticed a pair of oxen so tired with their burden
+that they fell down under their load. Upon inquiry he learned that they
+belonged to Macduff, the Thane of Fife. The king, who was jealous of
+Macduff, flew into a great rage and declared that "since the Thane of
+Fife sends such worthless cattle as these to do my labor, I will put his
+own neck into the yoke, and make him drag the burden himself." A friend
+of Macduff who heard this speech hastened to the king's castle and
+informed Macduff who was walking about while the dinner was preparing.
+
+11. Macduff snatched a loaf of bread from the table, called for his
+horses and servants, and galloped off toward his own castle of
+Kennoway in Fife. When Macbeth returned he first asked what had become
+of Macduff, and being informed that he had fled from Dunsinane,
+Macbeth put himself at the head of a large force of his guards, and
+immediately pursued. Macduff reached his castle which is built upon
+the shore of the sea, a little in advance of the king. He ordered his
+wife to shut the gates of the castle and pull up the drawbridge, and
+on no account permit the king or any of his soldiers to enter. In the
+mean time he went aboard a small ship and put out to sea.
+
+12. Macbeth then summoned the lady to open the gates and deliver up
+her husband. "Do you see," said she, "yon white sail upon the sea?
+Yonder goes Macduff to the court of England. You will never see him
+again until he comes with young Prince Malcolm to pull you down from
+the throne and put you to death. You will never be able to put your
+yoke upon the neck of the Thane of Fife."
+
+13. Some say that Macbeth was so enraged at the escape of Macduff that
+he stormed and took the castle, and put to death the wife and children
+of Macduff. But others say that Macbeth turned back from the strong
+castle and its brave defenders, and returned to his own home at
+Dunsinane. Macduff readily found Prince Malcolm and the English king,
+fitted them out with an army. Upon entering Scotland a large share of
+the nobles deserted Macbeth and joined the forces of Malcolm. The army
+marched as far as Birnam Wood where they encamped to rest and recuperate.
+
+14. Macbeth, in the mean time, shut himself up in his castle, where he
+thought himself safe according to the old woman's prophecy, until
+Birnam Wood should advance against him, and this he never expected to
+see. Malcolm's army having entirely recovered their strength and
+vigor, at length were ready to march. As they were about to start,
+Macduff advised each soldier to cut down the bough of a tree and carry
+it so as to conceal the strength of the army as they crossed the
+valley. The sentinel on the castle walls saw all these green boughs
+advancing, ran to Macbeth and informed him that the wood of Birnam was
+moving toward the castle of Dunsinane. The king at first called him a
+liar and threatened to put him to death; but when he looked from the
+walls himself, and saw the appearance of a forest approaching from
+Birnam, he remembered the prediction, and felt that the hour of his
+destruction had come.
+
+15. His followers were also superstitious and began to desert him. But
+Macbeth, at the head of those who remained true to him sallied out,
+and was killed in a hand-to-hand conflict with Macduff. This story, a
+tradition, is told by Sir Walter Scott, and forms the foundation of
+Shakespeare's tragedy of "Macbeth."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+OLD BALLADS.
+
+
+
+
+_XVII.--CHEVY-CHASE._
+
+
+    1.  God prosper long our noble king,
+          Our lives and safeties all;
+        A woful hunting once there did
+          In Chevy-Chase befall.
+
+    2.  The stout Earl of Northumberland
+          A vow to God did make
+        His pleasure in the Scottish woods
+          Three summer days to take--
+
+    3.  The chiefest harts in Chevy-Chase
+          To kill and bear away.
+        These tidings to Earl Douglas came,
+          In Scotland where he lay;
+
+    4.  Who sent Earl Percy present word
+          He would prevent his sport.
+        The English earl, not fearing that,
+          Did to the woods resort,
+
+    5.  With fifteen hundred bowmen bold,
+          All chosen men of might,
+        Who knew full well in time of need
+          To aim their shafts aright.
+
+    6.  The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran
+          To chase the fallow deer;
+        On Monday they began to hunt
+          When daylight did appear;
+
+    7.  And long before high noon they had
+          A hundred fat bucks slain;
+        Then, having dined, the drovers went
+          To rouse the deer again.
+
+    8.  Lord Percy to the quarry went,
+          To view the slaughtered deer;
+        Quoth he, "Earl Douglas promised
+          This day to meet me here;
+
+    9.  "But if I thought he would not come--
+          No longer would I stay";
+        With that a brave young gentleman
+          Thus to the earl did say:
+
+    10. "Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come--
+          His men in armor bright,
+        Full twenty hundred Scottish spears
+          All marching in our sight."
+
+    11. Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed,
+          Most like a baron bold,
+        Rode foremost of his company,
+          Whose armor shone like gold.
+
+    12. "Show me," said he, "whose men you be,
+          That hunt so boldly here,
+        That, without my consent, do chase
+          And kill my fallow-deer."
+
+    13. The first man that did answer make
+          Was noble Percy he--
+        Who said: "We list not to declare,
+          Nor show whose men we be:
+
+    14. "Yet will we spend our dearest blood
+          Thy chiefest harts to slay."
+        Then Douglas swore a solemn oath,
+          And thus in rage did say:
+
+    15. "Ere thus I will out-bravèd be,
+          One of us two shall die!
+        I know thee well, an earl thou art--
+          Lord Percy, so am I.
+
+    16. "Let you and me the battle try,
+          And set our men aside."
+        "Accursed be he," Earl Percy said,
+          "By whom this is denied!"
+
+    17. Then stepped a gallant squire forth,
+          Witherington was his name,
+        Who said: "I would not have it told
+          To Henry, our king, for shame,
+
+    18. "That e'er my captain fought on foot,
+          And I stood looking on.
+        You two be earls," said Witherington,
+          "And I a squire alone.
+
+    19. "I'll do the best that do I may,
+          While I have power to stand;
+        While I have power to wield my sword
+          I'll fight with heart and hand."
+
+    20. Our English archers bent their bows--
+          Their hearts were good and true;
+        At the first flight of arrows sent,
+          Full fourscore Scots they slew.
+
+    21. Yet stays Earl Douglas on the bent,
+          As chieftain stout and good;
+        As valiant captain, all unmoved,
+          The shock he firmly stood.
+
+    22. His host he parted had in three,
+          As leaders ware and tried;
+        And soon his spearmen on their foes
+          Bore down on every side.
+
+    23. At last these two stout earls did meet;
+          Like captains of great might,
+        Like lions wode, they laid on lode,
+          And made a cruel fight.
+
+    24. "Yield thee, Lord Percy," Douglas said.
+          "In faith I will thee bring
+        Where thou shalt high advancèd be
+          By James, our Scottish king.
+
+    25. "Thy ransom I will freely give,
+          And this report of thee--
+        Thou art the most courageous knight
+          That ever I did see."
+
+    26. "No, Douglas," saith Earl Percy then,
+          "Thy proffer I do scorn;
+        I will not yield to any Scot
+          That ever yet was born."
+
+    27. With that there came an arrow keen
+          Out of an English bow,
+        Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart--
+          A deep and deadly blow;
+
+    28. Who never spake more words than these
+          "Fight on, my merry men all;
+        For why, my life is at an end;
+          Lord Percy sees my fall."
+
+    29. Then leaving life, Earl Percy took
+          The dead man by the hand,
+        And said: "Earl Douglas, for thy life
+          Would I had lost my land!
+
+    30. "In truth, my very heart doth bleed
+          With sorrow for thy sake;
+        For sure a more redoubted knight
+          Mischance did never make."
+
+    31. A knight amongst the Scots there was
+          Who saw Earl Douglas die,
+        Who straight in wrath did vow revenge
+          Upon the Earl Percy.
+
+    32. Sir Hugh Mountgomery was he called,
+          Who with a spear full bright,
+        Well mounted on a gallant steed,
+          Ran fiercely through the fight;
+
+    33. And past the English archers all,
+          Without a dread or fear,
+        And through Earl Percy's body then
+          He thrust his hateful spear.
+
+    34. So thus did both these nobles die,
+          Whose courage none could stain.
+        An English archer then perceived
+          The noble earl was slain.
+
+    35. Against Sir Hugh Mountgomery
+          To right a shaft he set;
+        The gray goose-wing that was thereon
+          In his heart's blood was wet.
+
+    36. This fight did last from break of day
+          Till setting of the sun;
+        For when they rung the evening-bell
+          The battle scarce was done.
+
+    37. Of fifteen hundred Englishmen
+          Went home but fifty-three;
+        The rest in Chevy-Chase were slain,
+          Under the greenwood-tree.
+
+    38. The news was brought to Edinburg,
+          Where Scotland's king did reign,
+        That brave Earl Douglas suddenly
+          Was with an arrow slain.
+
+    39. "Oh, heavy news!" King James did say;
+          "Scotland can witness be,
+        I have not any captain more
+          Of such account as he."
+
+    40. Like tidings to King Henry came
+          Within as short a space,
+        That Percy of Northumberland
+          Was slain in Chevy-Chase;
+
+    41. "Now God be with him," said our king,
+          "Since 'twill no better be;
+        I trust I have within my realm
+          Five hundred as good as he:
+
+    42. "Yet shall not Scot or Scotland say
+          But I will vengeance take;
+        I'll be revengèd on them all
+          For brave Earl Percy's sake!"
+
+    43. This vow full well the king performed
+          After at Humbledown:
+        In one day fifty knights were slain,
+          With lords of high renown;
+
+    44. And of the rest, of small account,
+          Did many hundreds die:
+        Thus endeth the hunting of Chevy-Chase,
+          Made by the Earl Percy.
+
+    45. God save the king and bless this land
+          With plenty, joy, and peace;
+        And grant, henceforth, that foul debate
+          'Twixt noblemen may cease!
+
+                              _Old Ballad._
+
+
+
+
+_XVIII.--VALENTINE AND URSINE._
+
+
+    1.  When Flora 'gins to deck the fields
+          With colors fresh and fine,
+        Then holy clerks their matins sing
+          To good St. Valentine.
+
+    2.  The King of France, that morning fair,
+          He would a-hunting ride,
+        To Artois Forest prancing forth
+          In all his princely pride.
+
+    3.  To grace his sports a courtly train
+          Of gallant peers attend,
+        And with their loud and cheerful cries
+          The hills and valleys rend.
+
+    4.  Through the deep forest swift they pass,
+          Through woods and thickets wild,
+        When down within a lonely dell
+          They found a new-born child.
+
+    5.  All in a scarlet kerchief laid,
+          Of silk so fine and thin,
+        A golden mantle wrapt him round,
+          Pinned with a silver pin.
+
+    6.  The sudden sight surprised them all,
+          The courtiers gathered round;
+        They look, they call, the mother seek--
+          No mother could be found.
+
+    7.  At length the king himself drew near,
+          And, as he gazing stands,
+        The pretty babe looked up and smiled,
+          And stretched his little hands.
+
+    8.  "Now, by the rood," King Pepin says,
+          "This child is passing fair;
+        I wot he is of gentle blood,
+          Perhaps some prince's heir.
+
+    9.  "Go, bear him home unto my court,
+          With all the care you may,
+        Let him be christened Valentine,
+          In honor of this day.
+
+    10. "And look me out some cunning nurse,
+          Well nurtured let him be;
+        Nor aught be wanting that becomes
+          A bairn of high degree."
+
+    11. They looked him out a cunning nurse,
+          And nurtured well was he;
+        Nor aught was wanting that became
+          A bairn of high degree.
+
+    12. Thus grew the little Valentine,
+          Beloved of king and peers,
+        And showed in all he spake or did
+          A wit beyond his years.
+
+    13. But chief in gallant feats of arms
+          He did himself advance,
+        That, ere he grew to man's estate,
+          He had no peer in France.
+
+    14. And now the early down began
+          To shade his youthful chin,
+        When Valentine was dubbed a knight,
+          That he might glory win.
+
+    15. "A boon, a boon, my gracious liege,
+          I beg a boon of thee:
+        The first adventure that befalls
+          May be reserved for me."
+
+    16. "The first adventure shall be thine,"
+          The king did smiling say.
+        Not many days, when lo! there came
+          Three palmers clad in gray.
+
+    17. "Help, gracious lord," they weeping said,
+          And knelt, as it was meet;
+        "From Artois Forest we are come,
+          With weak and weary feet.
+
+    18. "Within those deep and dreary woods
+          There dwells a savage boy,
+        Whose fierce and mortal rage doth yield
+          Thy subjects dire annoy.
+
+    19. "To more than savage strength he joins
+          A more than human skill;
+        For arms no cunning may suffice
+          His cruel rage to still."
+
+    20. Up then rose Sir Valentine
+          And claimed that arduous deed.
+        "Go forth and conquer," said the king,
+          "And great shall be thy meed."
+
+    21. Well mounted on a milk-white steed,
+          His armor white as snow,
+        As well beseemed a virgin knight,
+          Who ne'er had fought a foe--
+
+    22. To Artois Forest he repairs,
+          With all the haste he may,
+        And soon he spies the savage youth
+          A-rending of his prey!
+
+    23. His unkempt hair all matted hung
+          His shaggy shoulders round;
+        His eager eye all fiery glowed,
+          His face with fury frowned.
+
+    24. Like eagle's talons grew his nails,
+          His limbs were thick and strong,
+        And dreadful was the knotted oak
+          He bare with him along.
+
+    25. Soon as Sir Valentine approached,
+          He starts with sudden spring,
+        And yelling forth a hideous howl,
+          He made the forest ring.
+
+    26. As when a tiger fierce and fell
+          Hath spied a passing roe,
+        And leaps at once upon his throat,
+          So sprang the savage foe.
+
+    27. So lightly leaped with furious force,
+          The gentle knight to seize,
+        But met his tall uplifted spear,
+          Which sank him on his knees.
+
+    28. A second stroke, so stiff and stern,
+          Had laid the savage low;
+        But, springing up, he raised his club,
+          And aimed a dreadful blow.
+
+    29. The watchful warrior bent his head,
+          And shunned the coming stroke;
+        Upon his taper spear it fell,
+          And all to shivers broke.
+
+    30. Then, lighting nimbly from his steed,
+          He drew his burnished brand;
+        The savage quick as lightning flew
+          To wrest it from his hand.
+
+    31. Three times he grasped the silver hilt,
+          Three times he felt the blade;
+        Three times it fell with furious force,
+          Three ghastly cuts it made.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+    "_To court his hairy captive soon
+      Sir Valentine doth bring,
+    And, kneeling down upon his knee,
+      Presents him to the king._"
+
+]
+
+    32. Now with redoubled rage he roared,
+          His eyeballs flashed with fire,
+        Each hairy limb with fury shook,
+          And all his heart was ire.
+
+    33. But soon the knight, with active spring,
+          O'erturned his hairy foe,
+        And now between their sturdy fists
+          Passed many a bruising blow.
+
+    34. But brutal force and savage strength
+          To art and skill must yield;
+        Sir Valentine at length prevailed,
+          And won the well-fought field.
+
+    35. Then binding straight his conquered foe
+          Fast with an iron chain,
+        He ties him to his horse's tail,
+          And leads him o'er the plain.
+
+    36. To court his hairy captive soon
+          Sir Valentine doth bring,
+        And, kneeling down upon his knee,
+          Presents him to the king.
+
+    37. With loss of blood and loss of strength,
+          The savage tamer grew,
+        And to Sir Valentine became
+          A servant tried and true.
+
+    38. And, 'cause with bears he first was bred,
+          Ursine they called his name--
+        A name which unto future times
+          The Muses shall proclaim.
+
+                                _Old Ballad._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+EARLY EASTERN RECORD.
+
+
+
+
+_XIX.--SENNACHERIB._
+
+
+1. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith
+the Lord God of Israel, that which thou hast prayed to me against
+Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
+
+2. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The
+virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to
+scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
+
+3. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast
+thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against
+the Holy One of Israel.
+
+4. By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With
+the multitude of my chariots, I am come up to the height of the
+mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall
+cedar-trees thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof: and I will enter
+into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
+
+5. I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my
+feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
+
+6. Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient
+times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou
+shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
+
+7. Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed
+and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green
+herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be
+grown up.
+
+8. But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy
+rage against me.
+
+9. Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine
+ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy
+lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
+
+10. And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such
+things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which
+springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and
+plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
+
+11. And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet
+again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
+
+12. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that
+escape out of Mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.
+
+13. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He
+shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come
+before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
+
+14. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall
+not come into this city, saith the Lord.
+
+15. For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and
+for my servant David's sake.
+
+16. And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went
+out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and
+five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they
+were all dead corpses.
+
+17. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned,
+and dwelt at Nineveh.
+
+                                          _II Kings, xix, 20-36._
+
+
+THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB.
+
+    1. The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,
+       And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
+       And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
+       When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
+
+    2. Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
+       That host with its banners at sunset was seen;
+       Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
+       That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
+
+    3. For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
+       And breathed on the face of the foe as he passed;
+       And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
+       And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still.
+
+    4. And there lay the steed, with his nostrils all wide,
+       But through them there rolled not the breath of his pride;
+       And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
+       And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
+
+    5. And there lay the rider, distorted and pale,
+       With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail,
+       And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
+       The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
+
+    6. And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
+       And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
+       And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
+       Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+                                                  _Byron._
+
+
+
+
+_XX.--GLAUCON._
+
+
+1. When Glaucon, the son of Ariston, attempted to harangue the people,
+from a desire, though he was not yet twenty years of age, to have a
+share in the government of the state, no one of his relatives, or
+other friends, could prevent him from getting himself dragged down
+from the tribunal and making himself ridiculous; but Socrates, who had
+a friendly feeling toward him on account of Charmides, the son of
+Glaucon, as well as on account of Plato, succeeded in prevailing on
+him, by his sole dissuasion, to relinquish his purpose.
+
+[Illustration: _Socrates._]
+
+2. Meeting him by chance, he first stopped him by addressing him as
+follows, that he might be willing to listen to him: "Glaucon," said
+he, "have you formed an intention to govern the state for us?" "I
+have, Socrates," replied Glaucon. "By Jupiter," rejoined Socrates, "it
+is an honorable office, if any other among men be so; for it is
+certain that, if you attain your object, you will be able yourself to
+secure whatever you may desire, and will be in a condition to benefit
+your friends; you will raise your father's house, and increase the
+power of your country; you will be celebrated first of all in your own
+city, and afterward throughout Greece, and perhaps, also, like
+Themistocles, among the barbarians, and, wherever you may be, you will
+be an object of general admiration." Glaucon, hearing this, was highly
+elated, and cheerfully stayed to listen. Socrates next proceeded to
+say: "But it is plain, Glaucon, that if you wish to be honored, you
+must benefit the state." "Certainly," answered Glaucon. "Then, in the
+name of the gods," said Socrates, "do not hide from us how you intend
+to act, but inform us with what proceeding you will begin to benefit
+the state." But as Glaucon was silent, as if just considering how he
+should begin, Socrates said: "As, if you wished to aggrandize the
+family of a friend, you would endeavor to make it richer, tell me
+whether you will in like manner also endeavor to make the state
+richer?" "Assuredly," said he. "Would it then be richer, if its
+revenues were increased?" "That is at least probable," said Glaucon.
+"Tell me then," proceeded Socrates, "from what the revenues of the
+state arise, and what is their amount; for you have doubtless
+considered, in order that if any of them fall short, you may make up
+the deficiency, and that if any of them fail, you may procure fresh
+supplies." "These matters, by Jupiter," replied Glaucon, "I have not
+considered."
+
+3. "Well, then," said Socrates, "if you have omitted to consider this
+point, tell me at least the annual expenditure of the state; for you
+undoubtedly mean to retrench whatever is superfluous in it." "Indeed,"
+replied Glaucon, "I have not yet had time to turn my attention to that
+subject." "We will therefore," said Socrates, "put off making our
+state richer for the present; for how is it possible for him who is
+ignorant of its expenditure and its income to manage those matters?"
+
+4. "But Socrates," observed Glaucon, "it is possible to enrich the
+state at the expense of our enemies." "Extremely possible, indeed,"
+replied Socrates, "if we be stronger than they; but if we be weaker,
+we may lose all that we have." "What you say is true," said Glaucon.
+
+5. "Accordingly," said Socrates, "he who deliberates with whom he
+shall go to war, ought to know the force both of his own country and
+of the enemy, so that, if that of his own country be superior to that
+of the enemy, he may advise it to enter upon the war, but if inferior,
+may persuade it to be cautious of doing so." "You say rightly," said
+Glaucon.
+
+[Illustration: _Socrates and Glaucon._]
+
+6. "In the first place, then," proceeded Socrates, "tell us the
+strength of the country by land and sea, and next that of the enemy."
+"But, by Jupiter," exclaimed Glaucon, "I should not be able to tell
+you on the moment, and at a word." "Well, then, if you have it written
+down," said Socrates, "bring it, for I should be extremely glad to
+hear what it is." "But, to say the truth," replied Glaucon, "I have
+not yet written it down."
+
+7. "We will therefore put off considering about war for the present,"
+said Socrates, "for it is very likely that on account of the magnitude
+of these subjects, and as you are just commencing your administration,
+you have not yet examined into them. But to the defense of the
+country, I am quite sure that you have directed your attention, and
+that you know how many garrisons are in advantageous positions, and
+how many not so, what number of men would be sufficient to maintain
+them, and what number would be insufficient, and that you will advise
+your countrymen to make the garrisons in advantageous positions
+stronger, and to remove the useless ones."
+
+8. "By Jove," replied Glaucon, "I shall recommend them to remove them
+all, as they keep guard so negligently, that the property is secretly
+carried off out of the country." "Yet, if we remove the garrisons,"
+said Socrates, "do you not think that liberty will be given to anybody
+that pleases to pillage? But," added he, "have you gone personally and
+examined as to this fact, or how do you know that the garrisons
+conduct themselves with such negligence?" "I form my conjectures,"
+said he. "Well, then," inquired Socrates, "shall we settle about these
+matters also, when we no longer rest upon conjecture, but have
+obtained certain knowledge?" "Perhaps that," said Glaucon, "will be
+the better course."
+
+9. "To the silver-mines, however," continued Socrates, "I know that
+you have not gone, so as to have the means of telling us why a smaller
+revenue is derived from them than came in some time ago." "I have not
+gone thither," said he. "Indeed, the place," said Socrates, "is said
+to be unhealthy, so that when it is necessary to bring it under
+consideration, this will be a sufficient excuse for you." "You jest
+with me," said Glaucon. "I am sure, however," proceeded Socrates,
+"that you have not neglected to consider, but have calculated, how
+long the corn which is produced in the country, will suffice to
+maintain the city, and how much it requires for the year, in order
+that the city may not suffer from scarcity unknown to you, but that,
+from your own knowledge, you may be able, by giving your advice
+concerning the necessaries of life, to support the city and preserve
+it." "You propose a vast field for me," observed Glaucon, "if it will
+be necessary for me to attend to such subjects."
+
+10. "Nevertheless," proceeded Socrates, "a man can not order his house
+properly, unless he ascertains all that it requires, and takes care to
+supply it with everything necessary; but since the city consists of
+more than ten thousand houses, and since it is difficult to provide
+for so many at once, how is it that you have not tried to aid one
+first of all, suppose that of your uncle, for it stands in need of
+help? If you be able to assist that one, you may proceed to assist
+more; but if you be unable to benefit one, how will you be able to
+benefit many? Just as it is plain that, if a man can not carry the
+weight of a talent, he need not attempt to carry a greater weight?"
+
+11. "But I would improve my uncle's house," said Glaucon, "if he would
+but be persuaded by me." "And then," resumed Socrates, "when you can
+not persuade your uncle, do you expect to make all the Athenians,
+together with your uncle, yield to your arguments?
+
+12. "Take care, Glaucon, lest, while you are eager to acquire glory,
+you meet with the reverse of it. Do you not see how dangerous it is
+for a person to speak of, or undertake, what he does not understand?
+Contemplate, among other men, such as you know to be characters that
+plainly talk of, and attempt to do, what they do not know, and
+consider whether they appear to you, by such conduct, to obtain more
+applause or censure, whether they seem to be more admired or despised?
+
+13. "Contemplate, again, those who have some understanding of what
+they say and do, and you will find, I think, in all transactions, that
+such as are praised and admired are of the number of those who have
+most knowledge, and that those who incur censure and neglect are among
+those that have least.
+
+14. "If, therefore, you desire to gain esteem and reputation in your
+country, endeavor to succeed in gaining a knowledge of what you wish
+to do; for if, when you excel others in this qualification, you
+proceed to manage the affairs of the state, I shall not wonder if you
+very easily obtain what you desire."
+
+                                                      _Xenophon._
+
+
+
+
+_XXI.--CYRUS AND HIS GRANDFATHER._
+
+
+1. When Cyrus was twelve years old, his mother Mandana took him with
+her into Media to his grandfather Astyages, who, from the many things
+he had heard in favor of the young prince, had a great desire to see
+him. In this court young Cyrus found very different manners from those
+of his own country: pride, luxury, and magnificence reigned here
+universally. Astyages himself was richly clothed, had his eyes
+colored, his face painted, and his hair embellished with artificial
+locks; for the Medes affected an effeminate life--to be dressed in
+scarlet and to wear necklaces and bracelets--whereas the habits of the
+Persians were very plain and coarse.
+
+2. All this finery had no effect upon Cyrus, who, without criticising
+or condemning what he saw, was content to live as he had been brought
+up, and adhered to the principles he had imbibed from his infancy. He
+charmed his grandfather with his sprightliness and wit, and gained the
+favor of all by his noble and engaging behavior. I shall only mention
+one instance, whereby we may judge of the rest. Astyages, to make his
+grandson unwilling to return home, made a sumptuous entertainment, in
+which there was a vast plenty and profusion of everything that was
+nice and delicate. Cyrus looked upon all this exquisite cheer and
+magnificent preparation with great indifference, and, observing that
+it excited the surprise of Astyages, "The Persians," says he to the
+king, "instead of going such a roundabout way to appease their hunger,
+have a much shorter one to the same end: a little bread and cresses
+with them answer the purpose."
+
+3. Astyages desiring Cyrus to dispose of all the meats as he thought
+fit, the latter immediately distributed them to the king's
+officers-in-waiting: to one, because he taught him to ride; to
+another, because he waited well upon his grandfather; and to a third,
+because he took great care of his mother. Sacas, the king's
+cup-bearer, was the only person to whom he gave nothing. This officer,
+besides the post of cup-bearer, had that likewise of introducing those
+who were to have audience with the king; and, as he could not possibly
+grant that favor to Cyrus as often as he desired it, he had the
+misfortune to displease the prince, who took this occasion to show his
+resentment.
+
+4. Astyages, manifesting some concern at the neglect of this officer,
+for whom he had a particular regard, and who deserved it, as he said,
+on account of the wonderful dexterity with which he served him--"Is
+that all, father?" replied Cyrus; "if that be sufficient to merit your
+favor, you shall see I will quickly obtain it; for I will take upon me
+to serve you better than he." Cyrus immediately equipped as a
+cup-bearer, and advancing gravely with a serious countenance, a napkin
+upon his shoulder, and holding the cup nicely with three of his
+fingers, presented it to the king with a dexterity and a grace that
+charmed both Astyages and Mandana. When he had done he threw himself
+upon his grandfather's neck, and, kissing him, cried out with great
+joy: "O Sacas! poor Sacas! thou art undone; I shall have thy place!"
+
+5. Astyages embraced him with great fondness, and said: "I am highly
+pleased, my dear child; nobody can serve me with a better grace; but
+you have forgot one essential ceremony, which is that of tasting";
+and, indeed, the cup-bearer was used to pour some of the liquor into
+his left hand, and to taste it, before he presented it to the king.
+"No," replied Cyrus, "it was not through forgetfulness that I omitted
+that ceremony." "Why, then," says Astyages, "for what reason did you
+not do it?" "Because I apprehended there was poison in the liquor."
+"Poison, child! How could you think so?" "Yes, poison, father, for not
+long ago, at an entertainment you gave to the lords of your court,
+after the guests had drunk a little of that liquor, I perceived all
+their heads were turned. They sang, made a noise, and talked they did
+not know what; you yourself seemed to have forgotten that you were
+king, and they that they were subjects; and when you would have danced
+you could not stand upon your legs." "Why," said Astyages, "have you
+never seen the same thing happen to your father?" "No, never," says
+Cyrus. "What, then? How is it with him when he drinks?" "Why, when he
+has drunk, his thirst is quenched, and that is all."
+
+6. Mandana being upon the point of returning to Persia, Cyrus joyfully
+complied with the repeated requests his grandfather had made to him to
+stay in Media; being desirous, as he said, to perfect himself in the
+art of riding, which he was not yet master of, and which was not known
+in Persia, where the barrenness of the country and its craggy,
+mountainous situation rendered it unfit for the breeding of horses.
+
+7. During the time of his residence at this court his behavior
+procured him infinite love and esteem. He was gentle, affable,
+beneficent, and generous. Whenever the young lords had any favor to
+ask of the king, Cyrus was their solicitor. If the king had any
+subject of complaint against them, Cyrus was their mediator; their
+affairs became his, and he always managed them so well that he
+obtained whatever he desired.
+
+                                                        _Rollin._
+
+
+
+
+_XXII.--CYRUS AND THE ARMENIANS._
+
+
+1. The King of Armenia who was vassal to the Medes, looking upon them
+as ready to be swallowed up by a formidable league formed against
+them, thought fit to lay hold of this occasion to shake off their
+yoke. Accordingly he refused to pay them the ordinary tribute, and to
+send them the number of troops he was obliged to furnish in time of
+war. This highly embarrassed Cyaxares, who was afraid at this
+juncture of bringing new enemies upon his hands if he undertook to
+compel the Armenians to execute their treaty.
+
+2. But Cyrus, having informed himself exactly of the strength and
+situation of the country, undertook the affair. The important point was
+to keep his design secret, without which it was not likely to succeed.
+He therefore appointed a great hunting-match on that side of the
+country; for it was his custom to ride out that way, and frequently to
+hunt with the king's son and the young noblemen of Armenia. On the
+appointed day, he set out with a numerous retinue. The troops followed
+at a distance, and were not to appear till a signal was given. After
+some days' hunting, when they had nearly reached the palace where the
+court resided, Cyrus communicated his design to his officers; and sent
+Chrysanthes with a detachment, ordering them to make themselves master
+of a certain steep eminence, where he knew the king used to retire in
+case of an alarm, with his family and his treasures.
+
+3. This being done, he sent a herald to the king of Armenia, to summon
+him to perform the treaty, and in the mean time ordered his troops to
+advance. Never was a court in greater surprise and perplexity. The
+king was conscious of the wrong he had done, and was not in a
+condition to support it. However, he did what he could to assemble his
+forces together from all quarters; and in the mean time dispatched his
+youngest son, called Stabaris, into the mountains, with his wives, his
+daughters, and whatever was most precious and valuable. But when he
+was informed by his scouts that Cyrus was closely pursuing, he
+entirely lost all courage, and all thoughts of making a defense.
+
+4. The Armenians, following his example, ran away, every one where he
+could, to secure what was dearest to him. Cyrus, seeing the country
+covered with people that were endeavoring to make their escape, sent
+them word that no harm should be done to them if they stayed in their
+houses; but that as many as were taken running away should be treated
+as enemies. This made them all retire to their habitations, excepting
+a few that followed the king.
+
+5. On the other hand, they that were conducting the princesses to the
+mountains fell into the ambush Chrysanthes had laid for them, and were
+most of them taken prisoners. The queen, the king's son, his
+daughters, his eldest son's wife, and his treasures, all fell into the
+hands of the Persians.
+
+6. The king, hearing this melancholy news, and not knowing what would
+become of him, retired to a little eminence, where he was presently
+invested by the Persian army, and obliged to surrender. Cyrus ordered
+him with all his family to be brought to the midst of the army. At
+that very instant arrived Tigranes, the king's eldest son, who was
+just returned from a journey. At so moving a scene he could not
+forbear weeping. Cyrus, addressing himself to him, said: "Prince, you
+are come very seasonably to be present at the trial of your father."
+And immediately he assembled the captains of the Persians and Medes,
+and called in also the great men of Armenia. Nor did he so much as
+exclude the ladies from this assembly, who were there in their
+chariots, but gave them full liberty to hear and see all that passed.
+
+7. When all was ready and Cyrus had commanded silence, he began with
+requiring of the king, that in all the questions he was about to
+propose to him, he would answer sincerely, because nothing could be
+more unworthy a person of his rank than to use dissimulation or
+falsehood. The king promised he would. Then Cyrus asked him, but at
+different times, proposing each article separately, and in order,
+whether it was not true, that he had made war upon Astyages, King of
+the Medes, his grandfather; whether he had not been overcome in that
+war, and in consequence of his defeat had concluded a treaty with
+Astyages; whether by virtue of that treaty he was not obliged to pay a
+certain tribute, to furnish a certain number of troops, and not to
+keep any fortified place in his country.
+
+8. It was impossible for the king to deny any of these facts, which
+were all public and notorious. "For what reason, then," continued
+Cyrus, "have you violated the treaty in every article?" "For no
+other," replied the king, "than because I thought it a glorious thing
+to shake off the yoke, to live free, and to leave my children in the
+same condition." "It is really glorious," answered Cyrus, "to fight in
+defense of liberty, but if any one, after he is reduced to servitude,
+should attempt to run away from his master, what would you do with
+him?" "I must confess," said the king, "I would punish him." "And if
+you had given a government to one of your subjects, and he should be
+found to misbehave, would you continue him in his post?" "No,
+certainly; I would put another in his place." "And if he had amassed
+great riches by his unjust practices?" "I would strip him of them."
+"But, which is still worse, if he had held intelligence with your
+enemies, how would you treat him?" "Though I should pass sentence upon
+myself," replied the king, "I must declare the truth; I would put him
+to death." At these words Tigranes tore his tiara from his head, and
+rent his garments; the women burst out into lamentations and outcries,
+as if the sentence had actually passed upon him.
+
+9. Cyrus, having again commanded silence, Tigranes addressed himself
+to the prince to this effect: "Great prince, can you think it
+consistent with your wisdom, to put my father to death, even against
+your own interest?" "How against my interest?" replied Cyrus. "Because
+he was never so capable of doing you service." "How do you make that
+appear? Do the faults we commit enhance our merit, and give us a new
+title to consideration and favor?" "They certainly do, provided they
+serve to make us wiser; for wisdom is of inestimable value. Are either
+riches, courage, or address to be compared to it? Now it is evident,
+this single day's experience has infinitely improved my father's
+wisdom. He knows how dear the violation of his word has cost him. He
+has proved and felt how much you are superior to him in all respects.
+He has not been able to succeed in any of his designs; but you have
+happily accomplished all yours; and with such expedition and secrecy
+that he has found himself surrounded and taken before he expected to
+be attacked, and the very place of his retreat has served only to
+ensnare him."
+
+10. "But your father," replied Cyrus, "has yet undergone no sufferings
+that can have taught him wisdom." "The fear of evils," answered
+Tigranes, "when it is so well founded as this is, has a much sharper
+sting, and is more capable of piercing the soul, than the evil itself.
+Besides, permit me to say, that gratitude is a stronger and more
+prevailing motive than any whatever; and there can be no obligations
+in the world of a higher nature than those you will lay upon my
+father--his fortune, liberty, scepter, life, wives, and children, all
+restored to him with such a generosity. Where can you find,
+illustrious prince, in one single person, so many strong and powerful
+ties to attach him to your service?"
+
+11. "Well, then," replied Cyrus, turning to the king, "if I should
+yield to your son's entreaties, with what number of men, and what sum
+of money, will you assist us in the war against the Babylonians?" "My
+troops and treasures," says the Armenian king, "are no longer mine;
+they are entirely yours. I can raise forty thousand foot and eight
+thousand horse; and as for money, I reckon, including the treasure
+which my father left me, there are about three thousand talents ready
+money. All these are wholly at your disposal." Cyrus accepted half the
+number of the troops, and left the king the other half, for the
+defense of the country against the Chaldeans, with whom he was at war.
+
+12. The annual tribute which was due to the Medes he doubled, and
+instead of fifty talents exacted a hundred, and borrowed the like sum
+over and above in his own name. "But what would you give me," added
+Cyrus, "for the ransom of your wives?" "All that I have in the world,"
+replied the king. "And for the ransom of your children?" "The same
+thing." "From this time, then, you are indebted to me the double of
+all your possessions. And you, Tigranes, at what price would you
+redeem the liberty of your lady?" Now he had lately married her, and
+was passionately fond of her. "At the price," said he, "of a thousand
+lives if I had them." Cyrus then conducted them all to his tent, and
+entertained them at supper. It is easy to imagine what transports of
+joy there must have been upon this occasion.
+
+13. After supper, as they were discoursing upon various subjects,
+Cyrus asked Tigranes what was become of a governor whom he had often
+seen hunting with him, and for whom he had a particular esteem.
+"Alas!" said Tigranes, "he is no more; and I dare not tell you by what
+accident I lost him." Cyrus pressed him to tell him. "My father,"
+continued Tigranes, "seeing I had a very tender affection for this
+governor, and that I was extremely attached to him, suspected it might
+be of some ill consequence and put him to death. But he was so honest
+a man, that as he was ready to expire, he sent for me and spoke to me
+in these words: 'Tigranes, let not my death occasion any
+dissatisfaction in you toward the king your father. What he has done
+to me did not proceed from malice, but only from prejudice, and a
+false notion wherewith he was unhappily blinded.'" "Oh, the excellent
+man!" cried Cyrus, "never forget the last advice he gave you."
+
+14. When the conversation was ended, Cyrus, before they parted,
+embraced them all, as in token of a perfect reconciliation. This done,
+they got into their chariots, with their wives, and went home full of
+gratitude and admiration. Nothing but Cyrus was mentioned the whole
+way; some extolling his wisdom, others his valor; some admiring the
+sweetness of his temper, others praising the beauty of his person and
+the majesty of his mien. "And you," said Tigranes, addressing himself
+to his lady, "what do you think of Cyrus's aspect and deportment?" "I
+do not know," replied the lady, "I did not observe him." "Upon what
+object, then, did you fix your eyes?" "Upon him that said he would
+give a thousand lives to ransom my liberty."
+
+The next day the King of Armenia sent presents to Cyrus, and
+refreshments for his whole army, and brought him double the sum of
+money he was required to furnish. But Cyrus took only what had been
+stipulated, and restored him the rest. The Armenian troops were
+ordered to be ready in three days' time, and Tigranes desired to
+command them.
+
+                                                        _Rollin._
+
+
+
+
+_XXIII.--THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE._
+
+
+1. After the battle of Platæa, in which the army of the Persian king
+Xerxes was defeated and destroyed, the Greek states became the
+dominant power in the civilized world, and the Greek cities became
+centers of influence and art. Under Pericles, the successor of
+Themistocles, Athens, in richness and beauty of her palaces and
+temples, arrived at a point of excellence which far surpassed anything
+the world had before seen. But jealousies between different states led
+to civil wars that desolated the whole land, and in the next one
+hundred and fifty years scarcely any progress was made in adding to
+the national strength. While these bloody wars were going on
+principally between Sparta and Athens, the tribes of Macedon, a region
+lying immediately north of Greece, were rapidly becoming civilized and
+consolidated. In 359 B. C. Philip became the reigning monarch.
+
+2. He was very desirous of being considered as a Greek, invited
+distinguished men to his court, and ordered public rejoicings in his
+kingdom when his chariots had won the prize at the Olympic games. He
+was very clever, and cared little about the justice and honor of the
+means by which he attained his ends, which were, to hold in subjection
+all the rest of Greece, and to conquer Persia. In the first design he
+succeeded, for the latter he only prepared the way for his son. He had
+both to form his officers and his army. The first he attempted by
+bringing the young nobles to his court, and there instructing them;
+and in the last he succeeded in a remarkable manner.
+
+3. The chief strength of the army, as he constituted it, was in the
+phalanx, a body of sixteen thousand foot soldiers, fully armed in the
+Greek fashion, with spears twenty-four feet long. When drawn up in
+order of battle, the four front ranks held their spears pointing
+outward, and stood at such a space apart, that the foremost line had
+four spear-points between each man and the enemy, or on occasion they
+marched with their shields touching, so as to form an almost
+impenetrable wall.
+
+4. As soon as Philip's designs against Greece were apparent, a strong
+spirit of resistance showed itself, and chiefly at Athens, where the
+great orator, Demosthenes, never ceased to rouse his countrymen to
+maintain their freedom. Demosthenes had trained himself in eloquence
+under great difficulties; he naturally either stammered, or had an
+indistinct pronunciation--a defect which he cured by speaking with
+pebbles in his mouth, and he used to rehearse his speeches to the
+roaring sea, in order to nerve himself against the clamors of a
+tumultuous assembly. He so far succeeded, that he often swayed the
+minds of the Athenians; his name stands as the first of orators, and
+his Philippics, as his discourses against Philip are called, are
+considered as models of rhetoric.
+
+5. At Cheronæa, in 338, a battle was fought by Philip against the
+allied forces of the Athenians and Thebans. At one time the Athenians
+gained some advantage, but they used it so ill, that Philip, calling
+out to his troops, "They do not know how to conquer," made a sudden
+charge, and routed them with great slaughter. The battle of Cheronæa
+was the end of the independence of Greece, which from that time
+forward became subject to Macedon, in spite of its many struggles to
+shake off the yoke, and recover the liberty which had been lost for
+want of a firm, united, settled government.
+
+6. The King of Macedon next commenced his arrangements for his other
+favorite scheme--the invasion of Asia; but in the year 336, in the
+midst of the feasts in honor of his daughter's marriage, he was
+murdered by a young Macedonian noble, who was slain in the first anger
+of the surrounding guards, without having time to disclose the motive
+of his crime.
+
+7. Alexander, son of Philip and his Epirot queen Olympias, was twenty
+years of age when he came to the throne. On the night of his birth the
+temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was burned to the ground by a man named
+Erostratus, in the foolish desire of making himself notorious, and
+this Alexander liked to consider as an omen that he should himself
+kindle a flame in Asia.
+
+8. He traced his descent from his father's side from Hercules, and by
+his mother's from Achilles, and throughout his boyhood he seems to
+have lived in a world of the old Greek poetry, sleeping with Homer's
+works under his pillow, and dreaming of deeds in which he should rival
+the fame of the victors of Troy. He was placed under the care of
+Aristotle, the great philosopher of Stagira, to whom, when Philip had
+written to announce Alexander's birth, he had said that he knew not
+whether most to rejoice at having a son, or that his son would have
+such a teacher as Aristotle.
+
+9. From him the young Alexander learned to think deeply, to resolve
+firmly, and devise plans of government; by others he was instructed in
+all the graceful accomplishments of the Greeks, and under his father
+he was trained to act promptly. At fourteen he tamed the noble horse
+Bucephalus, which no one else dared to mount; two years later he
+rescued his father in a battle with the Scythians, and he commanded
+the cavalry at Cheronæa, but he was so young at the time of his
+accession, that the Greeks thought they had nothing to fear from him.
+
+[Illustration: _Battle on the Granicus._]
+
+10. There were very ungenerous rejoicings at Athens at the murder of
+Philip. Demosthenes, though he had just lost a daughter, crowned himself
+with a wreath of flowers, and came with great tokens of joy to announce
+it to the Athenians so soon after the event, as almost to excite a
+suspicion that he must have been concerned in the crime. But they found
+that their joy was unfounded, for no sooner did Thebes take up arms,
+than Alexander marched against it, destroyed the walls, killed many of
+the citizens, and blotted it out from the number of Greek cities. The
+other states did not dare to make any further opposition, and he was
+thus at leisure to prepare for the invasion of Persia.
+
+11. Leaving Antipater as governor of Macedon, he set out in the spring
+of 334, at the head of thirty thousand infantry and four thousand five
+hundred cavalry, and bade farewell to his native land, which he was
+never to see again. He crossed the Hellespont, and was the first man
+to leap on Asiatic ground; then, while his forces were landing, he
+went to visit the spot which had so long been the object of his
+dreams--the village which marked the site of Troy. He offered a
+sacrifice at the tomb of Achilles, hung up his own shield in the
+temple, and took down one which was said to be a relic of the Greek
+conquerors, intending to have it always borne before him in battle.
+
+12. His march was at first toward the east, along the shore of the
+Hellespont, until at the river Granicus he met the Persians drawn up
+on the other bank of the river, under the command of the satrap
+Memnon. Alexander himself, at the head of his cavalry, charged through
+the midst of the rapid stream, won the landing-place, and followed by
+the phalanx, quickly gained a complete victory.
+
+13. All the neighboring country fell into his hands, and after taking
+possession of it, he changed his course, marching along the shores of
+the Ægean, and taking all the towns. It was his first object to cut
+the Persians off from their seaports, and thus deprive them of the use
+of their fleet, which was so superior to his own, that he never
+ventured on one sea-fight.
+
+14. This march round the western and southern coasts of Asia Minor,
+together with an expedition into the interior, occupied a year, and in
+the early part of the summer, he arrived at Tarsus, in Cilicia. Here,
+on entering the city, overwhelmed with heat and fatigue, he bathed in
+the cold waters of the Cydnus, and the chill brought on a violent
+fever, which nearly cost him his life. A letter was sent to warn him
+that his physician, Philip, had been bribed by the Persian king to
+poison him. While he was reading it the physician himself brought him
+a draught of medicine; the king put the letter into his hand, took the
+cup and drank it off, even before Philip could profess his innocence.
+In three days' time he was again able to appear at the head of his
+troops, and not before he was needed, for the enemy's army was near at
+hand, under King Darius Codomanus himself.
+
+15. The Persians advanced in great state. First came a number of
+persons bearing silver altars, on which burned the sacred fire; then
+followed the Magi, and three hundred and sixty-five youths robed in
+scarlet, in honor of the days of the year. Next came the chariot and
+horses of the Sun, with their attendants, and afterward the army
+itself, the Immortal Band, with gold-handled lances, white robes, and
+jeweled corslets, and a host of others of less note, all far more fit
+for show than for battle. Darius himself, arrayed in purple robes and
+glittering with jewels, was in the midst, in a chariot covered with
+gold ornaments, and with him came his mother, Sisygambis, his
+principal wife, his daughters, a number of other ladies, and a
+multitude of slaves. This unwieldy and useless host took up their
+position on the hilly ground above the city of Issus, where they were
+so entangled among the rocks, that their numbers were of little profit
+to them, and it was an easy victory for the Macedonians. No sooner did
+Darius see that the day was against him, than he turned his chariot
+and fled, leaving his family to fall into the hands of the conqueror,
+while he himself hastened to Babylon to collect another army.
+
+16. Alexander treated the mother, wife, and children of Darius with
+great kindness and courtesy, sending an officer to assure them of his
+protection, and going the next morning to visit them, accompanied by
+his friend Hephæstion, a young man of his own age. Alexander, though
+of beautiful and noble countenance, and well formed for strength and
+activity, was rather short in stature, and as his dress was very
+simple, Sisygambis mistook Hephæstion for the King of Macedon, and
+threw herself on the ground before him; and she was greatly confused
+and distressed when she discovered her error; but Alexander said, as
+he raised her, "You were not deceived, for he is Alexander's other
+self." He gave her the name of mother, never sat down in her presence
+except at her request, and showed in every point a respect and
+courtesy such as she had probably never before received from the
+Asiatic princes, who always held women in contempt.
+
+17. Pursuing his intention of first destroying the naval power of the
+Persian empire, Alexander next entered Phoenicia, and readily received
+the submission of Zidon, but Tyre refused to admit him within the
+walls. New Tyre, which was built after the seventy years' desolation
+which followed the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, stood upon an island
+about half a mile from the shore, and was inhabited by a numerous and
+brave people, who thought themselves secure from an enemy who had no
+fleet to bring against them.
+
+18. Alexander was, however, not to be daunted by any difficulty. He at
+first attempted to build a causeway from the shore to the island, and
+when the Tyrians destroyed his works he went to Zidon and there
+obtained a fleet, by means of which he at length took the city after a
+seven months' siege. He stained his victory by a cruel slaughter, and
+made slaves of all whose lives were spared, excepting a few whom the
+Zidonians contrived to conceal in their ships. This was the final fall
+of the great merchant city, so often predicted by Isaiah and Ezekiel.
+
+19. He then marched through the rest of Palestine, intending to punish
+Jerusalem, which had stood loyal to Darius, and refused to send him
+supplies. The Jews, on his approach, prayed for guidance and
+protection, and it was revealed to Jaddua, the high-priest, that he
+should open the gates and go forth in his sacred robes to receive the
+Grecian conqueror. It was accordingly done; and Jaddua, in the
+vestments of Aaron, came forth at the head of the choir of priests in
+white garments as Alexander and the Greeks mounted the hill toward the
+city. No sooner did the king meet the procession than he bent down to
+the ground in adoration, and walked in the midst of the priests to the
+temple, where a sacrifice was offered; and he not only spared the
+Jews, but showed them much favor.
+
+20. He told his generals that before he left Macedon he had seen in a
+dream a figure exactly resembling that of the high-priest, which had
+foretold all his conquests. And surely there is little reason to doubt
+that such a revelation might be made to a conqueror marked out as
+clearly by prophecy as Nebuchadnezzar or Cyrus, before he set out on
+the work appointed for him. Both his predecessors in conquest, as soon
+as they came in contact with the chosen people, were taught that they
+were the subjects of prophecy; and Alexander, in his turn, was shown
+by Jaddua the prediction of Daniel, which spoke of him as a he-goat
+(the actual ensign of Macedon), "Who came from the West, and smote the
+ram, and brake his two horns, and cast him down and trampled on him."
+"And the rough goat is the King of Grecia."
+
+21. He then proceeded southward, besieged and took Gaza, after a brave
+resistance, which he cruelly requited, and entered Egypt, subduing it
+with little difficulty. On one of the peninsulas formed by the mouth
+of the Nile, he founded a city, called after his name Alexandria,
+which became the capital of Egypt under its Greek rulers, and one of
+the most famous cities in the world. He made an expedition to the
+temple of Jupiter Ammon, on an oasis in the Libyan desert, and
+consulted the oracle there, and then after appointing a Macedonian
+satrap in Egypt, retraced his steps toward the Holy Land, and marched
+toward Babylonia, where Darius was again collecting his forces to
+oppose him.
+
+                                            _Charlotte M. Yonge._
+
+
+
+
+_XXIV.--ALEXANDER'S CONQUESTS._
+
+
+1. Alexander crossed the Euphrates and Tigris without opposition, and
+the decisive battle did not take place till he reached the plain of
+Arbela, where the Persians were drawn up to receive him. The
+Macedonians wished to make a night attack, but Alexander would not
+permit it, saying that he disdained to steal a victory, and the combat
+took place the next day.
+
+2. The present army of Persians was drawn from the more remote
+regions of Bactria and Parthia, where the men were more warlike, and
+they fought better than any whom the Macedonians had before
+encountered; but Darius himself fled early in the day, leaving behind
+him his bow and shield; his men lost courage, and followed him, and
+Alexander was left master of the field of Arbela.
+
+3. This battle placed in his power all the western part of the Persian
+empire, and he had only to march to the great cities of Babylon, Susa,
+Ecbatana, and Persepolis, to take possession of the huge stores of
+treasures there heaped up by the Persian kings, which he now
+distributed among his followers with royal bounty. The unfortunate
+Darius escaped into Bactria, where two satraps, in whom he had
+confided, treacherously seized him and made him prisoner, carrying him
+along with them as they fled before Alexander, until at length, being
+closely pressed by the Greeks, they threw their darts at him, and left
+him lying on the ground mortally wounded.
+
+4. He was still alive when some of the Greeks came up, but died before
+the arrival of Alexander. The conqueror wept as he beheld the corpse
+of the last of a line of such great princes; he threw his own cloak
+over it, and sent it to Babylon, where it was buried with great
+magnificence.
+
+[Illustration: _Alexander at the Dead Body of Darius._]
+
+5. The wife of Darius had died a prisoner, but Sisygambis still
+remained with her grandchildren at Babylon. Only once does Alexander
+seem to have hurt her feelings, and this was through ignorance of
+Persian customs. He showed her some robes of his sister's own weaving
+and embroidery, and offered to have her grand-daughters instructed in
+the same art, at which she wept, since Persian ladies deemed such
+employments work fit only for slaves and captives, and Alexander was
+obliged to explain how honorably the loom and needle were esteemed
+by his own countrywomen.
+
+6. Alexander was much attached to his own mother, Olympias, and
+portions of his letters to her have come down to our time. She was a
+proud and violent woman, who often interfered with Antipater, governor
+of Macedon, and caused him to send many complaints to the king: "Ah!"
+said Alexander, "Antipater does not know that one tear of a mother
+will blot out ten thousand of his letters."
+
+7. Alexander had indeed an open and affectionate heart, but he was
+fast becoming too much uplifted by his successes. On Darius's death,
+he took the state as well as the title of a king of Persia, wore the
+tiara and robes, and claimed from the Macedonians the same servile
+tokens of homage as were paid by the eastern nations, thus causing
+perpetual heart-burnings among them, since they could neither endure
+to see their king exalted so much further above them, nor to be placed
+on the same level with the barbarians whom they despised.
+
+8. Their jealousies troubled Alexander from the time he assumed the
+tiara of Persia. He found it impossible to raise the condition of the
+Persians, and treat them with favor, without offending the
+Macedonians, and his temper did not always endure these provocations.
+The worst action of his life was the sentencing to death, on a false
+accusation, the wise old General Parmenio, and his son; and in a fit
+of passion at a riotous banquet, he slew, with his own hand, his
+friend Clitus, his nurse's son, who had saved his life at the battle
+of Granicus. It was the deed of a moment of drunken violence, and he
+bitterly lamented it, shutting himself up for several days without
+allowing any one to approach him, and paying all honors to the memory
+of his murdered friend.
+
+9. His pride and vain-glory went so far, that he declared that the
+oracle of Jupiter Ammon had announced that he was the son of Jupiter,
+and sent to Greece to desire to be enrolled among the gods in his
+life-time. Some of the Greeks were shocked at his profanity, others
+laughed at him; but all the Spartans said was, "If Alexander will be a
+god, let him."
+
+10. The next four years were the most laborious of Alexander's life.
+He pursued the murderers of Darius into Bactria and Sogdiana, avenged
+his death, and reduced the numerous hill-forts as far as the frontier
+of Scythia. Fierce insurrections broke out among the wild tribes of
+Sogdiana, which it required all his activity and judgment to quell,
+and more than once provoked him into cruelty, though in general,
+conqueror as he was, he was no spoiler, but wherever he went founded
+cities, and tried to teach the Persians the civilized arts of Greece.
+
+11. In 326 he set out for India, as the region was called round the
+river Indus. Here the inhabitants were warlike, and Porus, king of a
+portion of the country, made a brave resistance, but was at length
+defeated and taken prisoner. On being brought before Alexander he said
+he had nothing to ask, save to be treated as a king. "That I shall do
+for my own sake," said Alexander, and accordingly not only set him at
+liberty, but enlarged his territory.
+
+12. All these Indian nations brought a tribute of elephants, which the
+Macedonians now for the first time learned to employ in war. Alexander
+wished to proceed into Hindostan, a country hitherto entirely unknown,
+but his soldiers grew so discontented at the prospect of being led so
+much farther from home, into the utmost parts of the earth, that he
+was obliged to give up his attempt, and very unwillingly turned back
+from the banks of the Sutlej.
+
+13. While returning, he besieged a little town belonging to a tribe
+called the Malli, and believed to be the present city of Mooltan. He
+was the first to scale the wall, and after four others had mounted,
+the ladder broke, and he was left standing on the wall, a mark for the
+darts of the enemy. He instantly leaped down within the wall into the
+midst of the Malli, and there setting his back against a fig-tree,
+defended himself until a barbed arrow deeply pierced his breast, and,
+after trying to keep up a little longer, he sunk, fainting, on his
+shield. His four companions sprung down after him--two were slain, but
+the others held their shields over him till the rest of the army
+succeeded in breaking into the town and coming to the rescue.
+
+14. His wound was severe and dangerous, but he at length recovered,
+sailed down to the mouth of the Indus, and sent a fleet to survey the
+Persian Gulf, while he himself marched along the shore. The country
+was bare and desert, and his army suffered dreadfully from heat,
+thirst, and hunger, while he readily shared all their privations. A
+little water was once brought him on a parching day, as a great prize,
+but since there was not enough for all, he poured it out on the sand,
+lest his faithful followers should feel themselves more thirsty when
+they saw him drink alone.
+
+15. At last he safely arrived at Caramania, whence he returned to the
+more inhabited and wealthy parts of Persia, held his court with great
+magnificence at Susa, and then went to Babylon. Here embassies met him
+from every part of the known world, bringing gifts and homage, and
+above all, there arrived from the Greek states the much desired
+promise that he should be honored as a god. He was at the highest
+pitch of worldly greatness to which mortal man had yet attained, and
+his designs were reaching yet further; but his hour was come, and at
+Babylon, the home of pride, "the great horn" was to be broken.
+
+[Illustration: _Alexander the Great._]
+
+16. In the marshes into which the Euphrates had spread since its
+channel was altered by Cyrus, there breathed a noxious air, and a few
+weeks after Alexander's arrival, he was attacked by a fever, perhaps
+increased by intemperance. He bore up against it as long as possible,
+continued to offer sacrifices daily, though with increasing
+difficulty, and summoned his officers to arrange plans for his
+intended expedition; but his strength failed him on the ninth day, and
+though he called them together as usual, he could not address them.
+Perhaps he thought in that hour of the prophecy he had seen at
+Jerusalem, that the empire he had toiled to raise should be divided,
+for he is reported to have said that there would be a mighty contest
+at his funeral games. He made no attempt to name a successor, but he
+took off his signet-ring, placed it on the finger of Perdiccas, one of
+his generals, and a short time after expired, in the thirty-third year
+of his age, and the twelfth of his reign.
+
+17. There was a voice of wailing throughout the city that night. The
+Babylonians shut up their houses, and trembled at the neighborhood of
+the fierce Greek soldiery, now that their protector was dead; the
+Macedonians stood to arms all night, as if in presence of the enemy;
+and when in the morning the officers assembled in the palace council
+chamber, bitter and irrepressible was the burst of lamentation that
+broke out at the sight of the vacant throne, where lay the crown,
+scepter, and royal robes, and where Perdiccas now placed the
+signet-ring. More deeply than all mourned the prisoner, the aged
+Sisygambis, who covered her face with a black veil, sat down in a
+corner of her room, refused all entreaties to speak or to eat, and
+expired five days after Alexander.
+
+18. Nor did the Persians soon cease to lament the conqueror, who had
+ruled them more beneficently than their own monarchs had done; their
+traditions made Alexander a prince of their own, and adorned him with
+every virtue valued in the East. That he had many great faults has
+already been shown, and, of course, by the rules of justice, his
+conquests were but reckless gratifications of his own ambition; but he
+was a high-minded, generous man, open of heart, free of hand, and for
+the most part acting up to his knowledge of right; and if unbridled
+power, talent of the highest order, and glory such as none before or
+since has ever attained, inflamed his passions, and elated him with
+pride, still it is not for us to judge severely of one who had such
+great temptations, and so little to guide him aright.
+
+                                            _Charlotte M. Yonge._
+
+
+
+
+_XXV.--JUDAS MACCABÆUS, THE HEBREW WILLIAM TELL._
+
+
+1. The kingdom of Judah escaped destruction at the hands of
+Sennacherib, but its respite was short. Soon afterward Babylon,
+closely related to Assyria, and the heir of its dominion, swept into
+captivity in distant Mesopotamia nearly all that were left of Hebrew
+stock. For a time, the nation seemed to have been wiped from the face
+of the earth. The ten tribes of Israel that had been first dragged
+forth never returned to Judea, and their ultimate fate, after the
+destruction of Nineveh, whose splendor they had in their servitude
+done so much to enhance, was that of homeless wanderers. The harp of
+Judah, silent upon the devastated banks of the Jordan, was hung upon
+the Babylonian willows, for how could the exiles sing the Lord's song
+in a strange land! But the cry went forth at length that Babylon had
+fallen in her turn, just as destruction had before overtaken Nineveh.
+In the middle of the sixth century B. C., Cyrus the Mede made a
+beginning of restoring the exiles, who straightway built anew the
+Temple walls.
+
+2. In David's time, the population of Palestine must have numbered
+several millions, and it largely increased during the succeeding
+reigns. Multitudes, however, had perished by the sword, and other
+multitudes were retained in strange lands. Scarcely fifty thousand
+found their way back in the time of Cyrus to the desolate site of
+Jerusalem, but, one hundred years later, the number was increased by a
+re-enforcement under Ezra. From this nucleus, with astonishing
+vitality, a new Israel was presently developed. With weapons always at
+hand to repel the freebooters of the desert, they constructed once
+more the walls of Jerusalem. Through all their harsh experience their
+feelings of nationality had not been at all abated; their blood was
+untouched by foreign admixture, though some Gentile ideas had entered
+into the substance of their faith. The conviction that they were the
+chosen people of God was as unshaken as in the ancient time. With
+pride as indomitable as ever, intrenched within their little corner of
+Syria, they confronted the hostile world.
+
+3. But a new contact was at hand, far more memorable even than that
+with the nations of Mesopotamia--a contact whose consequences affect
+at the present hour the condition of the greater part of the human
+race. In the year 332 B. C., the high-priest, Jaddua, at Jerusalem,
+was in an agony, not knowing how he should meet certain new invaders
+of the land, before whom Tyre, and Gaza, the old Philistine
+stronghold, had fallen, and who were now marching upon the city of
+David. But God warned him in a dream that he should take courage,
+adorn the city, and open the gates; that the people should appear in
+white garments of peace, but that he and the priests should meet the
+strangers in the robes of their office. At length, at the head of a
+sumptuous train of generals and tributary princes, a young man of
+twenty-four, upon a beautiful steed, rode forward from the way going
+down to the sea to the spot which may still be seen, called,
+anciently, Scopus, the prospect, because from that point one
+approaching could behold, for the first time, Jerusalem crowned by the
+Temple rising fair upon the heights of Zion and Moriah.
+
+4. The youth possessed a beauty of a type in those regions hitherto
+little known. As compared with the swarthy Syrians in his suite, his
+skin was white; his features were stamped with the impress of command,
+his eyes filled with an intellectual light. With perfect horsemanship he
+guided the motions of his charger. A fine grace marked his figure, set
+off with a cloak, helmet, and gleaming arms, as he expressed with
+animated gestures his exultation over the spectacle before him. But now,
+down from the heights came the procession of the priests and the people.
+The multitude proceeded in their robes of white; the priests stood
+clothed in fine linen; while the high-priest, in attire of purple and
+scarlet, upon his breast the great breastplate of judgment with its
+jewels, upon his head the mitre marked with the plate of gold whereon
+was engraved the name of God, led the train with venerable dignity.
+
+5. Now, says the historian, when the Phœnicians and Chaldeans that
+followed Alexander thought that they should have liberty to plunder
+the city, and torment the high-priest to death, the very reverse
+happened; for the young leader, when he saw the multitude in the
+distance, and the figure of the high-priest before, approached him by
+himself, saluted him, and adored the name, which was graven upon the
+plate of the mitre. Then a captain, named Parmino, asked him how it
+came to pass that, when all others adored him, he should adore the
+high-priest of the Jews. To whom the leader replied: "I do not adore
+him, but that God who hath honored him with his high-priesthood; for I
+saw this very person in a dream, in this very habit, when I was at
+Dios in Macedonia, who, when I was considering how I might obtain the
+dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass
+over the sea thither, for that he would conduct my army, and could
+give me the dominion over the Persians." Then, when Alexander had
+given the high-priest his right hand, the priests ran along by him and
+he came into the city, and he offered sacrifice to God in the Temple,
+according to the high-priest's direction, and magnificently treated
+both the high-priest and the priests. He granted all the multitude
+desired; and when he said to them that if any of them would enlist
+themselves in his army on this condition, that they should continue
+under the laws of their forefathers, he was willing to take them with
+him, many were ready to accompany him in his wars.
+
+6. But this Aryan troop that went southward is less interesting to us
+than companies that departed westward, for in these westward marching
+bands went the primeval forefathers from whose venerable loins we
+ourselves have proceeded. They passed into Western Asia, and from Asia
+into Europe--each migrating multitude impelled by a new swarm sent forth
+from the parent hive behind. At the head of the Adriatic Sea an Aryan
+troop had divided, sending down into the eastern peninsula the ancestors
+of the Greeks, and into the western peninsula the train destined to
+establish upon the seven hills the power of Rome. Already the Aryan
+pioneers, the Celts, on the outmost rocks of the western coast of
+Europe, were fretting against the barrier of storm and sea, across which
+they were not to find their way for many ages. Already Phœnician
+merchants, trading for amber in the far-off Baltic, had become aware of
+the wild Aryan tribes pressing to the northwest--the Teutons and Goths.
+Already, perhaps, upon the outlying spur of the Ural range, still other
+Aryans had fixed their hold, the progenitors of the Sclav. The
+aboriginal savage of Europe was already nearly extinct. His lance of
+flint had fallen harmless from the Aryan buckler; his rude altars had
+become displaced by the shrines of the new gods. In the Mediterranean
+Sea each sunny isle and pleasant promontory had long been in Aryan
+hands, and now in the wintry forests to the northward the resistless
+multitudes had more recently fixed their seats.
+
+7. In the Macedonians, the Aryans, having established their dominion
+in Europe, march back upon the track which their forefathers long
+before had followed westward; and now it is that the Hebrews become
+involved with the race that from that day to this has been the
+master-race of the world. It was a contact taking place under
+circumstances, it would seem, the most auspicious--the venerable old
+man and the beautiful Greek youth clasping hands, the ruthless
+followers of the conqueror baffled in their hopes of booty, the
+multitudes of Jerusalem, in their robes of peace, filling the air with
+acclamations, as Alexander rode from the place of prospect, upon the
+heights of Zion, into the solemn precincts of the Temple.
+
+8. The successors of Alexander the Great made the Jews a link between
+the Hellenic populations that had become widely scattered throughout the
+East by the Macedonian conquests, and the great barbarian races among
+whom the Greeks had placed themselves. The dispersion of the Jews, which
+had already taken place to such an extent through the Assyrian and
+Babylonian conquests, went forward now more vigorously. Throughout
+Western Asia they were found everywhere, but it was in Egypt that they
+attained the highest prosperity and honor. The one city, Alexandria
+alone, is said to have contained at length a million Jews, whom the
+Greek kings of Egypt, the Ptolemies, preferred in every way to the
+native population. Elsewhere, too, they were favored, and hence they
+were everywhere hated; and the hatred assumed a deeper bitterness from
+the fact that the Jew always remained a Jew, marked in garb, in feature,
+in religious faith, always scornfully asserting the claim that he was
+the chosen of the Lord. Palestine became incorporated with the empire of
+the Seleucidæ, the Macedonian princes to whom had fallen Western Asia.
+Oppression at last succeeded the earlier favor, the defenses of
+Jerusalem were demolished, and the Temple defiled with pagan ceremonies;
+and now it is that we reach some of the finest figures in Hebrew
+history, the great high-priests, the Maccabees.
+
+9. There dwelt at the town of Modin a priest, Mattathias, the
+descendant of Asmonæus, to whom had been born five sons--John, Simon,
+Judas Maccabæus, or the Hammer, Eleazar, and Jonathan. Mattathias
+lamented the ravaging of the land and the plunder of the Temple by
+Antiochus Epiphanes, and when, in the year 167 B. C., the Macedonian
+king sent to Modin to have sacrifices offered, the Asmonæan returned a
+spirited reply. "Thou art a ruler," said the king's officers, "and an
+honorable and great man in this city, and strengthened with sons and
+brethren. Now, therefore, come thou first: so shalt thou and thy
+house be in number of the king's friends, and thou and thy children
+shall be honored with silver and gold and many rewards." But
+Mattathias replied with a loud voice: "Though all the nations that are
+under the king's dominions obey him, and fall away every one from the
+religion of their fathers, yet will I and my sons and my brethren,
+walk in the covenant of our fathers. God forbid that we should forsake
+the law and the ordinances! We will not hearken to the king's words to
+go from our religion, either on the right hand or the left."
+
+10. An heroic struggle for freedom at once began, which opened for the
+Jews full of sadness. An apostate Jew, approaching to offer sacrifice
+in compliance with the command of Antiochus, was at once slain by
+Mattathias, who struck down also Apelles, the king's general, with
+some of his soldiers. As he fled with his sons into the desert,
+leaving his substance behind him, many of the faithful Israelites
+followed, pursued by the Macedonians seeking revenge. The oppressors
+knew well how to choose their time. Attacking on the Sabbath-day,
+when, according to old tradition, it was a transgression even to
+defend one's life, a thousand with their wives and children were
+burned and smothered in the caves in which they had taken refuge. But
+Mattathias, rallying those that remained, taught them to fight on the
+Sabbath, and at all times. The heathen altars were overthrown, the
+breakers of the law were slain, the uncircumcised boys were everywhere
+circumcised. But the fullness of time approached for Mattathias; after
+a year his day of death had come, and these were his parting words to
+his sons: "I know that your brother Simon is a man of counsel; give
+ear unto him always; he shall be a father unto you. As for Judas
+Maccabæus, he hath been mighty and strong even from his youth up; let
+him be your captain and fight the battles of the people. Admit among
+you the righteous."
+
+11. No sooner had the father departed, than it appeared that the
+captain whom he had designated was a man as mighty as the great
+champions of old, Joshua and Gideon and Samson. He forthwith smote
+with defeat Apollonius, the general in the Samaritan country, and when
+he had slain the Greek he took his sword for his own. Seron, general
+of the army in Cœle-Syria, came against him with a host of
+Macedonians strengthened by apostate Jews. The men of Judas Maccabæus
+were few in number, without food, and faint-hearted, but he inspired
+them with his own zeal, and overthrew the new foes at Bethoron. King
+Antiochus, being now called eastward to Persia, committed military
+matters in Palestine to the viceroy, Lysias, with orders to take an
+army with elephants and conquer Judea, enslave its people, destroy
+Jerusalem, and abolish the nation. At once the new invaders were upon
+the land; of foot-soldiers there were forty thousand, of horsemen
+seven thousand, and as they advanced many Syrians and renegade Jews
+joined them. Merchants marched with the army, with money to buy the
+captives as slaves, and chains with which to bind those whom they
+purchased. But Judas Maccabæus was no whit dismayed. Causing his
+soldiers to array themselves in sackcloth, he made them pray to
+Jehovah. He dismissed those lately married, and those who had newly
+come into great possessions, as likely to be faint-hearted. After
+addressing those that remained, he set them in the ancient order of
+battle, and waited the opportunity to strike.
+
+12. The hostile general, fancying he saw an opportunity to surprise
+the little band of Hebrews, sent a portion of his host against them,
+by secret ways at night. But the spies of Judas were out. Leaving the
+fires burning brightly in his camp, to lure forward those who were
+commissioned to attack him, he rushed forth under the shadows against
+the main body, weakened by the absence of the detachment. He forced
+their position, though strongly defended, overcame the army; then
+turned back to scatter utterly the other party who were seeking him in
+the abandoned camp. He took great booty of gold and silver, and of
+raiment purple and blue. He marched home in great joy to the villages
+of Judea, singing hymns to God, as was done in the days of Miriam,
+long before, because they had triumphed gloriously.
+
+13. The next year Lysias advanced from Antioch, the Syrian capital,
+with a force of sixty-five thousand. Judas Maccabæus, with ten
+thousand, overthrew his vanguard, upon which the viceroy, terrified at
+the desperate fighting, retired to assemble a still greater army. For
+a time there was a respite from war, during which Judas counseled the
+people to purify the Temple. The Israelites, overjoyed at the revival
+of their ancient customs, the restoration of the old worship in all
+its purity, and the relief from foreign oppressors, celebrated for
+eight days a magnificent festival. The lamps in the Temple porches
+were rekindled to the sound of instruments and the chant of the
+Levites. But one vial of oil could be found, when, lo, a miracle! the
+one vial sufficed for the supply of the seven-branched golden
+candlestick for a week. This ancient Maccabæan festival faithful Jews
+still celebrate under the name of the Hanoukhah, the Feast of Lights.
+
+14. Judas subdues also the Idumeans of the southward, and the
+Ammonites. His brethren, too, have become mighty men of valor.
+Jonathan crosses the Jordan with him and campaigns against the tribes
+to the eastward. Eleazar is a valiant soldier, and Simon carries
+succor to the Jews in Galilee. But at length the Macedonian is again
+at hand, more terrible than before. The foot are a hundred thousand,
+the horse twenty thousand; and as rallying-points, thirty-two
+elephants tower among the ranks. About each one of the huge beasts is
+collected a troop of a thousand foot and five hundred horse; high
+turrets upon their backs are occupied by archers; their great flanks
+and limbs are cased in plates of steel. The host show their golden and
+brazen shields, making in the sun a glorious splendor, and shout in
+exultation so that the mountains echo. In the battle that follows
+Fortune does not altogether favor the Jews. In particular, the
+champion Eleazar lays down his life. He had attacked the largest
+elephant, a creature covered with plated armor, and carrying upon his
+back a whole troop of combatants, among whom it was believed that the
+king himself fought. Eleazar had slain those in the neighborhood,
+then, creeping beneath the belly of the elephant, had pierced him. As
+the brute fell, Eleazar was crushed in the fall. Judas was forced to
+retire within the defenses of Jerusalem, where still further disaster
+seemed likely to overcome him. Dissensions among themselves, however,
+weakened the Macedonians. Peace was offered the Jews, and permission
+to live according to the law of their fathers--proposals which were
+gladly accepted, although the invaders razed the defenses of the Temple.
+
+15. The peace was not enduring. New Macedonian invasions followed; new
+Hebrew successes, the Maccabees and their partisans making up, by
+their fierce zeal, their military skill, and dauntless valor, for
+their want of numbers. But a sad day came at last. Judas, twenty times
+outnumbered, confronts the leader Bacchides in Galilee. The Greek sets
+horsemen on both wings, his light troops and archers before the
+heavier phalanx, and takes his own station on the right. The Jewish
+hero is valiant as ever; the right wing of the enemy turns to flee.
+The left and center, however, encompass him, and he falls, fighting
+gloriously, having earned a name of the most skillful and valorous of
+the world's great vindicators of freedom.
+
+               _James K. Hosmer. "The Story of the Jews."_
+                       _Putnam's "Stories of the Nations" Series._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ROMAN RECORD.
+
+
+
+
+_XXVI.--TARQUIN THE WICKED._
+
+
+1. For his tyranny King Tarquin was banished from Rome about 500 B.
+C., and after his expulsion he sent messengers to Rome to ask that his
+property should be given up to him, and the senate decreed that his
+prayer should be granted. But the king's ambassadors, while they were
+in Rome, stirred up the minds of the young men and others who had been
+favored by Tarquin, so that a plot was made to bring him back. Among
+those who plotted were Titus and Tiberius, the sons of the consul
+Brutus; and they gave letters to the messengers of the king. But it
+chanced that a certain slave hid himself in the place where they met,
+and overheard them plotting; and he came and told the thing to the
+consuls, who seized the messengers of the king with the letters upon
+their persons, authenticated by the seals of the young men. The
+culprits were immediately arrested; but the ambassadors were let go,
+because their persons were regarded as sacred. And the goods of King
+Tarquin were given up for plunder to the people.
+
+2. Then the traitors were brought up before the consuls, and the sight
+was such as to move all beholders to pity; for among them were the
+sons of Lucius Junius Brutus himself, the first consul, the liberator
+of the Roman people. And now all men saw how Brutus loved his country;
+for he bade the lictors put all the traitors to death, and his own
+sons first; and men could mark in his face the struggle between his
+duty as a chief magistrate of Rome and his feelings as a father. And
+while they praised and admired him they pitied him yet more. This was
+the first attempt to restore Tarquin the Proud.
+
+3. When Tarquin saw that the plot at home had failed, he prevailed on
+the people of Tarquinii and Veii to make war with him against the
+Romans. But the consuls came out against them; Valerius commanding the
+main army, and Brutus the cavalry. And it chanced that Aruns, the
+king's son, led the cavalry of the enemy. When he saw Brutus, he
+spurred his horse against him, and Brutus did not decline the combat.
+They rode straight at each other with leveled spears; and so fierce
+was the shock, that they pierced each other through from breast to
+back, and both fell dead.
+
+4. Then, also, the armies fought, but the battle was neither won nor
+lost. But in the night a voice was heard by the Etruscans, saying that
+the Romans were the conquerers. So the enemy fled by night; and when
+the Romans arose in the morning, there was no man to oppose them. Then
+they took up the body of Brutus, and departed home, and buried him in
+public with great pomp.
+
+5. And thus the second attempt to restore King Tarquin was frustrated.
+After the death of Brutus, Valerius, the remaining consul, ruled the
+people for awhile by himself, and began to build himself a house upon
+the ridge called Velia, which looks down upon the forum. So the people
+thought that he was going to make himself king; but when he heard
+this, he called an assembly of the people, and appeared before them
+with his fasces lowered, and with no axes in them, whence the custom
+remained ever after, that no consular lictors wore axes within the
+city, and no consul had power of life and death except when he was in
+command of his legions abroad. And he pulled down the beginning of his
+house upon the Velia, and built it below that hill. Also, he passed
+laws that every Roman citizen might appeal to the people against the
+judgment of the chief magistrates. Wherefore he was greatly honored
+among the people, and was called _Poplicola_, or _Friend of the People_.
+
+6. After this Valerius called together the great assembly of the
+centuries, and they chose Spurius Lucretius, father of Lucretius, to
+succeed Brutus. But he was an old man, and not many days afterward he
+died, and Marcus Horatius was chosen in his stead.
+
+7. The temple on the Capitol which King Tarquin began had never yet been
+consecrated. Then Valerius and Horatius drew lots which should be the
+consecrator, and the lot fell on Horatius. But the friends of Valerius
+murmured, and they wished to prevent Horatius from having the honor; so,
+when he was now saying the prayer of consecration, with his hand upon
+the door-post of the temple, there came a messenger who told him that
+his son was just dead, and that one mourning for a son could not rightly
+consecrate the temple. But Horatius kept his hand upon the door-post,
+and told them to see to the burial of his son, and finished the rite of
+consecration. Thus did he honor the gods even above his own son.
+
+8. In the next year Valerius was again made consul, with Titus
+Lucretius; and Tarquin, despairing now of aid from his friends at Veii
+and Tarquinii, went to Lars Porsena of Clusium, a city on the river
+Clanis, which falls into the Tiber. Porsena was, at this time,
+acknowledged as chief of the twelve Etruscan cities; and he assembled
+a powerful army and came to Rome. He came so quickly that he reached
+the Tiber, and was near the Sublician Bridge before there was time to
+destroy it; and if he had crossed it the city would have been lost.
+
+9. Then, a noble Roman, called Horatius Cocles, of the Lucerian tribe,
+with two friends--Spurius Lartius, a Ramnian, and Titus Herminius, a
+Titian--posted themselves at the far end of the bridge, and defended
+the passage against all the Etruscan host, while the Romans were
+cutting it off behind them. When it was all but destroyed, his two
+friends retreated across the bridge, and Horatius was left alone to
+bear the whole attack of the enemy. He kept his ground, standing
+unmoved amid the darts which were showered upon his shield, till the
+last beams of the bridge fell crashing into the river. Then he prayed,
+saying, "Father Tiber, receive me, and bear me up I pray thee." He
+then plunged in, and reached the other side safely; and the Romans
+honored him greatly: they put up his statue in the Comitium, and gave
+him as much land as he could plow round in a day, and every man at
+Rome subscribed the cost of one day's food to reward him.
+
+                                                        _Liddell._
+
+10. This story is told in very spirited verse by Macaulay, in his poem
+of Horatius:
+
+
+HORATIUS.
+
+    1.  Fast by the royal standard,
+          O'erlooking all the war,
+        Lars Porsena of Clusium
+          Sate in his ivory car.
+        By the right wheel rode Mamilius,
+          Prince of the Latian name;
+        And by the left false Sextus,
+          That wrought the deed of shame.
+
+    2.  But when the face of Sextus
+          Was seen among the foes,
+        A yell that rent the firmament
+          From all the town arose.
+        On the house-tops was no woman
+          But spate toward him and hissed;
+        No child but screamed out curses,
+          And shook its little fist.
+
+    3.  But the consul's brow was sad,
+          And the consul's speech was low;
+        And darkly looked he at the wall,
+          And darkly at the foe.
+        "Their van will be upon us
+          Before the bridge goes down;
+        And if they once may win the bridge,
+          What hope to save the town?"
+
+    4.  Then out spoke brave Horatius,
+          The captain of the gate:
+        "To every man upon this earth
+          Death cometh soon or late.
+        And how can man die better
+          Than facing fearful odds
+        For the ashes of his fathers,
+          And the temples of his gods!
+
+[Illustration: _Horatius._]
+
+    5.  "Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul
+          With all the speed ye may;
+        I, with two more to help me,
+          Will hold the foe in play.
+        In yon straight path a thousand
+          May well be stopped by three.
+        Now, who will stand on either hand,
+          And keep the bridge with me?"
+
+    6.  Then out spoke Spurius Lartius,
+          A Ramnian proud was he:
+        "Lo, I will stand on thy right hand,
+          And keep the bridge with thee."
+        And out spoke strong Herminius,
+          Of Titian blood was he:
+        "I will abide on thy left side,
+          And keep the bridge with thee."
+
+    7.  The three stood calm and silent,
+          And looked upon the foes.
+        And a great shout of laughter
+          From all the vanguard rose:
+        And forth three chiefs came spurring
+          Before that mighty mass;
+        To earth they sprang, their swords they drew
+        And lifted high their shields, and flew
+          To win the narrow pass.
+
+    8.  Aunus from green Tifernum,
+          Lord of the Hill of Tines;
+        And Seius, whose eight hundred slaves
+          Sicken in Ilva's mines;
+        And Picus, long to Clusium
+          Vassal in peace and war,
+        Who led to fight his Umbrian powers
+        From that gray crag where, girt with towers,
+        The fortress of Nequinum lowers
+          O'er the pale waves of Nar.
+
+    9.  Stout Lartius hurled down Aunus
+          Into the stream beneath;
+        Herminius struck at Seius,
+          And clove him to the teeth;
+        At Picus brave Horatius
+          Darted one fiery thrust,
+        And the proud Umbrian's gilded arms
+          Clashed in the bloody dust.
+
+    10. But meanwhile axe and lever
+          Have manfully been plied,
+        And now the bridge hangs tottering
+          Above the boiling tide.
+        "Come back, come back, Horatius,"
+          Loud cried the Fathers all.
+        "Back, Lartius! back, Herminius!
+          Back, ere the ruin fall!"
+
+    11. Back darted Spurius Lartius;
+          Herminius darted back:
+        And as they passed, beneath their feet
+          They felt the timbers crack.
+        But when they turned their faces,
+          And on the further shore
+        Saw brave Horatius stand alone,
+          They would have crossed once more.
+
+    12. But with a crash like thunder
+          Fell every loosened beam,
+        And, like a dam, the mighty wreck
+          Lay right athwart the stream;
+        And a long shout of triumph
+          Rose from the walls of Rome,
+        As to the highest turret tops
+          Was splashed the yellow foam.
+
+    13. Alone stood brave Horatius,
+          But constant still in mind;
+        Thrice thirty thousand foes before,
+          And the broad flood behind.
+        "Down with him!" cried false Sextus,
+          With a smile on his pale face.
+        "Now yield thee," cried Lars Porsena,
+          "Now yield thee to our grace."
+
+    14. Round turned he, as not deigning
+          Those craven ranks to see;
+        Naught spake he to Lars Porsena,
+          To Sextus naught spake he;
+        But he saw on Palatinus
+          The white porch of his home,
+        And he spake to the noble river
+          That rolls by the towers of Rome.
+
+    15. "Oh, Tiber! Father Tiber!
+          To whom the Romans pray,
+        A Roman's life, a Roman's arms,
+          Take thou in charge this day!"
+        So he spoke, and speaking sheathed
+          The good sword by his side,
+        And with his harness on his back
+          Plunged headlong in the tide.
+
+    16. But fiercely ran the current,
+          Swollen high by months of rain;
+        And fast his blood was flowing;
+          And he was sore in pain,
+        And heavy with his armor,
+          And spent with changing blows:
+        And oft they thought him sinking,
+          But still again he rose.
+
+    17. And now he feels the bottom;
+          Now on dry earth he stands;
+        Now round him throng the fathers,
+          To press his gory hands;
+        And now with shouts and clapping,
+          And noise of weeping loud,
+        He enters through the River-gate,
+          Borne by the joyous crowd.
+
+    18. And still his name sounds stirring
+          Unto the men of Rome,
+        As the trumpet-blast that cries to them
+          To charge the Volscian home;
+        And wives still pray to Juno
+          For boys with hearts as bold
+        As his who kept the bridge so well
+          In the brave days of old.
+
+    19. And in the nights of winter,
+          When the cold north winds blow,
+        And the long howling of the wolves
+          Is heard amidst the snow;
+        When round the lonely cottage
+          Roars loud the tempest's din,
+        And the good logs of Algidus
+          Roar louder yet within;
+
+    20. When the oldest cask is opened,
+          And the largest lamp is lit,
+        When the chestnuts glow in the embers,
+          And the kid turns on the spit;
+        When young and old in circle
+          Around the firebrands close;
+        When the girls are weaving baskets,
+          And the lads are shaping bows;
+
+    21. When the goodman mends his armor,
+          And trims his helmet's plume;
+        When the goodwife's shuttle merrily
+          Goes flashing through the loom;
+        With weeping and with laughter
+          Still is the story told,
+        How well Horatius kept the bridge
+          In the brave days of old.
+
+                                _Macaulay._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+_XXVII.-THE ROMAN REPUBLIC._
+
+
+1. The establishment of the republic marked an era in the history of
+Rome. The people had decreed, that for them there never should be a
+king, and the law was kept to the letter; though, if they meant that
+supreme authority should never be held among them by one man, it was
+violated many times. The story of Rome is unique in the history of the
+world, for it is not the record of the life of one great country, but
+of a city that grew to be strong, and successfully established its
+authority over many countries.
+
+2. The most ancient and the most remote from the sea of the cities of
+Latium, Rome soon became the most influential, and began to combine in
+itself the traits of the peoples near it; but owing to the singular
+strength and rare impressiveness of the national character, these were
+assimilated, and the inhabitant of the capital remained distinctively
+a Roman in spite of his intimate association with men of different
+origin and training.
+
+3. The citizen of Rome was practical, patriotic, and faithful to
+obligation; he loved to be governed by inflexible law; and it was a
+fundamental principle with him that the individual should be
+subordinate to the state. His kings were either organizers, like Numa
+and Ancus-Marcius, or warriors like Romulus and Tullus Hostilius; they
+either made laws, like Servius, or they enforced them with the
+despotism of Tarquinius Superbus. It is difficult for us to conceive
+of such majestic power emanating from a territory so insignificant.
+
+4. We hardly realize that Latium did not comprise a territory quite
+fifty miles by one hundred in extent, and that it was but a hundred
+miles from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic. It was but a short walk
+from Rome to the territory of the Etruscans, and when Tarquin found an
+asylum at Cære, he did not separate himself by twenty miles from the
+scene of his tyranny. Ostia was scarcely more distant, and one might
+have ridden before the first meal of the day to Lavinium, or Alba, or
+Veii, or to Ardea, the ancient city of the Rutuli. It is important to
+keep these facts in mind as we read the story of the remarkable city.
+
+5. All towns were built on hills in these early days, for safety in
+case of war, as well as because the valleys were insalubrious, but
+this was not a peculiarity of the Romans, for in New England in the
+late ages of our own ancestors, they were obliged to follow the same
+custom. On the tops and slopes of seven hills, as they liked to remind
+themselves, the Romans built their city. They were not impressive
+elevations, though their sides were sharp and rocky, for the loftiest
+rose less than three hundred feet above the sea-level. Their summits
+were crowned with groves of beech trees and oaks, and in the lower
+lands grew osiers and other smaller varieties.
+
+[Illustration: _Ancient Roman Monument._]
+
+6. The earlier occupations of the Roman people were war and
+agriculture, or the pasturage of flocks and herds. They raised grapes
+and made wines; they cultivated the oil-olive, and knew the use of its
+fruit. They found copper in their soil, and made a pound of it their
+unit of value, but it was so cheap that ten thousand pounds of it were
+required to buy a war-horse, though cattle and sheep were much lower.
+They yoked their oxen and called the path they occupied a _jugerum_
+(_jugum_--a cross-beam or a yoke), and this in time came to be their
+familiar standard of square measure, containing about two-thirds of an
+acre. Two of these were assigned to a citizen, and seven were the
+narrow limit to which only one's landed possessions were for a long
+time allowed to extend. In time commerce was added to the pursuits of
+the men, and with it came fortunes and improved dwellings, and public
+buildings. Laziness and luxury were frowned upon by the early Romans.
+Mistress and maid worked together in the affairs of the household,
+like Lucretia and other noble women of whom history tells, and the man
+did not hesitate to hold the plow, as the example of Cincinnatus will
+show us. Time was precious, and thrift and economy were necessary to
+success. The father was the autocrat in the household, and exercised
+his power with stern rigidity.
+
+7. Art was backward, and came from abroad; of literature there was
+none, long after Greece had passed its period of heroic poetry. The
+dwellings of the citizens were low and insignificant, though, as time
+passed on, they became more massive and important. The vast public
+structures of the later kings were comparable to the taskwork of the
+builders of the Egyptian pyramids, and they still strike us with
+astonishment, and surprise.
+
+8. The religion of these strong conquerors was narrow, severe, and
+dreary. The early fathers worshiped native deities only. They
+recognized gods everywhere--in the home, in the grove, and on the
+mountain. They erected their altars on the hills; they had their lares
+and penates to watch over their hearth-stones, and their vestal
+virgins kept everlasting vigil near the never-dying fires in the
+temples. With the art of Greece that made itself felt through Etruria,
+came also the influence of the Grecian mythology, and Jupiter, Juno,
+and Minerva found a shrine on the top of the Capitoline, where the
+first statue of a deity was erected. The mysterious sibylline books
+are also a mark of the Grecian influence, coming from Cumæ, a colony
+of Magna Græcia.
+
+9. During the period we have considered, the city passed through five
+distinct stages of political organization. The government at first was
+an elective monarchy, the electors being a patriarchal aristocracy.
+After the invasion of the Sabines there was a union with that people,
+the sovereignty being held by rulers chosen from each, but it was not
+long before Rome became the head of a federal state. The Tarquins
+established a monarchy, which rapidly degenerated into an offensive
+tyranny, which aroused rebellion and at last led to the republic.
+
+10. During all these changes, the original aristocrats and their
+descendants held their position as the Populus Romanus, the Roman
+people, insisting that every one else must belong to an inferior order,
+and, as no body of men is willing to be condemned to a hopelessly
+subordinate position in a state, there was a perpetual antagonism
+between the patricians and the plebeians, between the aristocracy and
+the commonalty. This led to a temporary change under Servius Tullius,
+when property took the place of pedigree in establishing a man's rank
+and influence; but owing to the peculiar method of voting adopted, the
+power of the commons was not greatly increased. However, they had made
+their influence felt, and were encouraged.
+
+11. The overturning of the scheme by Tarquin favored a union of the
+two orders for the punishment of that tyrant, and they combined; but
+it was only for a time. When the danger had been removed, the tie was
+found broken and the antagonism rather increased, so that the
+subsequent history for five generations, though exceedingly
+interesting, is largely a record of the struggles of the commons for
+relief from the burdens laid upon them by the aristocrats.
+
+[Illustration: _Roman Private Life._]
+
+12. The father passed down to his son the story of the oppression of
+the patricians, and the son told the same sad narrative to his
+offspring. The mother mourned with her daughter over the sufferings
+brought upon them by the rich, for whom their poor father and brothers
+were obliged to fight the battles, while they were not allowed to
+share the spoil, nor to divide the lands gained by their own prowess.
+The struggle was not so much between patrician and plebeian as between
+the rich and the poor. It was intimately connected with the uses of
+money in those times. What could the rich Roman do with his
+accumulations? He might buy land or slaves, or he might become a
+lender; to a certain extent he could use his surplus in commerce; but
+of these its most remunerative employment was found in usury. As there
+were no laws regulating the rates of interest, they became exorbitant,
+and as it was customary to compound it, debts rapidly grew beyond the
+possibility of payment. As the rich made the laws they naturally
+exerted their ingenuity to frame them in such a way as to enable the
+lender to collect his dues with promptness and with little regard for
+the feelings or interests of the debtor.
+
+13. It is difficult, if not impossible, for us to form a proper
+conception of the magnitude of the wrongs involved in the system of
+money-lending at Rome during the period of the republic. The small
+farmers were ever needy, and came to their wealthy neighbors for
+accommodation loans. If these were not paid when due, the debtor was
+liable to be locked up in prison, to be sold into slavery, with his
+children, wife, and grandchildren; and the heartless law reads, that
+in case the estate should prove insufficient to satisfy all claims,
+the creditors were actually authorized to cut the body to pieces, that
+each Shylock might take the pound of flesh that he claimed.
+
+14. At last the severity of the lenders overreached itself. It was in
+the year 495 B. C., that a poor but brave debtor, one who had been at
+the very front in the wars, broke out of his prison, and while the
+wind flaunted his rags in the face of the populace, clanked his chains
+and told the story of his calamities so effectually in words of
+natural eloquence, that the commons were aroused to madness, and
+resolved at last to make a vigorous effort, and seek redress for their
+wrongs in a way that could not be resisted.
+
+15. The form of this man stands out forever on the pages of Roman
+history, as he entered the forum with all the badges of his misery
+upon him. His pale and emaciated body was but partially covered by his
+wretched tatters; his long hair played about his shoulders, and his
+glaring eyes and the grizzled beard hanging down before him added to
+his savage wildness. As he passed along he uncovered the scars of near
+two score battles that remained upon his breast, and explained to
+inquirers that while he had been serving in the Sabine war, his house
+had been pillaged and burned by the enemy; that when he had returned
+to enjoy the sweets of the peace he had helped to win, he had found
+that his cattle had been driven off, and a tax imposed.
+
+16. To meet the debts that thronged upon him and the interest by which
+they were aggravated, he had stripped himself of his ancestral farms.
+Finally, pestilence had overtaken him, and as he was not able to work,
+his creditor had placed him in a house of detention, the savage
+treatment in which was shown by the fresh stripes upon his bleeding back.
+
+17. At the moment a war was imminent, and the forum--the entire city,
+in fact--already excited, was filled with the uproar of the angry
+plebeians. Many confined for debt broke from their prison-houses and
+ran from all quarters into the crowds to claim protection. The majesty
+of the consuls was insufficient to preserve order, and while the
+discord was rapidly increasing horsemen rushed into the gates
+announcing that an enemy was actually upon them, marching to besiege
+the city. The plebeians saw that their opportunity had arrived, and
+when proud Appius Claudius called upon them to enroll their names for
+the war, they refused the summons, saying that the patricians might
+fight their own battles; that for themselves it was better to perish
+together at home rather than to go to the field and die separated.
+
+18. Threatened with war beyond the gates, and with riot at home, the
+patricians were forced to promise to redress the civil grievances. It
+was ordered that no one could seize or sell the goods of a soldier
+while he was in camp, or arrest his children, and that no one should
+detain a citizen in prison or in chains, so as to hinder him from
+enlisting in the army. When this was known, the released prisoners
+volunteered in numbers, and entered upon the war with enthusiasm. The
+legions were victorious, and when peace was declared, the plebeians
+anxiously looked for the ratification of the promises made to them.
+
+19. Their expectations were disappointed. They had, however, seen
+their power, and were determined to act upon their new knowledge.
+Without undue haste they protected their homes on the Aventine, and
+retreated the next year to a mountain across the Anio, about three
+miles from the city, to a spot which afterward held a place in the
+memories of the Romans similar to that which the green meadow on the
+Thames called Runnymede has held in British history since the June day
+when King John met his commons there, and gave them the great charter
+of their liberties.
+
+20. The plebeians said calmly that they would no longer be imposed
+upon; that not one of them would thereafter enlist for a war until the
+public faith was made good. They reiterated the declaration that the
+lords might fight their own battles, so that the perils of conflict
+should lie where its advantages were. When the situation of affairs
+was thoroughly understood, Rome was on fire with anxiety, and the
+enforced suspense filled the citizens with fear lest an external enemy
+should take the opportunity for a successful onset upon the city.
+
+21. Meanwhile the poor secessionists fortified their camp, but
+carefully refrained from actual war. The people left in the city
+feared the senators, and the senators in turn dreaded the citizens
+lest they should do them violence. It was a time of panic and
+suspense. After consultation, good counsels prevailed in the senate,
+and it was resolved to send an embassy to the despised and downtrodden
+plebeians, who now seemed to hold the balance of power, and to treat
+for peace, for there could be no security until the secessionists had
+returned to their homes.
+
+22. The spokesman on the occasion was Menenius Agrippa Lanatus who was
+popular with the people and had a reputation for eloquence. The
+address of this good man had its desired effect, and the people were
+at last willing to listen to a proposition for their return. It was
+settled that there should be a general release of all those who had
+been handed over to their creditors, and a cancelling of debts, and
+that two of the plebeians should be selected as their protectors, with
+power to veto objectionable laws, their persons being as inviolable at
+all times as were those of the sacred messengers of the gods. These
+demands, showing that the plebeians did not seek political power, were
+agreed to, the Valerian laws were reaffirmed, and a solemn treaty was
+concluded, each party swearing for itself and its posterity, with all
+the formality of representatives of foreign nations.
+
+23. The two leaders of the commons, Caius Licinius and Lucius Albinus,
+were elected the first tribunes of the people, as the new officers
+were called, with two ædiles to aid them. They were not to leave the
+city during their term of office, their doors being open night and
+day, that all who needed their protection might have access to them.
+The hill upon which this treaty had been concluded was ever after
+known as the Sacred Mount; its top was enclosed and consecrated, an
+altar being built upon it, on which sacrifices were offered to
+Jupiter, the god of terror and deliverance, who had allowed the
+commons to return home in safety, though they had gone out in
+trepidation. Henceforth the commons were to be protected; they were
+better fitted to share the honors as well as the benefits of their
+country, and the threatened dissolution of the nation was averted.
+
+            _Arthur Gilman, M. A. "The Story of Rome."_
+                      _Putnam's "Stories of the Nations Series."_
+
+
+
+
+_XXVIII.--CINCINNATUS._
+
+
+1. In the course of the early Roman wars, Minucius, one of the consuls
+suffered himself to be cut off from Rome, in a narrow valley of Mount
+Algidus, and it seemed as if hope of delivery there was none. However,
+five horsemen found means to escape and report at Rome the perilous
+condition of the consul and his army. Then the other consul consulted
+the senate, and it was agreed that the only man who could deliver the
+army was Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. He was thereupon named dictator,
+and deputies were sent to acquaint him with his high dignity.
+
+2. He was called Cincinnatus, because he wore his hair in long curling
+locks, _cincinni_, and, though he was a patrician he lived on his own
+small farm, like any plebeian yeoman. This farm was beyond the
+Tiber, and here he lived contentedly with his wife Racilia.
+
+3. Two years before he had been consul, and had been brought into
+great distress by the conduct of his son, Kæso. This Kæso was a Wild
+and insolent young man, who despised the plebeians and hated their
+tribunes. One Volscius Fictor alleged that he and his brother, an old
+and sickly man, had been attacked by Kæso and a party of young
+patricians by night, and that his brother had died of the treatment
+then received. The indignation of the people rose high; and Kæso was
+forced to go into exile. After this the young patricians became more
+insolent than ever, but they courted the poorest of the people, hoping
+to engage them on their side against the more respectable plebeians.
+
+4. Next year all Rome was alarmed by finding that the Capitol had been
+seized by an enemy during the night. This enemy was Appius Herdonius, a
+Sabine, and with him was associated a band of desperate men, exiles and
+runaway slaves. The first demand he made was that all Roman exiles
+should be restored. The consul, P. Valerius, collected a force and took
+the Capitol, but was killed in the assault, and Cincinnatus, father of
+the banished Kæso, was chosen to succeed him. When he heard the news of
+his elevation, he turned to his wife, and said: "I fear, Racilia, our
+little field must remain this year unsown." Then he assumed the robe of
+state, and went to Rome. It was believed that Kæso had been concerned in
+the desperate enterprise that had just been defeated. What had become of
+him was unknown; but that he was already dead was pretty certain; and
+his father was very bitter against the tribunes and their party, to whom
+he attributed his son's disgrace and death.
+
+5. P. Valerius, the consul, had persuaded the plebeians to join in the
+assault of the Capitol, by promising to gain them further privileges;
+this promise Cincinnatus refused to keep, and used all his power to
+frustrate the attempts of the tribunes to gain its fulfillment. At the
+end of his year of office, however, when the patricians wished to
+continue him in the consulship, he positively declined the offer, and
+returned to his rustic life as if he had never left it.
+
+6. It was two years after these events that the deputies of the
+senate, who came to invest him with the ensigns of dictatorial power,
+found him working on his little farm. He was clad in his tunic only,
+and as the deputies advanced they bade him put on his toga, that he
+might receive the commands of the senate in seemly guise. So he wiped
+off the dust and sweat, and bade his wife fetch his toga, and asked
+anxiously whether all was right or no. Then the deputies told him how
+the army was beset by the Æquian foe, and how the Senate looked to him
+as the savior of the state. A boat was provided to carry him over the
+Tiber; and when he reached the other bank, he was greeted by his
+family and friends, and the greater part of the senate, who followed
+him to the city, while he himself walked in state, with his four and
+twenty lictors.
+
+7. That same day the dictator and his master of horse came down into
+the forum, ordered all shops to be shut, and all business to be
+suspended. All men of the military age were to meet in the Field of
+Mars before sunset, each man with five days' provisions and twelve
+stakes; the older men were to get the provisions ready, while the
+soldiers were preparing the stakes. Thus all was got ready in time:
+the dictator led them forth; and they marched so rapidly, that by
+midnight they had reached Mount Algidus, where the army of the consul
+was hemmed in.
+
+8. Then the dictator, when he had discovered the place of the enemy's
+army, ordered his men to put all their baggage down in one place, and
+then to surround the enemy's camp. They obeyed, and each one raising a
+shout, began digging the trench and fixing his stakes, so as to form a
+palisade round the enemy. The consul's army, which was hemmed in,
+heard the shout of their brethren, and flew to arms; and so hotly did
+they fight all night, that the Æquians had no time to attend to the
+new foe, and next morning found themselves hemmed in on all sides by
+the trench and palisade, so that they were now between two Roman
+armies. They were thus forced to surrender. The dictator required them
+to give up their chiefs, and made their whole army pass under the
+yoke, which was formed by two spears fixed upright in the ground, and
+a third bound across them at the top.
+
+9. Cincinnatus returned to Rome amid the shouts and exultation of his
+soldiers: they gave him a golden crown, in token that he had saved the
+lives of many citizens; and the senate decreed that he should enter the
+city in triumph. So Cincinnatus accomplished the purpose for which he
+had been made dictator in twenty-four hours. One evening he marched
+forth to deliver the consul, and the next evening he returned
+victorious. But he would not lay down his high office till he had
+avenged his son. Accordingly, he summoned Volscius Fictor, the accuser,
+and had him tried for perjury. The man was condemned and banished; and
+then Cincinnatus once more returned to his wife and farm.
+
+                                                        _Liddell._
+
+
+
+
+_XXIX.--THE ROMAN FATHER._
+
+
+1. Among the most interesting of the early legends of Rome is that of
+Virginius, a soldier of the army belonging to the plebeian order.
+While performing his duty in the army which was encamped about twenty
+miles from Rome, his young daughter, Virginia, about fifteen years
+of age found her home with her near relatives in the city. Her beauty
+attracted the attention of Appius Claudius, one of the ten governors
+of Rome. With the view of getting possession of her person, he ordered
+one of his clients, M. Claudius by name, to lay hands upon her as she
+was going to her school in the Forum, and to claim her as his slave.
+The man did so; and when the cries of her nurse brought a crowd round
+them, M. Claudius insisted on taking her before the decemvir, in order
+(as he said) to have the case fairly tried. Her friends consented, and
+no sooner had Appius heard the matter, than he gave judgment that the
+maiden should be delivered up to the claimant, who should be bound to
+produce her in case her alleged father appeared to gainsay the claim.
+
+[Illustration: _The Seizure of Virginia._]
+
+2. Now this judgment was directly against one of the laws of the
+Twelve Tables, which Appius himself had framed: for therein it was
+provided, that any person being at freedom should continue free, till
+it was proved that such person was a slave. Icilius her betrothed,
+therefore, with Numitorius, the uncle of the maiden, boldly argued
+against the legality of the judgment; and at length, Appius, fearing a
+tumult, agreed to leave the girl in their hands, on condition of their
+giving bail to bring her before him next morning; and then, if
+Virginius did not appear, he would at once, he said, give her up to
+her pretended master.
+
+3. To this Icilius consented; but he delayed giving bail, pretending
+that he could not procure it readily, and in the mean time he sent off a
+secret message to the camp on Algidus to inform Virginius of what had
+happened. As soon as the bail was given, Appius also sent a message to
+the decemvirs in command of that army, ordering them to refuse leave of
+absence to Virginius. But when this last message arrived, Virginius was
+already half-way on his road to Rome; for the distance was not more
+than twenty miles, and he had started at nightfall.
+
+4. Next morning early, Virginius entered the forum leading his
+daughter by the hand, both clad in mean attire. A great number of
+friends and matrons attended him; and he went about among the people
+entreating them to support him against the tyranny of Appius. So, when
+Appius came to take his place on the judgment-seat, he found the forum
+full of people, all friendly to Virginius and his cause. But he
+inherited the boldness as well as the vices of his sires, and though
+he saw Virginius standing there, ready to prove that he was the
+maiden's father, he at once gave judgment against his own law, that
+Virginia should be given up to M. Claudius, till it should be proved
+that she was free. The wretch came up to seize her, and the lictors
+kept the people from him. Virginius now despairing of deliverance,
+begged Appius to allow him to ask the maiden whether she were indeed
+his daughter or no. "If," said he, "I find I am not her father, I
+shall bear her loss the lighter." Under this pretense, he drew her
+aside to a spot upon the northern side of the forum (afterward called
+the Novæ Tabernæ), and here, snatching up a knife from a butcher's
+stall, he cried: "In this way only can I keep thee free!" and, so
+saying, stabbed her to the heart.
+
+5. Then he turned to the tribunal, and said: "On thee, Appius, and on
+thy head be this blood." Appius cried out to sieze "the murderer"; but
+the crowd made way for Virginius, and he passed through them holding up
+the bloody knife, and went out at the gate, and made straight for the
+army. There, when the soldiers had heard his tale, they at once
+abandoned their decemviral generals, and marched to Rome. They were soon
+followed by the other army from the Sabine frontier; for to them
+Icilius had gone, and Numitorius; and they found willing ears among the
+men. So the two armies joined their banners, elected new generals, and
+encamped upon the Aventine hill, the quarter of the plebeians.
+
+6. Meantime, the people at home had risen against Appius; and after
+driving him from the forum, they joined their armed fellow citizens
+upon the Aventine. There the whole body of the commons, armed and
+unarmed, hung like a dark cloud ready to burst upon the city.
+
+                                                        _Liddell._
+
+
+VIRGINIUS.
+
+    1. When Appius Claudius saw that deed he shuddered and sank down,
+       And hid his face some little space with the corner of his gown,
+       Till with white lips and blood-shot eyes Virginius tottered nigh,
+       And stood before the judgment-seat, and held the knife on high.
+       "Oh! dwellers in the nether gloom, avengers of the slain,
+       By this dear blood, I cry to you, do right between us twain;
+       And even as Appius Claudius hath dealt with me and mine,
+       Deal you by Appius Claudius and all the Claudian line!"
+       So spake the slayer of his child, and turned, and went his way;
+       But first he cast one haggard glance to where the body lay,
+       And writhed, and groaned a fearful groan; and then with steadfast
+                 feet,
+       Strode right across the market-place into the sacred street.
+
+    2. Then up sprang Appius Claudius: "Stop him; alive or dead!
+       Ten thousand pounds of copper to the man who brings his head."
+       He looked upon his clients, but none would work his will.
+       He looked upon his lictors, but they trembled and stood still.
+       And as Virginius, through the press, his way in silence cleft,
+       Ever the mighty multitude fell back to right and left.
+       And he hath passed in safety unto his woful home,
+       And there ta'en horse to tell the camp what deeds are done in
+                 Rome.
+
+    3. By this the flood of people was swollen from every side,
+       And streets and porches round were filled with that o'erflowing
+                 tide,
+       And close around the body gathered a little train
+       Of them that were the nearest and dearest to the slain.
+       They brought a bier, and hung it with many a cypress crown,
+       And gently they uplifted her, and gently laid her down.
+       The face of Appius Claudius wore the Claudian scowl and sneer,
+       And in the Claudian note he cried, "What doth this rabble here?
+       Have they no crafts to mind at home, that hitherward they stray?
+       Ho! lictors, clear the market-place, and fetch the corpse away!"
+
+    4. Till then the voice of pity and fury was not loud,
+       But a deep, sullen murmur, wandered among the crowd.
+       Like the moaning noise that goes before the whirlwind on the deep,
+       Or the growl of a fierce watch-dog but half-aroused from sleep.
+       But when the lictors at that word, tall yeomen all, and strong,
+       Each with his axe and sheaf of twigs, went down into the throng,
+       Those old men say, who saw that day of sorrow and of sin,
+       That in the Roman Forum was never such a din.
+       The wailing, hooting, cursing, the howls of grief and hate,
+       Were heard beyond the Pincian hill, beyond the Latin gate.
+
+    5. But close around the body, where stood the little train
+       Of them that were the nearest and dearest to the slain,
+       No cries were there, but teeth set fast, low whispers, and black
+                 frowns,
+       And breaking up of benches, and girding up of gowns.
+       'Twas well the lictors might not pierce to where the maiden lay,
+       Else surely had they been all twelve torn limb from limb that day.
+       Right glad they were to struggle back, blood streaming from their
+                 heads,
+       With axes all in splinters, and raiment all in shreds.
+
+[Illustration: _The Dead Virginia._]
+
+    6. Then Appius Claudius gnawed his lip, and the blood left his cheek;
+       And thrice he beckoned with his hand, and thrice he strove to
+                 speak;
+       And thrice the tossing forum sent up a frightful yell--
+       "See, see, thou dog! what thou hast done; and hide thy shame in
+                 hell,
+       Thou that wouldst make our maidens slaves, must first make slaves
+                 of men.
+       Tribunes!--Hurrah for tribunes! Down with the wicked Ten!"
+       And straightway, thick as hailstones, came whizzing through the
+                 air
+       Pebbles, and bricks, and potsherds, all round the curule chair;
+       And upon Appius Claudius great fear and trembling came;
+       For never was a Claudius yet brave against aught but shame.
+
+    7. So now 'twas seen of Appius. When stones began to fly,
+       He shook, and crouched, and wrung his hands, and smote upon his
+                 thigh.
+       "Kind clients, honest lictors, stand by me in this fray!
+       Must I be torn to pieces? Home, home the nearest way."
+       While yet he spake, and looked around with a bewildered stare,
+       Four sturdy lictors put their necks beneath the curule chair;
+       And fourscore clients on the left, and fourscore on the right,
+       Arrayed themselves with swords and staves, and loins girt up for
+                 fight.
+
+    8. But, though without or staff or sword, so furious was the throng,
+       That scarce the train, with might and main, could bring their lord
+                 along.
+       Twelve times the crowd made at him; five times they seized his
+                 gown;
+       Small chance was his to rise again, if once they got him down:
+       And sharper came the pelting; and evermore the yell--
+       "Tribunes! we will have tribunes!" rose with a louder swell:
+       And the chair tossed as tosses a bark with tattered sail,
+       When raves the Adriatic beneath an eastern gale,
+       When the Calabrian sea-marks are lost in clouds of spume,
+       And the great Thunder-Cape has donned his veil of inky gloom.
+       One stone hit Appius in the mouth, and one beneath the ear;
+       And ere he reached Mount Palatine, he swooned with pain and fear.
+       His cursed head, that he was wont to hold so high with pride,
+       Now, like a drunken man's, hung down, and swayed from side to
+                 side;
+       And when his stout retainers had brought him to his door,
+       His neck and face were all one cake of filth and clotted gore.
+
+                                                      _Macaulay._
+
+
+
+
+_XXX.--ARCHIMEDES._
+
+
+1. This extraordinary man was a native of Syracuse, a city of Sicily. He
+was born two hundred and eighty-eight years before the Christian era,
+and from fifty to one hundred years after the appearance of the
+far-famed Euclid. Who his parents were, and what was their rank in life
+are not known, though it is claimed that he was in some way related to
+Hiero the king of Syracuse. It is said that Hiero considered himself
+greatly honored by such a relation, and well he might be, for science
+and genius combined are much higher than royalty. Besides it is probable
+that the name of the monarch would never have been preserved except in
+connection with the great philosopher.
+
+2. By whom he was instructed in the elements of education, history
+fails to inform us, but it tells us of the progress he made in
+mechanics and geometry, and for the sake of the quiet necessary to
+pursue these branches he gave up all the advantages of a political
+life derived from his connection with the king. His favorite studies
+had more charms for him than the glitter of events or the plunder of
+conquered cities.
+
+3. After studying at home until he could learn nothing more in the
+city of his birth, he repaired to Alexandria in Egypt, at that time
+the educational center that had inherited the philosophy and culture
+of Athens. Here he studied for some years and became acquainted with
+the most distinguished scholars of his day. Among his most intimate
+friends was Conon, a famous mathematician from Samos, who often
+exchanged problems with him for solution. While staying at Alexandria
+he began his work of practical invention which he afterward turned to
+such good account.
+
+[Illustration: _Archimedes._]
+
+4. Some of his ardent admirers have maintained that Archimedes
+taught the Egyptians more than they taught him; that while he imbibed
+philosophy and book learning, he more than repaid the New Athens by
+inventions which were of the greatest use in the ordinary work of the
+home and the shop. Although we do not know exactly what he turned his
+hand to, we are quite sure that in many ways he performed feats that
+have scarcely been surpassed in modern times.
+
+5. After his return to his native city, Archimedes continued his
+studies with unabated vigor, often neglecting his food and the care of
+his person when a new problem was to be solved or a new invention
+perfected. The method of determining the relative amount of gold and
+base metal in Hiero's crown occurred to him while in his bath, and
+without stopping to put on his clothes, he is said to have rushed
+through the streets exclaiming "_Eureka!_ Eureka!"
+
+6. To prevent the ruin of his health his servants were sometimes
+obliged to take him by main force to the table and bath, and to take
+his daily exercise. Hiero at one time expressed an admiration of some
+of his inventions when Archimedes replied that had he a place to fix
+his machines upon he could move the earth itself. His days were passed
+in study and retirement until the safety of his native city called him
+out to take part in its defense.
+
+7. During the wars between the Romans and Carthaginians, the people of
+Sicily, and especially the Syracusans, had for a long time remained
+neutral or been in alliance with the Romans. But a Carthaginian
+interest sprung up which mastered and sought to extend itself over the
+whole island. As soon as the news of this political movement and
+rebellion reached Marcellus, the Roman general, he hastened with a
+strong force into Sicily, and after the capture of the principalities
+he laid siege to Syracuse.
+
+8. Here he met with an unexpected check. The inventive genius of
+Archimedes enabled the Syracusans to successfully defend their city
+for three years. He so improved the warlike instruments for the
+discharge of missiles, that he repeatedly beat back the most
+determined assault, and the Romans were more than once on the point of
+abandoning the siege, believing that the city was defended by the
+gods. By means of long and powerful levers, together with grappling
+irons, he is said to have destroyed many of the Roman galleys when
+they approached the walls of the city; and when they retired for
+safety he set them on fire by a combination of immense burning-glasses.
+
+9. The story of these exploits is told by the Romans themselves, and
+there can be no doubt but here Science gained one of her greatest
+triumphs. The success of the new engine was evidently so great, that
+an element of superstition entered into the record. But the triumph of
+genius was not complete. During a festival in honor of Diana when wine
+flowed freely, the guards neglected to man some particular part of the
+walls. The Romans observing this scaled the walls and made themselves
+masters of the city.
+
+10. Amid the plunder and carnage which followed, Archimedes was killed.
+Marcellus had given orders for his special protection, but the deed was
+done by a Roman soldier. One account says that he was slain in his
+laboratory where he was found studying a problem, and he refused to move
+until he had completed the solution. Another account says that he was
+put to death on the street while drawing a geometrical figure in the
+sand. The third and most rational account is that while bearing some
+boxes of mathematical instruments to Marcellus he was killed by a
+soldier who supposed that the boxes contained treasure. His death
+happened about 210 B. C. at the age of seventy-six.
+
+
+
+
+_XXXI.--THE DEATH OF CÆSAR._
+
+[Illustration: _Cæsar (enlarged from a Roman Coin)._]
+
+
+1. The greatest of Rome's generals, and one of the greatest of
+military chieftains of all ages, was Julius Cæsar. Of a patrician
+family, he was one of the most accomplished men of Rome. He was great
+in civil as well as military life. He became the most popular of the
+greatest men of Rome's most brilliant days. His military feats rivaled
+those of Alexander, and he extended the rule of Rome through all
+central Europe, completely subduing all of the tribes with which he
+came in contact. From his northern victories he turned his victorious
+army south, crossed the Rubicon, which marked the border of his own
+province, and seized the control of Rome.
+
+2. In the management of civil affairs he was as successful as in the
+field. He corrected abuses that had crept into the political management
+of affairs, and placed new safeguards around the rights of the people.
+
+3. His administration was almost as brilliant as that of Pericles in
+Athens; yet the principal nobles did not love him, and with the people
+at large he suffered still more, from a belief that he wished to be
+made king. On his return from Spain he had been named dictator and
+imperator for life. His head had for some time been placed on the
+money of the republic, a regal honor conceded to none before him.
+Quintilis, the fifth month of the old calendar, received from him the
+name which it still bears. The senate took an oath to guard the safety
+of his person.
+
+4. He was honored with sacrifices, and honors hitherto reserved for
+the gods. But Cæsar was not satisfied. He was often heard to quote the
+sentiment of Euripides, that, "if any violation of law is excusable,
+it is excusable for the sake of gaining sovereign power." It was no
+doubt to ascertain the popular sentiments that various propositions
+were made toward an assumption of the title of king. His statues in
+the forum were found crowned with a diadem; but two of the tribunes
+tore it off, and the mob applauded.
+
+5. On the 26th of January, at the great Latin festival on the Alban
+Mount, voices in the crowd saluted him as king; but mutterings of
+discontent reached his ears, and he promptly said; "I am no king, but
+Cæsar." The final attempt was made at the Lupercalia on the 15th of
+February. Antony, in the character of one of the priests of Pan,
+approached the dictator as he sat presiding in his golden chair, and
+offered him an embroidered band, like the diadem of Oriental
+sovereigns. The applause which followed was partial, and the dictator
+put the offered gift aside. Then a burst of genuine cheering greeted
+him, which waxed louder still when he rejected it a second time. Old
+traditional feeling was too strong at Rome even for Cæsar's daring
+temper to brave it. The people would submit to the despotic rule of a
+dictator, but would not have a king.
+
+6. Other causes of discontent had been agitating various classes at
+Rome. The more fiery partisans of Cæsar disapproved of his clemency;
+the more prodigal sort were angry at his regulations for securing the
+provincials from oppression. The populace of the city complained--the
+genuine Romans, at seeing favor extended to provincials, those of
+foreign origin because they had been excluded from the corn bounty.
+Cæsar, no doubt, was eager to return to his army, and escape from the
+increasing difficulties which beset his civil government. But as soon
+as he joined the army, he would assume monarchical power in virtue of
+the late decree; and this consideration urged the discontented to a
+plot against his life.
+
+7. The difficulty was to find a leader. At length Marcus Junius Brutus
+accepted the post of danger. This young man, a nephew of Cato, had
+taken his uncle as an example for his public life. But he was fonder
+of speculation than of action. His habits were reserved, rather those
+of a student than a statesman. He had reluctantly joined the cause of
+Pompey, for he could ill forget that it was by Pompey that his father
+had been put to death in cold blood. After the battle of Pharsalia he
+was treated by Cæsar almost like a son. In the present year he had
+been proclaimed prætor of the city, with the promise of the
+consulship. But the discontented remnants of the senatorial party
+assailed him with constant reproaches. The name of Brutus, dear to all
+Roman patriots, was made a rebuke to him. "His ancestors expelled
+the Tarquins; could he sit quietly under a king's rule?" At the foot
+of the statue of that ancestor, or on his own prætorian tribunal,
+notes were placed, containing phrases such as these: "Thou art not
+Brutus: would thou wert." "Brutus, thou sleepest." "Awake, Brutus."
+Gradually he was brought to think that it was his duty as a patriot to
+put an end to Cæsar's rule even by taking his life.
+
+8. The most notable of those who arrayed themselves under him was
+Cassius. This man's motive is unknown. He had never taken much part in
+politics; he had made submission to the conquerer, and had been
+received with marked favor. Some personal reason probably actuated his
+unquiet spirit. More than sixty persons were in the secret, most of
+them, like Brutus and Cassius, under personal obligations to the
+dictator. Publius Servilius Casca was by his grace tribune of the
+plebs. Lucius Tullius Cimber was promised the government of Bithynia.
+Decius Brutus, one of his old Gallic officers, was prætor elect, and
+was to be gratified with the rich province of Cisalpine Gaul. Caius
+Trebonius, another trusted officer, had received every favor which the
+dictator could bestow; he had just laid down the consulship, and was
+on the eve of departure for the government of Asia. Quintius Ligarius
+had lately accepted a pardon from the dictator, and rose from a sick
+bed to join the conspirators.
+
+9. A meeting of the senate was called for the Ides of March, at which
+Cæsar was to be present. This was the day appointed for the murder.
+The secret had oozed out. Many persons warned Cæsar that some danger
+was impending. A Greek soothsayer told him of the very day. On the
+morning of the Ides his wife arose so disturbed by dreams, that she
+persuaded him to relinquish his purpose of presiding in the senate,
+and he sent Antony in his stead.
+
+10. This change of purpose was reported after the House was formed.
+The conspirators were in despair. Decius Brutus at once went to Cæsar,
+told him that the Fathers were only waiting to confer upon him the
+sovereign power which he desired, and begged him not to listen to
+auguries and dreams. Cæsar was persuaded to change his purpose, and
+was carried forth in his litter. On his way, a slave who had
+discovered the conspiracy tried to attract his notice, but was unable
+to reach him for the crowd. A Greek philosopher, named Artemidorus,
+succeeded in putting a roll of paper into his hand, containing full
+information of the conspiracy; but Cæsar, supposing it to be a
+petition, laid it by his side for a more convenient season. Meanwhile,
+the conspirators had reason to think that their plot had been
+discovered. A friend came up to Casca and said, "Ah, Casca, Brutus has
+told me your secret!" The conspirator started, but was relieved by the
+next sentence: "Where will _you_ find money for the expenses of the
+ædileship?" More serious alarm was felt when Popillius Lænas remarked
+to Brutus and Cassius: "You have my good wishes; but what you do, do
+quickly"--especially when the same senator stepped up to Cæsar on his
+entering the house, and began whispering in his ear. So terrified was
+Cassius, that he thought of stabbing himself instead of Cæsar, till
+Brutus quietly observed, that the gestures of Popillius indicated that
+he was asking a favor, not revealing a fatal secret. Cæsar took his
+seat without further delay.
+
+[Illustration: _Antony delivering the Oration on the Death of Cæsar._]
+
+11. As was agreed, Cimber presented a petition praying for his
+brother's recall from banishment; and all the conspirators pressed
+round the dictator, urging his favorable answer. Displeased at their
+importunity, Cæsar attempted to rise. At that moment Cimber seized the
+lappet of his robe, and pulled him down; and immediately Casca
+struck him from the side, but inflicted only a slight wound. Then all
+drew their daggers and assailed him. Cæsar for a time defended himself
+with the gown folded over his left arm, and the sharp-pointed style
+which he held in his right hand for writing on the wax of his tablets.
+But when he saw Brutus among the assassins, he exclaimed, "You, too,
+Brutus!" and covering his face with his gown, offered no further
+resistance. In their eagerness, some blows intended for their victim
+fell upon themselves. But enough reached Cæsar to do the bloody work.
+Pierced by twenty-three wounds, he fell at the base of Pompey's
+statue, which had been removed after Pharsalia by Antony, but had been
+restored by the magnanimity of Cæsar.
+
+12. Thus died "the foremost man of all the world," a man who failed in
+nothing that he attempted. He might, Cicero thought, have been a great
+orator; his "Commentaries" remain to prove that he was a great writer.
+As a general he had few superiors, as a statesman and politician no
+equal. That which stamps him as a man of true greatness, is the entire
+absence of vanity and self-conceit from his character. He paid,
+indeed, great attention to his personal appearance, even when his hard
+life and unremitting activity had brought on fits of an epileptic
+nature, and left him with that meager visage which is familiar to us
+from his coins. Even then he was sedulous in arranging his robes, and
+was pleased to have the privilege of wearing a laurel crown to hide
+the scantiness of his hair. But these were foibles too trifling to be
+taken as symptoms of real vanity. His successes in war, achieved by a
+man who in his forty-ninth year had hardly seen a camp, add to our
+conviction of his real genius. These successes were due not so much to
+scientific manœuvres, as to rapid audacity of movement, and mastery
+over the wills of men.
+
+13. The effect of Cæsar's fall was to cause a renewal of bloodshed for
+another half generation; and then his work was finished by a far less
+general ruler. Those who slew Cæsar were guilty of a great crime, and
+a still greater blunder.
+
+                                                        _Liddell._
+
+
+
+
+_XXXII.--HOW ROMANS LIVED._
+
+
+1. The Roman house at first was extremely simple, being of but one
+room, called the _atrium_ or darkened chamber, because its walls were
+stained by the smoke that rose from the fire upon the hearth, and with
+difficulty found its way through a hole in the roof. The aperture also
+admitted light and rain, the water that dripped from the roof being
+caught in a cistern that was formed in the middle of the room. The
+atrium was entered by way of a vestibule open to the sky, in which the
+gentleman of the house put on his toga as he went out. Double doors
+admitted the visitor to the entrance-hall, or _ostium_.
+
+2. There was a threshold upon which it was unlucky to place the left
+foot; a knocker afforded means of announcing one's approach, and a
+porter, who had a small room at the side, opened the door, showing the
+caller the words _Cave canem_ (beware of the dog), or _Salve_
+(welcome), or perchance the dog himself reached out toward the visitor
+as far as his chain would allow. Sometimes, too, there would be
+noticed in the mosaic of the pavement the representation of the
+faithful domestic animal which has so long been the companion as well
+as the protector of his human friend. Perhaps myrtle or laurel might
+be seen on a door, indicating that a marriage was in process of
+celebration, or a chaplet announcing the happy birth of an heir.
+Cypress, probably set in pots in the vestibule, indicated a death, as
+a crape festoon does upon our own door-handles, while torches, lamps,
+wreaths, garlands, branches of trees, showed that there was joy from
+some cause in the house.
+
+3. In the "black room" the bed stood; there the meals were cooked and
+eaten, there the goodman received his friends, and there the goodwife
+sat in the midst of her maidens spinning. The original house grew
+larger in the course of time: wings were built on the sides--and the
+Romans called them wings as well as we (_ala_, a wing). Beyond the
+black room a recess was built in which the family records and archives
+were preserved, but with it for a long period the Roman house stopped
+its growth.
+
+4. Before the empire came, however, there had been great progress in
+making the dwelling convenient as well as luxurious. Another hall had
+been built out from the room of archives, leading to an open court,
+surrounded by columns, known as the _peristylum_ (_peri_, about,
+_stulos_, a pillar), which was sometimes of great magnificence.
+Bedchambers were made separate from the atrium, but they were small,
+and would not seem very convenient to modern eyes.
+
+5. The dining-room, called the _triclinium_ (Greek, _kline_, a bed)
+from its three couches, was a very important apartment. In it were
+three lounges surrounding a table, on each of which three guests might
+be accommodated. The couches were elevated above the table, and each
+man lay almost flat on his breast, resting on his left elbow, and
+having his right hand free to use, thus putting the head of one near
+the breast of the man behind him, and making natural the expression
+that he lay in the bosom of the other. As the guests were thus
+arranged by threes, it was natural that the rule should have been
+made that a party at dinner should not be less in number than the
+Graces, nor more than the Muses, though it has remained a useful one
+ever since.
+
+6. Before the republic came to an end, it was so fashionable to have a
+book-room that ignorant persons who might not be able to read even the
+titles of their own books endeavored to give themselves the appearance
+of erudition by building book-rooms in their houses, and furnishing
+them with elegance. The books were in cases arranged around the walls
+in convenient manner, and busts and statues of the Muses, of Minerva,
+and of men of note were used then as they are now for ornaments.
+House-philosophers were often employed to open to the uninstructed the
+stores of wisdom contained in the libraries.
+
+[Illustration: _Interior of a Roman Bath-Room, Ruins of Pompeii._]
+
+7. As wealth and luxury increased, the Romans added the bath-room to
+their other apartments. In the early ages they had bathed for comfort
+and cleanliness once a week, but the warm bath was apparently unknown
+to them. In time this became very common, and in the days of Cicero
+there were hot and cold baths, both public and private, which were
+well patronized. Some were heated by fires in flues, directly under
+the floors, which produced a vapor-bath. The bath was, however,
+considered a luxury, and at a later date it was held a capital offense
+to indulge in one on a religious holiday, and the public baths were
+closed when any misfortune happened to the republic.
+
+
+8. Comfort and convenience united to take the cooking out of the
+atrium into a separate apartment known as the _culina_, or kitchen, in
+which was a raised platform on which coals might be burned, and the
+processes of broiling, boiling, and roasting might be carried on in a
+primitive manner, much like the arrangement still to be seen at Rome.
+On the tops of the houses, after a while, terraces were planned for
+the purpose of basking in the sun, and sometimes they were furnished
+with shrubs, fruit-trees, and even fish-ponds. Often there were upward
+of fifty rooms in a house on a single floor; but in the course of time
+land became so valuable that other stories were added, and many lived
+in flats. A flat was sometimes called an _insula_, which meant,
+properly, a house not joined to another, and afterward was applied to
+hired lodgings. _Domus_, a house, meant a dwelling occupied by one
+family, whether it were an _insula_ or not.
+
+[Illustration: _Lares and Penates._]
+
+9. The floors of these rooms were sometimes, but not often, laid with
+boards, and generally were formed of stones, tiles, bricks, or some
+sort of cement. In the richer dwellings they were often inlaid with
+mosaics of elegant patterns. The walls were often faced with marble,
+but they were usually adorned with paintings; the ceilings were left
+uncovered, the beams supporting the floor or the roof above being
+visible, though it was frequently arched over. The means of lighting
+either by day or night, were defective. The atrium was, as we have
+seen, lighted from above, and the same was true of other apartments,
+those at the side being illuminated from the larger ones in the
+middle of the house. There were windows, however, in the upper
+stories, though they were not protected by glass, but covered with
+shutters or lattice-work, and, at a later period, were glazed with
+sheets of mica. Smoking lamps, hanging from the ceiling or supported
+by candelabra, or candles gave a gloomy light by night in the houses,
+and torches without.
+
+10. The sun was chiefly depended upon for heat, for there were no
+proper stoves, though braziers were used to burn coals upon, the smoke
+escaping through the aperture in the ceiling, and, in rare cases,
+hot-air furnaces were constructed below, the heat being conveyed to
+the upper rooms through pipes. There has been a dispute regarding
+chimneys, but it seems almost certain that the Romans had none in
+their dwellings, and indeed, there was little need of them for
+purposes of artificial warmth in so moderate a climate as theirs.
+
+11. Such were some of the chief traits of the city-houses of the
+Romans. Besides these there were villas in the country, some of which
+were simply farm-houses, and others places of rest and luxury
+supported by the residents of cities. The farm-villa was placed, if
+possible, in a spot secluded from visitors, protected from the
+severest winds, and from the malaria of marshes, in a well-watered
+place, near the foot of a well-wooded mountain. It had accommodations
+for the kitchen, the wine-press, the farm superintendent, the slaves,
+the animals, the crops, and the other products of the farm. There were
+baths, and cellars for the wine and for the confinement of the slaves
+who might have to be chained.
+
+[Illustration: _Roman Villa._]
+
+12. Varro thus describes life at a rural household: "Manius summons
+his people to rise with the sun, and in person conducts them to the
+scene of their daily work. The youths make their own bed, which labor
+renders soft to them, and supply themselves with water-pot, and lamp.
+Their drink is the clear fresh spring; their fare bread, with onions
+as a relish. Everything prospers in house and field. The house is no
+work of art, but an architect might learn symmetry from it. Care is
+taken of the field that it shall not be left disorderly, and waste or
+go to ruin through slovenliness or neglect; and in return, grateful
+Ceres wards off damage from the produce, that the high-piled sheaves
+may gladden the heart of the husbandman. Here hospitality still holds
+good, the bread-pantry, the wine-vat, and the store of sausages on the
+rafter, lock and key are at the service of the traveler, and piles of
+food are set before him; contented, the sated guest sits, looking
+neither before him, nor behind, dozing by the hearth in the kitchen.
+The warmest double wool sheepskin is spread as a couch for him. Here
+people still, as good burgesses, obey the righteous law which neither
+out of envy injures the innocent, nor out of favor pardons the guilty.
+Here they speak no evil against their neighbors. Here they trespass
+not with their feet on the sacred hearth, but honor the gods with
+devotion and with sacrifices; throw to the familiar spirit his little
+bit of flesh into his appointed little dish, and when the master of
+the household dies accompany the bier with the same prayer with which
+those of his father and of his grandfather were borne forth."
+
+            _Arthur Gilman, M. A. "The Story of Rome."_
+                      _Putnam's "Stories of the Nations Series."_
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+MEDIÆVAL RECORD.
+
+
+
+
+_XXXIII.--CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH._
+
+
+1. Some time before Gregory became Pope, perhaps about the year 574,
+he went one day through the market at Rome, where, among other things,
+there were still men, women, and children to be sold as slaves. He saw
+there some beautiful boys who had just been brought by a
+slave-merchant, boys with a fair skin and long fair hair, as English
+boys then would have.
+
+2. He was told that they were heathen boys from the Isle of Britain.
+Gregory was sorry to think that forms which were so fair without
+should have no light within, and he asked again what was the name of
+their nation. "_Angles_," he was told. "_Angles_," said Gregory; "they
+have the faces of _angels_, and they ought to be made fellow-heirs of
+the angels in heaven. But of what province or tribe of the Angles are
+they?" "Of _Deira_," said the merchant. "_De ira!_" said Gregory;
+"then they must be delivered from the wrath of God. And what is the
+name of their king?" "_Ælla._" "_Ælla_; then _Alleluia_ shall be sung
+in his land."
+
+3. Gregory then went to the Pope, and asked him to send missionaries
+into Britain, of whom he himself would be one, to convert the English.
+The Pope was willing, but the people of Rome, among whom Gregory was a
+priest and was much beloved, would not let him go. So nothing came of
+the matter for some time.
+
+4. We do not know whether Gregory was able to do anything for the poor
+English boys whom he saw in the market, but he certainly never forgot
+his plan for converting the English people. After a while he became
+Pope himself. Of course, he now no longer thought of going into
+Britain himself, as he had enough to do in Rome. But he now had power
+to send others. He therefore presently sent a company of monks, with
+one called Augustine at their head, who became the first Archbishop of
+Canterbury, and is called the Apostle of the English.
+
+5. This was in 597. The most powerful king in Britain at this time was
+Æthelbert, of Kent, who is said to have been lord over all the kings
+south of the Humber. This Æthelbert had done what was very seldom done
+by English kings then or for a long time after; he had married a
+foreign wife, the daughter of Chariberth, one of the kings of the
+Franks, in Gaul.
+
+6. Now, the Franks had become Christians; so when the Frankish queen
+came over to Kent, Æthelbert promised that she should be allowed to
+keep to her own religion without let or hindrance. She brought with
+her, therefore, a Frankish bishop named Lindhard, and the queen and
+her bishop used to worship God in a little church near Canterbury,
+called Saint Martin's, which had been built in the Roman times. So you
+see that both Æthelbert and his people must have known something
+about the Christian faith before Augustine came.
+
+7. It does not, however, seem that either the king or any of his
+people had at all thought of turning Christians. This seems strange
+when one reads how easily they were converted afterward. One would
+have thought that Bishop Lindhard would have been more likely to
+convert them than Augustine, for, being a Frank, he would speak a
+tongue not very different from English, while Augustine spoke Latin,
+and, if he ever knew English at all, he must have learned it after he
+came into the island. I can not tell you for certain why this was.
+Perhaps they did not think that a man who had merely come in the
+queen's train was so well worth listening to as one who had come on
+purpose all the way from the great city of Rome, to which all the West
+still looked up as the capital of the world.
+
+8. So Augustine and his companions set out from Rome, and passed
+through Gaul, and came into Britain, even as Cæsar had done ages
+before. But this time Rome had sent forth men not to conquer lands,
+but to win souls. They landed first in the Isle of Thanet, which joins
+close to the east part of Kent, and thence they sent a message to King
+Æthelbert, saying why they had come into his land. The king sent word
+back to them to stay in the isle till he had fully made up his mind
+how to treat them; and he gave orders that they should be well taken
+care of meanwhile.
+
+9. After a little while he came himself into the isle, and bade them
+come and tell him what they had to say. He met them in the open air,
+for he would not meet them in a house, as he thought they might be
+wizards, and that they might use some charm or spell, which he thought
+would have less power out-of-doors. So they came, carrying an image
+of our Lord on the cross, wrought in silver, and singing litanies as
+they came. And when they came before the king, they preached the
+gospel to him and to those who were with him.
+
+10. So King Æthelbert hearkened to them, and he made answer like a
+good and wise man. "Your words and promises," said he, "sound very
+good unto me; but they are new and strange, and I can not believe them
+all at once, nor can I leave all that I and my fathers, and the whole
+English folk, have believed so long. But I see that ye have come from
+a far country to tell us that which ye yourselves hold for truth; so
+ye may stay in the land, and I will give you a house to dwell in and
+food to eat; and ye may preach to my folk, and if any man of them will
+believe as ye believe, I hinder him not."
+
+11. So he gave them a house to dwell in in the royal city of
+Canterbury, and he let them preach to the people. And, as they drew
+near to the city, they carried their silver image of the Lord Jesus,
+and sang litanies, saying, "We pray Thee, O Lord, let thy anger and
+thy wrath be turned away from this city, and from thy holy house,
+because we have sinned. Alleluia!"
+
+12. Thus Augustine and his companions dwelt at Canterbury, and
+worshiped in the old church where the queen worshiped, and preached to
+the men of the land. And many men hearkened to them and were baptized,
+and before long King Æthelbert himself believed and was baptized; and
+before the year was out there were added to the Church more than ten
+thousand souls.
+
+                                                        _Freeman._
+
+
+
+
+_XXXIV.--LEO THE SLAVE._
+
+
+1. In A. D. 533, the Franks had fully gained possession of all the
+north of Gaul, except Brittany. Clovis had made them Christians in
+name, but they still remained horribly savage, and the life of the
+Gauls under them was wretched. The Burgundians and Visigoths, who had
+peopled the southern and eastern provinces, were far from being
+equally violent. They had entered on their settlements on friendly
+terms, and even showed considerable respect for the Roman-Gallic
+senators, magistrates, and higher clergy, who all remained unmolested
+in their dignity and riches. Thus it was that Gregory, Bishop of
+Langres, was a man of high rank and consideration in the Burgundian
+kingdom, whence the Christian Queen Clotilda had come; and even after
+the Burgundians had been subdued by the four sons of Clovis, he
+continued a rich and prosperous man.
+
+2. After one of the many quarrels and reconciliations between these
+fierce brethren, there was an exchange of hostages for the observance
+of the terms of the treaty. These were not taken from among the
+Franks, who were too proud to submit to captivity, but from among the
+Gaulish nobles, a much more convenient arrangement for the Frankish
+kings, who cared for the life of a "Roman" infinitely less than even
+for the life of a Frank. Thus many young men of senatorial families
+were exchanged between the domains of Theodoric to the south, and of
+Hildebert to the northward, and quartered among Frankish chiefs, with
+whom at first they had nothing more to endure than the discomfort of
+living as guests with such rude and coarse barbarians.
+
+3. But ere long fresh quarrels arose between Theodoric and Hildebert,
+and the unfortunate hostages were at once turned into slaves. Some of
+them ran away, if they were near the frontier; but Bishop Gregory was
+in the utmost anxiety about his nephew Attalus, who had been last
+heard of as being placed under the charge of a Frank who lived between
+Trèves and Metz. The bishop sent emissaries to make secret inquiries,
+and they brought back the word that the unfortunate youth had been
+reduced to slavery, and was made to keep his master's herds of horses.
+Upon this the uncle again sent off his messengers with presents for
+the ransom of Attalus; but the Frank rejected them, saying, "One of
+such high race can only be redeemed for ten pounds weight of gold."
+
+4. This was beyond the bishop's means, and, while he was considering
+how to raise the sum, the slaves were all lamenting for their young
+lord, to whom they were much attached, till one of them, named Leo,
+the cook to the household, came to the bishop, saying to him, "If thou
+wilt give me leave to go, I will deliver him from captivity." The
+bishop replied that he gave free permission, and the slave set off for
+Trèves, and there watched anxiously for an opportunity of gaining
+access to Attalus; but, though the poor young man, no longer daintily
+dressed, bathed, and perfumed, but ragged and squalid, might be seen
+following his herds of horses, he was too well watched for any
+communication to be held with him.
+
+5. Then Leo went to a person, probably of Gallic birth, and said:
+"Come with me to this barbarian's house, and there sell me for a
+slave. Thou shalt have the money; I only ask thee to help me thus
+far." Both repaired to the Frank's abode, the chief among a confused
+collection of clay and timber huts, intended for shelter during eating
+and sleeping. The Frank looked at the slave, and asked him what he
+could do. "I can dress whatever is eaten at lordly tables," replied
+Leo. "I am afraid of no rival; I only tell thee the truth when I say
+that, if thou wouldst give a feast to the king, I could send it up in
+the neatest manner." "Ha!" said the barbarian, "the Sun's day is
+coming. I shall invite my kinsmen and friends. Cook me such a dinner
+as may amaze them, and make them say, 'We saw nothing better in the
+king's house.'" "Let me have plenty of poultry, and I will do
+according to my master's bidding," returned Leo.
+
+6. Accordingly, he was purchased for twelve gold-pieces, and on the
+Sunday, as Bishop Gregory of Tours, who tells the story, explains,
+that the barbarians called the Lord's day, he produced a banquet after
+the most approved Roman fashion, much to the surprise and delight of
+the Franks, who had never tasted such delicacies before, and
+complimented their host upon them all the evening. Leo gradually
+became a great favorite, and was placed in authority over the other
+slaves, to whom he gave out their portions of broth and meat. But from
+the first he had not shown any recognition of Attalus, and had signed
+to him that they must be strangers to one another.
+
+7. A whole year passed away in this manner, when one day Leo wandered,
+as if for pastime, into the plain where Attalus was watching the
+horses, and sitting down on the ground at some paces off, and with his
+back toward his young master so that they might not be seen talking
+together, he said: "This is the time for thoughts of home! When thou
+hast led the horses to the stable to-night, sleep not. Be ready at the
+first call!"
+
+8. That day the Frank lord was entertaining a large number of guests,
+among them his daughter's husband, a jovial young man, given to jesting.
+On going to rest he fancied he should be thirsty at night, and called
+Leo to place a pitcher of hydromel by his bedside. As the slave was
+setting it down, the Frank looked slyly from under his eyelids and said
+in joke, "Tell me, my father-in-law's trusty man, wilt thou not some
+night take one of his horses and run away to thine own home?"
+
+9. "Please God, it is what I mean to do this very night," answered the
+Gaul, so undauntedly that the Frank took it as a jest, and answered,
+"I shall look out, then, that thou dost not carry off anything of
+mine," and then Leo left him, both laughing.
+
+10. All were soon asleep, and the cook crept out to the stable, where
+Attalus usually slept among the horses. He was broad awake now, and
+ready to saddle the two swiftest; but he had no weapon, except a small
+lance, so Leo boldly went back to his master's sleeping hut, and took
+down his sword and shield, but not without awakening him enough to ask
+who was moving. "It is I, Leo," was the answer; "I have been to call
+Attalus to take out the horses early. He sleeps as hard as a
+drunkard." The Frank went to sleep again, quite satisfied, and Leo,
+carrying out the weapons, soon made Attalus feel like a free man and a
+noble once more.
+
+11. They passed unseen out of the inclosure, mounted their horses and
+rode along the great Roman road from Trèves as far as the Meuse, but
+they found the bridge guarded, and were obliged to wait till night,
+when they cast their horses loose, and swam the river, supporting
+themselves on boards that they had found on the bank. They had as yet
+had no food since the supper at their master's, and were thankful to
+find a plum-tree in the wood, with fruit, to refresh them in small
+degree, before they lay down for the night. The next morning they went
+on in the direction of Rheims, carefully listening whether there were
+any sounds behind, until, on the broad, hard-paved causeway, they
+heard the trampling of horses. Happily a bush was near, behind which
+they crept, and here the riders actually halted for a few moments to
+arrange their harness. Men and horses were both those they feared, and
+they trembled at hearing one say: "Woe is me that those rogues have
+made off, and have not been caught! On my salvation, if I catch them,
+I will have one hung, and the other chopped into little bits!"
+
+12. It was no small comfort to hear the trot of the horses resumed, and
+soon dying away in the distance. That same night, the two faint, hungry,
+weary travelers, foot-sore and exhausted, came stumbling into Rheims,
+looking about for some person still awake, to tell them the way to the
+house of the priest Paul, a friend of Attalus's uncle. They found it
+just as the church-bell was ringing for matins, a sound that must have
+seemed very like home to these members of an episcopal household. They
+knocked, and in the morning twilight met the priest going to his
+earliest Sunday-morning service. Leo told his young master's name, and
+how they had escaped, and the priest's first exclamation was a strange
+one: "My dream is true! This very night I saw two doves, one white and
+one black, who came and perched on my hand."
+
+13. The good man was overjoyed, but he scrupled to give them any food,
+as it was contrary to the Church's rules for the fast to be broken
+before mass; but the travelers were half-dead with hunger, and could
+only say, "The good Lord pardon us, for, saving the respect due to his
+day, we must eat something, since this is the fourth day since we have
+touched bread or meat." The priest, upon this, gave them some bread
+and wine, and after hiding them carefully, went to church, hoping to
+avert suspicion. But their master was already at Rheims, making strict
+search for them, and learning that Paul the priest was a friend of the
+Bishop of Langres, he went to the church, and there questioned him
+closely. But the priest succeeded in guarding his secret, and though
+he incurred much danger--as the Salic law is very severe against
+concealers of runaway slaves--he kept Attalus and Leo for two days,
+till the search was over, and their strength restored, so that they
+could proceed to Langres. There they were welcomed like men risen from
+the dead; the bishop wept on the neck of Attalus, and was ready to
+receive Leo as a slave no more, but a friend and deliverer.
+
+14. A few days after, Leo was solemnly led to the church. Every door
+was set open as a sign that he might henceforth go whithersoever he
+would. Bishop Gregorius took him by the hand, and, standing, before
+the archdeacon, declared that for the sake of the good services
+rendered by his slave Leo, he set him free, and created him a Roman
+citizen. Then the archbishop read a writing of manumission. "Whatever
+is done according to the Roman law is irrevocable. According to the
+constitution of the Emperor Constantine, of happy memory, and the
+edict that declares that whosoever is manumitted in church, in the
+presence of the bishops, priests, and deacons, shall become a Roman
+citizen under protection of the Church; from this day Leo becomes a
+member of the city, free to go and come where he will, as if he had
+been born of free parents. From this day forward he is exempt from all
+subjection of servitude, of all duty of a freedman, all bond of
+clientship. He is and shall be free, with full and entire freedom, and
+shall never cease to belong to the body of Roman citizens."
+
+15. At the same time Leo was endowed with lands, which raised him to
+the rank of what the Franks called a Roman proprietor, the highest
+reward in the bishop's power, for the faithful devotion that had
+incurred such dangers in order to rescue the young Attalus from his
+miserable bondage.
+
+                                            _Charlotte M. Yonge._
+
+
+
+
+_XXXV.--THE MOORS IN SPAIN._
+
+
+1. Scarcely had the Arabs become firmly settled in Spain before they
+commenced a brilliant career. Adopting what had now become the
+established policy of the commanders of the Faithful in Asia, the
+caliphs of Cordova distinguished themselves as patrons of learning,
+and set an example of refinement strongly contrasting with the
+condition of the native European princes. Cordova, under their
+administration, at its highest point of prosperity, boasted of more
+than two hundred thousand houses, and more than a million inhabitants.
+After sunset a man might walk through it in a straight line for ten
+miles by the light of the public lamps. Seven hundred years after this
+time there was not so much as one public lamp in London. Its streets
+were solidly paved. In Paris, centuries subsequently, who ever stepped
+over his threshold on a rainy day stepped up to his ankles in mud.
+
+2. Other cities, as Granada, Seville, Toledo, considered themselves
+rivals of Cordova. The palaces of the caliphs were magnificently
+decorated. Those sovereigns might well look down with supercilious
+contempt on the dwellings of the rulers of Germany, France, and
+England, which were scarcely better than stables--chimneyless,
+windowless, and with a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape, like
+the wigwams of certain Indians.
+
+3. The Spanish Mohammedans had brought with them all the luxuries and
+prodigalities of Asia. Their residences stood forth against the clear
+blue sky, or were embosomed in woods. They had polished marble
+balconies, overhanging orange-gardens, courts with cascades of water,
+shady retreats provocative of slumber in the heat of the day,
+retiring-rooms, vaulted with stained glass, speckled with gold, over
+which streams of water were made to gush; the floors and walls were
+of exquisite mosaic. Here a fountain of quicksilver shot up in a
+glistening spray, the glittering particles falling with a tranquil
+sound like fairy bells; there, apartments into which cool air was
+drawn from flower-gardens, in summer, by means of ventilating towers,
+and in the winter through earthen pipes, or caleducts, imbedded in the
+walls--the hypocaust, in the vaults below, breathing forth volumes of
+warm and perfumed air through these hidden passages.
+
+4. The walls were not covered with wainscot, but adorned with
+arabesques and paintings of agricultural scenes and views of paradise.
+From the ceilings, corniced with fretted gold, great chandeliers hung,
+one of which, it is said, was so large that it contained one thousand
+and eighty-four lamps. Clusters of frail marble columns surprised the
+beholder with the vast weights they bore. In the boudoirs of the
+sultanas they were sometimes of verd-antique, and incrusted with
+lapis-lazuli. The furniture was of sandal and citron wood inlaid with
+mother-of-pearl, ivory, silver, or relieved with gold and precious
+malachite. In orderly confusion were arranged vases of rock-crystal,
+Chinese porcelain, and tables of exquisite mosaic. The winter
+apartments were hung with rich tapestry; the floors were covered with
+embroidered Persian carpets. Pillows and couches of elegant forms were
+scattered about the rooms, which were perfumed with frankincense.
+
+5. It was the intention of the Saracen architect, by excluding the
+view of the external landscape, to concentrate attention on his work,
+and since the representation of the human form was religiously
+forbidden, and that source of decoration denied, his imagination ran
+riot with the complicated arabesques he introduced, and sought every
+opportunity of replacing the prohibited work of art by the trophies
+and rarities of the garden. For this reason the Arabs never produced
+artists; religion turned them from the beautiful, and made them
+soldiers, philosophers, and men of affairs. Splendid flowers and rare
+exotics ornamented the court-yards and even the inner chambers.
+
+6. Great care was taken to make due provision for the cleanliness,
+occupation, and amusement of the inmates. Through pipes of metal,
+water, both warm and cold, to suit the season of the year, ran into
+baths of marble; in niches, where the current of air could be
+artificially directed, hung dripping _alcarazzas_. There were
+whispering-galleries for the amusement of the women; labyrinths and
+marble play-courts for the children; for the master himself, grand
+libraries. The Caliph Alhakem's was so large that the catalogue alone
+filled forty volumes. He had also apartments for the transcribing,
+binding, and ornamenting of books. A taste for caligraphy and the
+possession of splendidly illuminated manuscripts seems to have
+anticipated in the caliphs, both of Asia and Spain, the taste for
+statuary and painting among the later popes of Rome.
+
+7. Such were the palace and gardens of Zehra, in which Abderrahman III
+honored his favorite sultana. The edifice had twelve hundred columns
+of Greek, Italian, Spanish, and African marble. The body-guard of the
+sovereign was composed of twelve thousand horsemen, whose cimeters and
+belts were studded with gold. This was that Abderrahman who, after a
+glorious reign of fifty years, sat down to count the number of days of
+unalloyed happiness he had experienced, and could only enumerate
+fourteen. "O man!" exclaimed the plaintive caliph, "put not your trust
+in this present world."
+
+8. No nation has ever excelled the Spanish Arabs in the beauty and
+costliness of their pleasure-gardens. To them also we owe the
+introduction of very many of our most valuable cultivated fruits, such
+as the peach. Retaining the love of their ancestors for the cooling
+effect of water in a hot climate, they spared no pains in the
+superfluity of fountains, hydraulic works, and artificial lakes in
+which fish were raised for the table. Into such a lake, attached to
+the palace of Cordova, many loaves were cast each day to feed the
+fish.
+
+9. There were also menageries of foreign animals, aviaries of rare
+birds, manufactories in which skilled workmen, obtained from foreign
+countries, displayed their art in textures of silk, cotton, linen, and
+all the miracles of the loom; in jewelry and filigree-work, with which
+they ministered to the female pride. Under the shade of cypresses
+cascades disappeared; among flowering shrubs there were winding walks,
+bowers of roses, seats cut out of rock, and crypt-like grottoes hewn
+in the living stone. Nowhere was ornamental gardening better
+understood; for not only did the artist try to please the eye as it
+wandered over the pleasant gradation of vegetable color and form--he
+also boasted his success in the gratification of the sense of smell by
+the studied succession of perfumes from beds of flowers.
+
+10. In the midst of all this luxury, which can not be regarded by the
+historian with disdain, since in the end it produced a most important
+result in the south of France, the Spanish caliphs, emulating the
+example of their Asiatic compeers, were not only the patrons but the
+personal cultivators of human learning. One of them was himself the
+author of a work on polite literature in not less than fifty volumes;
+another wrote a treatise on algebra. When Taryak, the musician, came
+from the East to Spain, the Caliph Abderrahman rode forth to meet him
+with honor. The College of Music in Cordova was sustained by ample
+government patronage, and is said to have produced many illustrious
+professors.
+
+                                                _John W. Draper._
+
+
+
+
+_XXXVI.--CHARLEMAGNE._
+
+
+1. We come now to one of the greatest men of all times, Charles the
+Great, son of Pepin the Short, a man who has left his mark on history
+for all time. Charles (called by the French Charlemagne) was great in
+many ways, whereas most great men are great in one or two. He was a
+great warrior, a great political genius, an energetic legislator, a
+lover of learning, and a lover also of his natural language and poetry
+at a time when it was the fashion to despise them. And he united and
+displayed all these merits in a time of general and monotonous
+barbarism, when, save in the church, the minds of men were dull and
+barren.
+
+2. From 769 to 813, in Germany and Western and Northern Europe,
+Charlemagne conducted thirty-two campaigns against the Saxons,
+Frisians, Bavarians, Avars, Slavs, and Danes; in Italy, five against
+the Lombards; in Spain, Corsica, and Sardinia, twelve against the
+Arabs, two against the Greeks, and three in Gaul itself, against the
+Aquitanians and Bretons--in all, fifty-three expeditions in forty-five
+years, among which those he undertook against the Saxons, the
+Lombards, and the Arabs were long and difficult wars.
+
+3. The kingdom of Charles was vast; it comprised nearly all Germany,
+Belgium, France, Switzerland, and the north of Italy and of Spain. He
+had, in ruling this mighty realm, to deal with different nations,
+without cohesion, and to grapple with their various institutions and
+bring them into system.
+
+4. The first great undertaking of Charles was against the Saxons. They
+were still heathen, and were a constant source of annoyance to the
+Franks, for they made frequent inroads to pillage and destroy their
+towns and harvests.
+
+5. In the line of mountains which forms the step from lower into upper
+Germany, above the Westphalian plains, is one point at which the river
+Weser breaks through and flows down into the level land about three
+miles above the town of Minden. This rent in the mountain is called
+the Westphalian Gate. The hills stand on each side like red sandstone
+door-posts, and one is crowned by some crumbling fragments of a
+castle; it is called the Wittekindsberg, and takes its name from
+Wittekind, a Saxon king, who had his castle there. Wittekind was a
+stubborn heathen, and a very determined man.
+
+6. In 772 Charles convoked a great assembly at Worms, at which it was
+unanimously resolved to march against the Saxons and chastise them for
+their incursions. Charles advanced along the Weser, through the gate,
+destroyed Wittekind's castle, pushed on to Paderborn, where he threw
+down an idol adored by the Saxons, and then was obliged to return and
+hurry to Italy to fight the Lombards, who had revolted. Next year he
+invaded Saxony again. He built himself a palace at Paderborn, and
+summoned the Saxon chiefs to come and do homage. Wittekind alone
+refused, and fled to Denmark.
+
+[Illustration: _Charlemagne._]
+
+7. No sooner had Charles gone to fight the Moors in Spain than
+Wittekind returned, and the Saxons rose at his summons, and, bursting
+into Franconia, devastated the land up to the walls of Cologne.
+Charles returned and fought them in two great battles, defeated them,
+erected fortresses in their midst, and carried off hostages. Affairs
+seemed to prosper, and Charles deemed himself as securely master of
+Saxony as Varus had formerly in the same country, and under precisely
+the same circumstances. Charles then quitted the country, leaving
+orders for a body of Saxons to join his Franks and march together
+against the Slavs. The Saxons obeyed the call with alacrity, and soon
+outnumbered the Franks. One day, as the army was crossing the
+mountains from the Weser, at a given signal the Saxons fell on their
+companions and butchered them.
+
+8. When the news of this disaster reached Charles he resolved to teach
+the Saxons a terrible lesson. Crossing the Rhine, he laid waste their
+country with fire and sword, and forced the Saxons to submit to be
+baptized and accept Christian teachers. Those who refused he killed.
+At Verdun he had over four thousand of the rebels beheaded. At
+Detmold, Wittekind led the Saxons in a furious battle, in which
+neither gained the victory. In another battle, on the Hase, they were
+completely routed.
+
+9. Then Wittekind submitted, came into the camp of Charles, and asked
+to be baptized. A little ruined chapel stands on the Wittekindsberg,
+above the Westphalian Gate, and there, according to tradition, near
+the overturned walls of his own castle, the stubborn heathen bowed the
+neck to receive the yoke of Christ. Charles's two nephews, the sons of
+Karlomann, were with Desiderius, the Lombard king, and Desiderius
+tried to force the Pope to anoint them kings of the Franks, to head a
+revolt against Charles. When the great king heard this he came over
+the Alps into Italy, dethroned Desiderius, and shut him up in a
+monastery. Then he crowned himself with the iron crown of the Lombard
+kings, which was said to have been made out of one of the nails that
+fastened Christ to the cross.
+
+10. Duke Thassils of Bavaria had married a daughter of Desiderius, and
+he refused to acknowledge the authority of Charles. He also stirred up
+the Avars who lived in Hungary to invade the Frankish realm. Charles
+marched against Thassils, drove him out of Bavaria, subdued the Avars,
+and converted the country between the Ems and Raab--that is, Austria
+proper--into a province, which was called the East March, and formed the
+beginning of the East Realm (Oesterreich), or Austria. Charles also
+fought the Danes, and took from them the country up to the river Eider.
+
+11. When we consider what continuous fighting Charles had, it is a
+wonder to us that he had time to govern and make laws; but he devoted
+as much thought to arranging his realm and placing it under proper
+governors as he did to extending its frontiers.
+
+12. Charles constituted the various parts of his vast
+empire--kingdoms, duchies, and counties. He was himself the sovereign
+of all these united, but he managed them through counts and
+vice-counts. The frontier districts were called marches, and were
+under march-counts, or margraves. Count is not a German title; the
+German equivalent is Graf, and the English is earl. The counties were
+divided into hundreds; a hundred villages went to a vice-count. He had
+also counts of the palace, who ruled over the crown estates, and
+send-counts (_missi_), whom he sent out yearly through the country to
+see that his other counts did justice, and did not oppress the people.
+If people felt themselves wronged by the counts, they appealed to
+these send-counts; and if the send-counts did not do them justice,
+they appealed to the palatine-counts.
+
+13. Every year Charles summoned his counts four times, when he could,
+but always once, in May, to meet him in council, and discuss the
+grievances of the people. As the great dukes were troublesome, because
+so powerful, Charles tried to do without them, and to keep them in
+check. He gave whole principalities to bishops, hoping that they would
+become supporters of him and the crown against the powerful dukes.
+
+14. He was also very careful for the good government of the Church. He
+endowed a number of monasteries to serve as schools for boys and
+girls. He had also a collection of good, wholesome sermons made in
+German, and sent copies about in all directions, requiring them to be
+read to the people in church. He invited singers and musicians from
+Italy to come and improve the performance of divine worship, and two
+song-schools were established, one at Gall, another at Metz. His
+Franks, he complained, had not much aptitude for music; their singing
+was like the howling of wild beasts or the noise made by the
+squeaking, groaning wheels of a baggage-wagon over a stony road!
+
+15. Charles was particularly interested in schools, and delighted in
+going into them and listening to the boys at their lessons. One day
+when he had paid such a visit he was told that the noblemen's sons
+were much idler than those of the common citizens. Then the great king
+grew red in the face and frowned, and his eyes flashed. He called the
+young nobles before him and said in thundering tones: "You grand
+gentlemen! You young puppets! You puff yourselves up with the thoughts
+of your rank and wealth, and suppose you have no need of letters! I
+tell you that your pretty faces and your high nobility are accounted
+nothing by me. Beware! beware! Without diligence and conscientiousness
+not one of you gets anything from me."
+
+16. Charles dearly loved the grand old German poems of the heroes, and
+he had them collected and copied out. Alas! they have been lost. His
+stupid son, thinking them rubbish, burned them all. The great king
+also sent to Italy for builders, and set them to work to erect palaces
+and churches. His favorite palaces were at Aix and at Ingelheim. At
+the latter place he had a bridge built over the Rhine. At Aix he built
+the cathedral with pillars taken from Roman ruins. It was quite
+circular, with a colonnade going round it; inside it remains almost
+unaltered to the present day.
+
+17. He was very eager to promote trade, and so far in advance of the
+times was he that he resolved to cut a canal so as to connect the Main
+with the Regnitz, and thus make a water-way right across Germany from
+the Rhine to the Danube, and so connect the German Ocean with the
+Black Sea. The canal was begun, but wars interfered with its
+completion, and the work was not carried out till the present century
+by Louis I of Bavaria.
+
+18. Charles was a tall, grand looking man, nearly seven feet high. He
+was so strong that he could take a horseshoe in his hands and snap it.
+He ate and drank in moderation, and was grave and dignified in his
+conduct.
+
+19. In the year 800, an insurrection broke out in Rome against Pope
+Leo III. While he was riding in procession his enemies fell on him,
+threw him from his horse, and an awkward attempt was made to put out
+his eyes and cut out his tongue. Thus, bleeding and insensible, he was
+put into a monastery. The Duke of Spoleto, a Frank, hearing of this,
+marched to Rome and removed the wounded Pope to Spoleto, where he was
+well nursed and recovered his eye-sight and power of speech. Charles
+was very indignant when he heard of the outrage, and he left the
+Saxons, whom he was fighting, and came to Italy to investigate the
+circumstance. He assumed the office of judge, and the guilty persons
+were sent to prison in France.
+
+20. Then came Christmas-day, the Christmas of the last year in the
+eighth century of Christ. Charles and all his sumptuous court, the
+nobles and people of Rome, the whole clergy of Rome, were present at
+the high services of the birth of Christ. The Pope himself chanted the
+mass; the full assembly were rapt in profound devotion. At the close
+the Pope rose, advanced toward Charles with a splendid crown in his
+hands, placed it upon his brow, and proclaimed him Cæsar Augustus.
+"God grant life and victory to the great emperor!" His words were lost
+in the acclamations of the soldiery, the people, and the clergy.
+
+21. Charles was taken completely by surprise. What the consequences
+would be to Germany and to the papacy, how fatal to both, neither he
+nor Leo could see. So Charlemagne became King of Italy and Emperor of
+the West--the successor of the Cæsars of Rome.
+
+22. When Charles felt that his end was approaching, he summoned all
+his nobles to Aix into the church he had there erected. There, on the
+altar, lay a golden crown. Charles made his son Ludwig, or Louis,
+stand before him, and, in the audience of his great men, gave him his
+last exhortation: to fear God and to love his people as his own
+children, to do right and to execute justice, and to walk in integrity
+before God and man. With streaming eyes Louis promised to fulfill his
+father's command. "Then," said Charles, "take this crown, and place it
+on your own head, and never forget the promise you have made this day."
+
+      _Sabine, Baring-Gould. "The Story of Germany."_
+                      _Putnam's "Stories of the Nations" Series._
+
+
+
+
+WESTERN RECORD.
+
+
+
+
+_XXXVII.-THE NORSEMEN._
+
+
+1. The Gulf Stream flows so near to the southern coast of Norway, and
+to the Orkneys and Western Islands, that their climate is much less
+severe than might be supposed. Yet no one can help wondering why they
+were formerly so much more populous than now, and why the people who
+came westward even so long ago as the great Aryan migration, did not
+persist in turning aside to the more fertile countries that lay
+farther southward. In spite of all their disadvantages, the
+Scandinavian peninsula, and the sterile islands of the northern seas,
+were inhabitated by men and women whose enterprise and intelligence
+ranked them above their neighbors.
+
+2. Now, with the modern ease of travel and transportation, these
+poorer countries can be supplied from other parts of the world. And
+though the summers of Norway are misty and dark and short, and it is
+difficult to raise even a little hay on the bits of meadow among the
+rocky mountain-slopes, commerce can make up for all deficiencies. In
+early times there was no commerce, except that carried on by the
+pirates, if we may dignify their undertakings by such a respectable
+name, and it was hardly possible to make a living from the soil
+alone. But it does not take us long to discover that the ancient
+Northmen were not farmers, but hunters and fishermen. It had grown
+more and more difficult to find food along the rivers and broad grassy
+wastes of inland Europe, and pushing westward they had at last reached
+the place where they could live beside waters that swarmed with fish
+and among hills that sheltered plenty of game.
+
+3. The tribes that settled in the north grew in time to have many
+peculiarities of their own, and as their countries grew more and more
+populous, they needed more things that could not easily be had, and a
+fashion of plundering their neighbors began to prevail. Men were still
+more or less beasts of prey. Invaders must be kept out, and at last
+much of the industry of Scandinavia was connected with the carrying on
+of an almost universal fighting and marauding. Ships must be built,
+and there must be endless supplies of armor and weapons. Stones were
+easily collected for missiles or made fit for arrows and spear-heads,
+and metals were worked with great care.
+
+4. In Norway and Sweden were the best places to find all these, and if
+the Northmen planned to fight a great battle, they had to transport a
+huge quantity of stones, iron, and bronze. It is easy to see why one
+day's battle was almost always decisive in ancient times, for supplies
+could not be quickly forwarded from point to point, and after the arrows
+were all shot and the conquered were chased off the field, they had no
+further means of offense except a hand-to-hand fight with those who had
+won the right to pick up the fallen spears at their leisure. So, too, an
+unexpected invasion was likely to prove successful; it was a work of
+time to get ready for a battle, and when the Northmen swooped down upon
+some shore town of Britain or Gaul, the unlucky citizens were at their
+mercy. And while the Northmen had fish and game, and were mighty
+hunters, and their rocks and mines helped forward their warlike
+enterprises, so the forests supplied them with ship-timber, and they
+gained renown as sailors wherever their fame extended.
+
+5. There was a great difference, however, between the manner of life in
+Norway and that of England and France. The Norwegian stone, however
+useful for arrow-heads or axes, was not fit for building purposes. There
+is hardly any clay there, either, to make bricks with, so that wood has
+usually been the only material for houses. In the southern countries
+there had always been rude castles in which the people could shelter
+themselves, but the Northmen could build no castles that a torch could
+not destroy. They trusted much more to their ships than to their houses,
+and some of their captains disdained to live on shore at all.
+
+6. There is something refreshing in the stories of old Norse life; of
+its simplicity and freedom and childish zest. An old writer says that
+they had "a hankering after pomp and pageantry," and by means of this
+they came at last to doing things decently and in order, and to
+setting the fashions for the rest of Europe. There was considerable
+dignity in the manner of every-day life and housekeeping. Their houses
+were often very large, even two hundred feet long, with flaring fires
+on a pavement in the middle of the floor, and the beds built next the
+walls on three sides, sometimes hidden by wide tapestries or foreign
+cloth that had been brought home in the viking ships. In front of the
+beds were benches where each man had his seat and footstool, with his
+armor and weapons hung high on the wall above.
+
+7. The master of the house had a high seat on the north side in the
+middle of a long bench; opposite was another bench for guests and
+strangers, while the women sat on the third side. The roof was high;
+there were a few windows in it, and those were covered by skins, and
+let in but little light. The smoke escaped through openings in the
+carved, soot-blackened roof; and though in later times the rich men's
+houses were more like villages, because they made groups of smaller
+buildings for store houses, for guest-rooms, or for work-shops all
+around still, the idea of this primitive great hall or living-room has
+not even yet been lost. The latest copies of it in England and France
+that still remain are most interesting; but what a fine sight it must
+have been at night when the great fires blazed and the warriors sat on
+their benches in solemn order, and the skalds recited their long
+sagas, of the host's own bravery or the valiant deeds of his
+ancestors! Hospitality was almost chief among the virtues.
+
+8. We must read what was written in their own language, and then we
+shall have more respect for the vikings and sea-kings, always
+distinguishing between these two; for, while any peasant who wished
+could be a viking--a sea-robber--a sea-king was a king indeed, and
+must be connected with the royal race of the country. He received the
+title of king by right as soon as he took command of a ship's crew,
+though he need not have any land or kingdom. Vikings were merely
+pirates; they might be peasants and vikings by turn, and won their
+names from the inlets, the viks or wicks, where they harbored their
+ships. A sea-king must be a viking, but naturally very few of the
+vikings were sea-kings.
+
+[Illustration: _A Viking's Home._]
+
+9. The viking had rights in his own country, and knew what it was to
+enjoy those rights; if he could win more land, he would know how to
+govern it, and he knew what he was fighting for, and meant to win.
+If we wonder why all this energy was spent on the high seas and in
+strange countries, there are two answers: first, that fighting was the
+natural employment of the men, and that no right could be held that
+could not be defended; but besides this, one form of their energy was
+showing itself at home in rude attempts at literature.
+
+10. The more that we know of the Northmen, the more we are convinced
+how superior they were in their knowledge of the useful arts to the
+people whom they conquered. There is a legend that, when Charlemagne,
+in the ninth century, saw some pirate ships cruising in the
+Mediterranean, along the shores of which they had at last found their
+way, he covered his face and burst into tears. He was not so much
+afraid of their cruelty and barbarity as of their civilization. Nobody
+knew better that none of the Christian countries under his rule had
+ships or men that could make such a daring voyage. He knew that they
+were skillful workers in wood and iron, and had learned to be
+rope-makers and weavers; that they could make casks for their supply
+of drinking-water, and understood how to prepare food for their long
+cruises. All their swords and spears and bow-strings had to be made
+and kept in good condition, and sheltered from the sea-spray.
+
+11. When we picture the famous sea-kings' ships to ourselves, we do
+not wonder that the Northmen were so proud of them, or that the skalds
+were never tired of recounting their glories. There were two kinds of
+vessels: the last-ships, that carried cargoes, and the long-ships, or
+ships of war. Listen to the splendors of the "Long Serpent," which was
+the largest ship ever built in Norway. A dragon-ship, to begin with,
+because all the long-ships had a dragon for a figure-head, except the
+smallest of them, which were called cutters, and only carried ten or
+twenty rowers on a side. The "Long Serpent" had thirty-four rowers'
+benches on a side, and she was one hundred and eleven feet long. Over
+the sides were hung the shining red and white shields of the vikings,
+the gilded dragon's head towered high at the prow, and at the stern a
+gilded tail went curling off over the head of the steersman. Then,
+from the long body, the heavy oars swept forward and back through the
+water, and as it came down the fiôrd, the "Long Serpent" must have
+looked like some enormous centipede creeping out of its den on an
+awful errand, and heading out across the rough water toward its prey.
+
+12. The voyages were often disastrous in spite of much clever
+seamanship. They knew nothing of the mariner's compass, and found
+their way chiefly by the aid of the stars--inconstant pilots enough on
+such foggy, stormy seas. They carried birds, too, oftenest ravens, and
+used to let them loose and follow them toward the nearest land. The
+black raven was the vikings' favorite symbol for their flags, and
+familiar enough it became in other harbors than their own. They were
+bold, hardy fellows, and held fast to a rude code of honor and rank of
+knighthood.
+
+13. The valleys of the Elbe and the Rhine, of the Seine and the Loire,
+made a famous hunting-ground for the dragon-ships to seek.
+
+14. The people who lived in France were of another sort, but they
+often knew how to defend themselves as well as the Northmen knew how
+to attack. There are few early French records for us to read, for the
+literature of that early day was almost wholly destroyed in the
+religious houses and public buildings of France. Here and there a few
+pages of a poem or of a biography or chronicle have been kept, but
+from this very fact we can understand the miserable condition of the
+country.
+
+15. The whole second half of the ninth century is taken up with the
+histories of these invasions. We must follow for a while the progress
+of events in Gaul, or France as we call it now, though it was made up
+then of a number of smaller kingdoms. The result of the great siege of
+Paris was only a settling of affairs with the Northmen for the time
+being; one part of the country was delivered from them at the expense
+of another.
+
+16. They could be bought off and bribed for a time, but there was
+never to be any such thing as their going back to their own country
+and letting France alone for good and all. But as they gained at
+length whole tracts of country, instead of the little wealth of a few
+men to take away in their ships as at first, they began to settle down
+in their new lands and to become conquerors and colonists instead of
+mere plunderers. Instead of continually ravaging and attacking the
+kingdoms, they slowly became the owners and occupiers of the conquered
+territory; they pushed their way from point to point.
+
+17. At first, as you have seen already they trusted to their ships,
+and always left their wives and children at home in the north
+countries, but as time went on, they brought their families with them
+and made new homes, for which they would have to fight many a battle
+yet. It would be no wonder if the women had become possessed by a love
+of adventure, too, and had insisted upon seeing the lands from which
+the rich booty was brought to them, and that they had been saying for
+a long time: "Show us the places where the grapes grow and the
+fruit-trees bloom, where men build great houses and live in them
+splendidly. We are tired of seeing only the long larchen beams of
+their high roofs, and the purple and red and gold cloths, and the red
+wine and yellow wheat that you bring away. Why should we not go to
+live in that country, instead of your breaking it to pieces, and going
+there so many of you, every year, only to be slain as its enemies? We
+are tired of our sterile Norway and our great Danish deserts of sand,
+of our cold winds and wet weather, and our long winters that pass by
+so slowly while the fleets are gone. We would rather see Seville and
+Paris themselves, than only their gold and merchandise and the rafters
+of their churches that you bring home for ship timbers."
+
+18. The kingdoms of France had been divided and subdivided, and, while
+we find a great many fine examples of resistance, and some great
+victories over the Northmen, they were not pushed out and checked
+altogether. Instead, they gradually changed into Frenchmen themselves,
+different from other Frenchmen only in being more spirited, vigorous
+and alert. They inspired every new growth of the religion, language,
+or manners, with their own splendid vitality. They were like plants
+that have grown in dry, thin soil, transplanted to a richer spot of
+ground, and sending out fresh shoots in the doubled moisture and
+sunshine. And presently we shall find the Northman becoming the Norman
+of history. As the Northman, almost the first thing we admire about
+him is his character, his glorious energy; as the Norman, we see that
+energy turned into better channels, and bringing a new element into
+the progress of civilization.
+
+          _Sarah O. Jewett. "The Story of the Normans."_
+                      _Putnam's "Stories of the Nations" Series._
+
+
+
+
+_XXXVIII.--ROLF THE GANGER._
+
+
+1. The ninth century was a sad time for both England and France. The
+Gothic tribes, in their march to the west had reached the sea in
+Denmark and Norway, and had increased to such an extent as to take up
+all the land fit for cultivation. The strength and courage which they
+had shown in many a battle-field on the land was now transferred to
+the sea, soldiers and knights becoming vikings and pirates. Fierce
+worshipers were they of the old gods Odin, Frey, and Thor. They
+plundered, they burned, they slew; they especially devastated churches
+and monasteries, and no coast was safe from them from the Adriatic to
+the farthest north--even Rome saw their long-ships, and, "From the
+fury of the Northmen, good Lord deliver us!" was the prayer in every
+litany of the West.
+
+2. England had been well-nigh undone by them, when the spirit of her
+greatest king awoke, and by Alfred they were overcome. Some were
+permitted to settle down, and were taught Christianity and
+civilization, and the fresh invaders were driven from the coast.
+Alfred's gallant son and grandson held the same course, guarded their
+coasts, and made their faith and themselves respected throughout the
+North. But in France, the much harassed house of Charles the Great,
+and the ill-compacted bond of different nations, were little able to
+oppose their fierce assaults, and ravage and devastation reigned from
+one end of the country to another.
+
+3. However, the vikings, on returning to their native homes sometimes
+found their place filled up, and the family inheritance incapable of
+supporting so many. Thus they began to think of winning not merely
+gold and cattle, but lands and houses, on the coasts they pillaged. In
+Scotland, the Hebrides, and Ireland, they settled by leave of nothing
+but their swords; in England, by treaty with Alfred; and in France,
+half by conquest, half by treaty, always, however, accepting
+Christianity as a needful obligation when they took posession of
+southern lands. Probably they thought Thor was only the god of the
+north, and that the "White Christ," as they called Him who was made
+known to them in these new countries was to be adored in what they
+deemed alone his territories.
+
+4. Of all the sea-robbers who sailed from their rocky dwelling-places
+by the fiôrds of Norway, none enjoyed higher renown than Rolf, called
+the ganger, or walker, as tradition relates, because his stature was
+so gigantic that, when clad in full armor, no horse could support his
+weight, and he therefore always fought on foot.
+
+5. Rolf's lot had, however, fallen in what he doubtless considered as
+evil days. No such burnings and plunderings as had hitherto wasted
+England and enriched Norway, fell to his share; for Alfred had made
+the bravest Northman feel that his fleet and army were more than a
+match for theirs. Ireland was exhausted by the former depredations of
+the pirates, and, from a fertile and flourishing country had become a
+scene of desolation. Scotland and its isles were too barren to afford
+prey to the spoiler.
+
+6. Rolf, presuming on the favor shown to his family while returning
+from an expedition on the Baltic, made a descent on the coast of
+Viken, a part of Norway, and carried off the cattle wanted by his
+crew. The king, who happened at that time to be in that district, was
+highly displeased, and, assembling a council, declared Rolf the Ganger
+an outlaw.
+
+7. The banished Rolf found a great number of companions, who, like
+himself, were unwilling to submit to the strict rule of Harald, and
+setting sail with them, he first plundered and devastated the coast
+of Flanders, and afterward returned to France. In the spring of 896
+the citizens of Rouen, scarcely yet recovered from the miseries
+inflicted upon them by the fierce Danish rover Hasting, were dismayed
+by the sight of a fleet of long, low vessels, with spreading sails,
+heads carved like that of a serpent, and sterns finished like the tail
+of a reptile, such as they well knew to be the keels of the dreaded
+Northmen, the harbingers of destruction and desolation. Little hope of
+succor or protection was there from King Charles the Simple; and,
+indeed, had the sovereign been ever so warlike and energetic, it would
+little have availed Rouen, which might have been destroyed twice over
+before a messenger could reach Laon.
+
+8. In this emergency, Franco, the archbishop, proposed to go forth to
+meet the Northmen and attempt to make terms for his flock. The offer
+was gladly accepted by the trembling citizens, and the good archbishop
+went, bearing the keys of the town, to visit the camp which the
+Northmen had begun to erect upon the bank of the river. They offered
+him no violence, and he performed his errand safely. Rolf, the rude
+generosity of whose character was touched by his fearless conduct,
+readily agreed to spare the lives and property of the citizens, on
+condition that Rouen was surrendered to him without resistance.
+
+9. Entering the town, he there established his headquarters, and spent
+a whole year in the adjacent parts of the country, during which time
+the Northmen so faithfully observed their promise, that they were
+regarded by the Rouennais rather as friends than as conquerors; and
+Rolf, or Rollo, as the French called him, was far more popular among
+them than their real sovereign. Wherever he met with resistance, he
+showed, indeed, the relentless cruelty of the heathen pirate;
+wherever he found submission, he was a kind master.
+
+10. In the course of the following year, he advanced along the banks
+of the Seine as far as its junction with the Eure. On the opposite
+side of the river there were visible a number of tents, where slept a
+numerous army, which Charles had at length collected to oppose this
+formidable enemy. The Northmen also set up their camp, in expectation
+of a battle, and darkness had just closed in on them when a shout was
+heard on the opposite side of the river, and to their surprise a voice
+was heard speaking in their own language. "Brave warriors, why come ye
+hither, and what do ye seek?"
+
+11. "We are Northmen, come hither to conquer France," replied Rollo.
+"But who art thou who speakest our tongue so well?" "Heard ye never of
+Hasting?" was the reply. "Yes," returned Rollo, "he began well, but
+ended badly." "Will ye not, then," continued the old pirate, "submit
+to my lord the king? Will ye not hold of him lands and honors?" "No,"
+replied the Northmen, disdainfully, "we will own no lord, we will take
+no gift, but we will have what we ourselves can conquer by force."
+
+12. Here Hasting took his departure, and returning to the French camp,
+strongly advised the commander not to hazard a battle. His counsel was
+overruled by a young standard-bearer, who, significantly observing,
+"Wolves make not war on wolves," so offended the old sea-king, that he
+quitted the army that night, and never again appeared in France. The
+wisdom of his advice was the next morning made evident, by the total
+defeat of the French, and the advance of the Northmen, who in a short
+space after appeared beneath the walls of Paris. Failing in their
+attempt to take the city, they returned to Rouen, where they fortified
+themselves, making it the capital of the territory they had conquered.
+
+13. Fifteen years passed away, the summers of which were spent in
+ravaging the dominions of Charles the Simple, and the winters in the
+city of Rouen, and in the meantime a change had come over the leader.
+He had been insensibly softened and civilized by his intercourse with
+the good Archbishop Franco, and finding, perhaps, that it was not
+quite so easy as he had expected to conquer the whole kingdom of
+France, he declared himself willing to follow the example which he
+once despised, and to become a vassal of the French crown for the
+duchy of Neustria.
+
+14. Charles, greatly rejoiced to find himself thus able to put a stop
+to the dreadful devastations of the Northmen, readily agreed to the
+terms proposed by Rollo, appointing the village of St. Clair-sur-Epte,
+on the borders of Neustria, as the place of meeting for the purpose of
+receiving his homage and oath of fealty.
+
+15. The greatest difficulty to be overcome in this conference was the
+repugnance felt by the proud Northman to perform the customary act of
+homage before any living man, especially one whom he held so cheap as
+Charles the Simple. He consented, indeed, to swear allegiance, and
+declare himself the "king's man," with his hands clasped between those
+of Charles. The remaining part of the ceremony, the kneeling to kiss
+the foot of the liege lord, he absolutely refused, and was with
+difficulty persuaded to permit one of his followers to perform it in
+his name. The proxy, as proud as his master, instead of kneeling, took
+the king's foot in his hand, and lifted it to his mouth while he stood
+upright, thus overturning both monarch and throne, amid the rude
+laughter of his companions, while the miserable Charles and his
+courtiers felt such a dread of these new vassals that they did not
+dare resent the insult.
+
+16. On his return to Rouen, Rollo was baptized, and, on leaving the
+cathedral, celebrated his conversion by large grants to the different
+churches and convents of his duchy, making a fresh gift on each of the
+days during which he wore the white robes of the newly baptized. All
+of his warriors who chose to follow his example, and embrace the
+Christian faith, received from him grants of land, to be held of him
+on the same terms as those by which he held the dukedom from the king.
+The country thus peopled by the Northmen, gradually assumed the name
+of Normandy.
+
+17. Applying themselves with all the ardor of their temper to their
+new way of life, the Northmen quickly adopted the manners, language,
+and habits which were recommended to them as connected with the holy
+faith which they had just embraced, but without losing their own bold
+and vigorous spirit. Soon the gallant and accomplished Norman knight
+could scarcely have been recognized as the savage sea-robber, while,
+at the same time, he bore as little resemblance to the cruel and
+voluptuous French noble, at once violent and indolent.
+
+18. There is no doubt, however, that the keen, unsophisticated vigor
+of Rollo, directed by his new religion did great good in Normandy, and
+that his justice was sharp, his discipline impartial, so that of him
+is told the famous old story bestowed upon other just princes, that a
+gold bracelet was left for three years untouched upon a tree in a
+forest. He had been married, as part of the treaty, to Gisèle, a
+daughter of King Charles the Simple, but he was an old grizzly
+warrior, and neither cared for the other. A wife whom he had long
+before taken, had borne him a son, named William, to whom he left his
+dukedom in 932.
+
+
+
+
+_XXXIX.--THE TRUE STORY OF MACBETH._
+
+
+1. In the north of Scotland, where the cliffs bordering Moray Firth
+face the auroral heavens, are two ancient towns, Inverness and Forres,
+whose names are immortalized in Shakespeare's great tragedy of
+Macbeth, for it is in their vicinity that most of its scenes are laid.
+
+2. It is a wild, lonely country, and must have been wilder and
+lonelier still eight hundred years ago, when from the neighboring
+Norway coast the black boats of the vikings, or North Sea rovers, used
+to come flocking into the quiet harbors of Moray and Cromarty Firths,
+like so many swift birds of prey swooping suddenly in from the gray
+horizon, snatching their plunder and flitting away on never-resting
+wings only to return in greater numbers and depart with richer booty.
+
+3. In 1033-1039, when the sons of Canute the Dane were wearing the
+English crown, and not long after a few of the roving Norsemen had
+drifted away to plant a little history and a great mystery across the
+wide Atlantic, there reigned in Scotland a king by the name of Duncan
+MacCrinan. Among his nobles was a certain Macbeth, Thane of Glamis,
+about whom a great many stories are told, some of which would no doubt
+have made their subject open his eyes, for if we may credit the sober
+historians he was rather respectable than otherwise, and probably
+slept much better o' nights than Mr. Shakespeare would have us
+believe. It is even said that he made a pilgrimage to Rome and saw the
+Pope, which certainly ought to establish his virtue to anybody's
+satisfaction.
+
+4. At all events he was a brave soldier and able general, and Duncan
+naturally thought that he had the right man in the right place when he
+gave him command of the royal army and sent him off to drive out
+Thorfinn and Thorkell, two Norse chiefs who had come over to conquer
+Scotland.
+
+5. Macbeth had wedded a lady named Grnoch MacBœdhe, which made him
+cousin to the king, and very likely put strange notions into his head,
+even if they never were there before. He was what we call "a rising
+man," and so, having gloriously defeated Thorfinn and Thorkell, or,
+some say, making them allies, he gloriously turned around and made war
+upon Duncan MacCrinan. In this struggle Duncan was killed or mortally
+wounded near Elgin, on Moray Firth, and Macbeth usurped the throne.
+
+6. Others claim that Thorfinn had conquered that part of Scotland,
+that Macbeth was his vassal and merely fulfilled his duty to his
+over-lord in repelling an invasion by Duncan, in which the latter
+deservedly met the common fate of war.
+
+7. It is very difficult to learn the real truth about people who lived
+before history was anything more than oral tradition, because, as in
+the case of Macbeth, a great many legends gradually clustered about
+their names, which were not committed to writing until many, many
+years after the events actually occurred. The very earliest Scotch
+writing ever discovered is only a charter, and is dated 1095, more
+than fifty years after Duncan was "in his grave," and it was more than
+three hundred years later that a Scotch prior, named Androwe of
+Wyntonne, wrote a long historical poem which he called an Orygynale
+Cronykil of Scotland. In it he relates the story of Macbeth and the
+three witches, and the murder of Duncan, though he says that Macbeth
+afterward made a very wise and just king, whose reign of seventeen
+years was marked by great abundance, and by royal almsgiving and zeal
+for "holy kirk."
+
+8. But a Latin history of Scotland, written about a hundred years
+before Shakespeare by an Aberdeen professor, and translated into
+English under the title of Holinshed's Chronicle, supplied the great
+dramatist with his plot, though it suited his purpose to combine the
+true story of Macbeth with the murder of an earlier king. Then, adding
+a great deal about ghosts and witches, and, above all, breathing into
+these dry, long-dead mummies the quickening breath of genius, the
+immortal playwright recreated a Macbeth who seems a far more real and
+living character than many of our contemporaries.
+
+9. By whatever means Macbeth secured the throne, history and fiction
+agree as to the manner of his losing it. Duncan's sons, in reality
+mere infants at their father's death, were hurried away by their
+friends, and Malcolm, the elder, was committed to his mother's
+brother, Siward, Earl of Northumbria, who in good time aided his young
+kinsman to recover his birthright.
+
+10. Macbeth, notwithstanding his prosperous reign, was regarded as a
+usurper, and was consequently very unpopular with the loyal Scotch,
+who, though proud and quarrelsome, were always devotedly true where
+they recognized an obligation of fealty. So when Malcolm returned they
+flocked around the beloved young heir, and defeated his enemy at
+Dunsinane, though Macbeth was not killed at this place, as Shakespeare
+says, but fled across the Grampians to rally at Lumphanan. Here he was
+slain and the victorious Malcolm--called in history Malcolm
+Canmore--now went to Scone and was crowned upon a famous stone,
+believed by the Scotch to be the same that Jacob used for his pillow.
+It is certainly the one that Edward I of England afterward took away
+and made the seat of the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey, where
+it is still to be seen.
+
+11. But, like many another evil that has been wrought before now,
+Macbeth's treason resulted in the ultimate good of his country; for
+Malcolm, during his long exile, had become accustomed to the superior
+civilization of the English, and now introduced many improvements
+among his subjects. Having known, too, the sorrows of a fugitive, he
+welcomed to his court the Saxon princes fleeing from Norman William,
+among whom was Margaret Atheling, the gentle granddaughter of Edmund
+Ironsides, who became his bride, and whose winning graces went far
+toward refining the rude manners of the warlike Scots. One of their
+sons was the saintly King David, who founded Melrose Abbey, and who is
+said to have been to Scotland "all that Alfred was to England, and
+more than Louis was to France."
+
+12. Another noble, called Banquo, seems to have had some part in
+Duncan's overthrow, but as the play of Macbeth was written in the
+reign of James I, who was a Scot and traced his descent back to
+Banquo, it was not deemed prudent or polite to represent the character
+in an unflattering light; so he was pictured as noble and
+incorruptible, and was so unfortunate, poor man, as to have to be
+murdered to make the story end well.
+
+13. Sir Walter Scott, in his "Tales of a Grandfather," gives us a
+story differing little from the outline of Shakespeare's drama, but
+then, who that has spent enraptured hours over Rob Roy and the Black
+Dwarf could wish the charming wizard to spoil a good story for the
+sake of mere historical exactness? not I, surely! And the Macbeth of
+history, no matter how zealously we may try to discover him, or how
+faithfully we may attempt, at this late day, to reconstruct his
+damaged reputation, he can never be to us anything better than a very
+misty tradition. Whatever he may have been eight hundred years ago,
+the Macbeth _we_ know, the only real Macbeth there is or ever can be,
+is after all the one that met the witches in the thunder-storm on
+Forres Heath and then went home and murdered the gentle old king who
+"had so much blood in him," and a moment later, startled by the
+knocking at the gate, exclaimed in bitterest remorse: "Wake Duncan
+with thy knocking! I would thou could'st!"
+
+14. If you read this scene in the silent hours when every one else in
+the house is sleeping, you will almost believe that you murdered
+Duncan yourself, and that you hear Lady Macbeth's hoarse whisper in
+your ear: "To bed, to bed, there's knocking at the gate. Come, come,
+come, come, give me your hand. What's done can not be undone. To bed,
+to bed, to bed."
+
+15. Then you will shut the book in sudden terror of the lonely
+midnight, and scramble into bed with the blood curdling in your veins,
+and presently, aided by the darkness, your imagination will bridge the
+gulf of centuries, and you will seem to see a long vaulted hall in a
+mediæval palace, and in the hall a banquet spread, around which gather
+lords of high degree, while on the canopied dais at the upper end sit
+King Macbeth and his white-haired, pitiless, guilty queen. And from
+the rainy outer darkness you may catch the faint echo of a mortal cry:
+"Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!" And then as you picture the king
+stepping down from his royal seat to meet a blood-stained murderer at
+the door, you will have a momentary glimpse of Banquo lying in the
+roadside ditch "with twenty trenchéd gashes in his head," and of
+Fleance speeding away alone through the stormy night.
+
+
+
+
+_XL.--DUKE WILLIAM OF NORMANDY._
+
+
+1. Now Duke William was in his park at Rouen, and in his hands he held
+a bow ready strung, for he was going hunting, and many knights and
+squires with him. And behold, there came to the gate a messenger from
+England; and he went straight to the duke and drew him aside, and told
+him secretly how King Edward's life had come to an end, and Harold had
+been made king in his stead. And when the duke had heard the tidings,
+and understood all that was come to pass, those that looked upon him
+perceived that he was greatly enraged, for he forsook the chase, and
+went in silence, speaking no word to any man, clasping and unclasping
+his cloak, neither dared any man speak to him; but he crossed over the
+Seine in a boat, and went to his hall, and sat down on a bench; and he
+covered his face with his mantle, and leaned down his head, and there
+he abode, turning about restlessly for one hour after another in
+gloomy thought. And none dared speak a word to him, but they spake to
+one another, saying: "What ails the duke? Why bears he such a mien?"
+
+2. "That is it that troubles me," said the duke. "I grieve because
+Edward is dead, and that Harold has done me a wrong; for he has taken
+my kingdom who was bound to me by oath and promise." To these words
+answered Fitz-Osbern the bold: "Sir, tarry not, but make ready with
+speed to avenge yourself on Harold, who has been disloyal to you; for
+if you lack not courage, there will be left no land to Harold. Summon
+all whom you may summon, cross the sea and seize his lands; for no
+brave man should begin a matter and not carry it on to the end."
+
+3. Then William sent messengers to Harold to call upon him to keep
+the oath that he had sworn; but Harold replied in scorn that he would
+not marry his daughter, nor give up his land to him. And William sent
+to him his defiance; but Harold answered that he feared him not, and
+he drove all the Normans out of the land, with their wives and
+children, for King Edward had given them lands and castles, but Harold
+chased them out of the country; neither would he let one remain. And
+at Christmas he took the crown, but it would have been well for
+himself and his land if he had not been crowned, since for the kingdom
+he perjured himself, and his reign lasted but a short space.
+
+4. Then Duke William called together his barons, and told them all his
+will, and how Harold had wronged him, and that he would cross the sea
+and revenge himself; but without their aid he could not gather men
+enough, nor a large navy; therefore, he would know of each one of them
+how many men and ships he would bring. And they prayed for leave to
+take counsel together, and the duke granted their request. And their
+deliberations lasted long, for many complained that their burdens were
+heavy, and some said that they would bring ships and cross the sea
+with the duke, and others said they would not go, for they were in
+debt and poor. Thus some would and some would not, and there was great
+contention between them.
+
+5. Then Fitz-Osbern came to them and said: "Wherefore dispute you,
+sirs? Ye should not fail your natural lord when he goes seeking
+honors. Ye owe him service for your fiefs, and where ye owe service ye
+should serve with all your power. Ask not delay, nor wait until he
+prays you; but go before, and offer him more than you can do. Let him
+not lament that his enterprise failed for your remissness." But they
+answered: "Sir, we fear the sea, and we owe no service across the
+sea. Speak for us, we pray you, and answer in our stead. Say what you
+will, and we will abide by your words." "Will ye all leave yourselves
+to me?" he said. And each one answered: "Yes. Let us go to the duke,
+and you shall speak for us."
+
+6. And Fitz-Osbern turned himself about and went before him to the duke,
+and spoke for them, and he said: "Sir, no lord has such men as you have,
+and who will do so much for their lord's honor, and you ought to love
+and keep them well. For you they say they would be drowned in the sea or
+thrown into the fire. You may trust them well, for they have served you
+long and followed you at great cost. And if they have done well, they
+will do better; for they will pass the sea with you, and will double
+their service. For he who should bring twenty knights will gladly bring
+forty, and he who should serve you thirty will bring sixty, and he from
+whom one hundred is due will willingly bring two hundred. And I, in
+loving loyalty, will bring in my lord's business sixty ships, well
+arrayed and laden with fighting men."
+
+7. But the barons marveled at him, and murmured aloud at the words
+that he spake and the promises he made, for which they had given him
+no warrant. And many contradicted him, and there arose a noise and
+loud disturbance among them; for they feared that if they doubled
+their service it would become a custom, and be turned into a feudal
+right. And the noise and outcry became so great that a man could not
+hear what his fellow said. Then the duke went aside, for the noise
+displeased him, and sent for the barons one by one, and spoke to each
+one of the greatness of the enterprise, and that if they would double
+their service, and do freely more than their due, it should be well
+for them, and that he would never make it a custom, nor require of
+them any service more than was the usage of the country, and such as
+their ancestors had paid to their lord. Then each one said he would do
+it, and he told how many ships he would bring, and the duke had them
+all written down in brief. Bishop Odo, his brother, brought him forty
+ships, and the Bishop of Le Mans prepared thirty, with their mariners
+and pilots. And the duke prayed his neighbors of Brittany, Anjou, and
+Maine, Ponthieu, and Boulogne, to aid him in this business; and he
+promised them lands if England were conquered, and rich gifts and
+large pay. Thus from all sides came soldiers to him.
+
+8. Then he showed the matter to his lord the King of France, and he
+sought him at St. Germer, and found him there; and he said that he
+would aid him, so that by his aid he won his right, he would hold
+England from him and serve him for it. But the king answered that he
+would not aid him, neither with his will should he pass the sea; for
+the French prayed him not to aid him, saying he was too strong
+already, and that if he let him add riches from over the sea to his
+lands of Normandy and all his good knights, there would never be
+peace. "And when England shall be conquered," said they, "you will
+hear no more of his service. He pays little service now, but then it
+will be less. The more he has, the less he will do."
+
+9. So the duke took leave of the king, and came away in a rage,
+saying: "Sir, I go to do the best I can, and if God will that I gain
+my right you shall see me no more but for evil. And if I fail, and the
+English can defend themselves, my children shall inherit my lands, and
+thou shalt not conquer them. Living or dead, I fear no menace!"
+
+10. Then the duke sent to Rome clerks that were skilled in speech,
+and they told the Pope how Harold had sworn falsely, and that Duke
+William promised that if he conquered England he would hold it of St.
+Peter. And the Pope sent him a standard and a very precious ring, and
+underneath the stone there was, it is said, a hair of St. Peter's. And
+about that time there appeared a great star shining in the south with
+very long rays, such a star as is seen when a kingdom is about to have
+a new king. I have spoken with many men who saw it, and those who are
+cunning in the stars call it a comet.
+
+11. Then the duke called together carpenters and ship-builders, and in
+all the ports of Normandy there was sawing of planks and carrying of
+wood, spreading of sails and setting up of masts, with great labor and
+industry. Thus all the summer long and through the month of August
+they made ready the fleet and assembled the men; for there was no
+knight in all the land, nor any good sergeant, nor archer, nor any
+peasant of good courage, of age to fight, whom the duke did not summon
+to go with him to England.
+
+12. When the ships were ready, they were anchored in the Somme at St.
+Valery. And as the renown of the duke went abroad there came to him
+soldiers one by one or two by two, and the duke kept them with him,
+and promised them much. And some asked for lands in England, and
+others pay and large gifts. But I will not write down what barons,
+knights, and soldiers the duke had in his company; but I have heard my
+father say (I remember it well, though I was but a boy) that there
+were seven hundred ships, save four, when they left St. Valery--ships,
+and boats, and little skiffs. But I found it written (I know not the
+truth) that there were three thousand ships carrying sails and masts.
+
+13. And at St. Valery they tarried long for a favorable wind, and the
+barons grew weary with waiting; and they prayed those of the convent
+to bring out to the camp the shrine of St. Valery, and they came to it
+and prayed they might cross the sea, and they offered money till all
+the holy body was covered with it, and the same day there sprang up a
+favorable wind. Then the duke put a lantern on the mast of his ship,
+that the other ships might see it and keep their course near, and an
+ensign of gilded copper on the top; and at the head of the ships,
+which mariners call the prow, there was a child made of copper holding
+a bow and arrow, and he had his face toward England, and seemed about
+to shoot.
+
+14. Thus the ships came to port, and they all arrived together and
+anchored together on the beach, and together they all disembarked. And
+it was near Hastings, and the ships lay side by side. And the good
+sailors and sergeants and esquires sprang out, and cast anchor, and
+fastened the ships with ropes; and they brought out their shields and
+saddles, and led forth the horses.
+
+15. The archers were the first to come to land, every one with his bow
+and his quiver and arrows by his side, all shaven and dressed in short
+tunics, ready for battle and of good courage; and they searched all
+the beach, but no armed man could they find. When they were issued
+forth, then came the knights in armor, with helmet laced and shield on
+neck, and together they came to the sand and mounted their war-horses;
+and they had their swords at their sides, and rode with lances raised.
+The barons had their standards and the knights their pennons. After
+them came the carpenters, with their axes in their hands and their
+tools hanging by their side. And when they came to the archers and to
+the knights they took counsel together, and brought wood from the
+ships and fastened it together with bolts and bars, and before the
+evening was well come they had made themselves a strong fort. And they
+lighted fires and cooked food, and the duke and his barons and knights
+sat down to eat; and they all ate and drank plentifully and rejoiced
+that they were come to land.
+
+16. When the duke came forth of his ship he fell on his hands to the
+ground, and there rose a great cry, for all said it was an evil sign;
+but he cried aloud: "Lords, I have seized the land with my two hands,
+and will never yield it. All is ours." Then a man ran to land and laid
+his hand upon a cottage, and took a handful of the thatch, and
+returned to the duke. "Sir," said he, "take seizin of the land; yours
+is the land without doubt." Then the duke commanded the mariners to
+draw all the ships to land and pierce holes in them and break them to
+pieces, for they should never return by the way they had come.
+
+                    _"Belt and Spur," Stories of the Old Knights._
+
+
+
+
+_XLI.--THE NORMAN CONQUEST._
+
+
+1. Poor old Edward the Confessor, holy, weak, and sad, lay in his new
+choir of Westminster--where the wicked cease from troubling and the
+weary are at rest. The crowned ascetic had left no heir behind.
+England seemed as a corpse, to which all the eagles might gather
+together; and the South-English, in their utter need, had chosen for
+their king the ablest, and it may be the justest, man in Britain--Earl
+Harold Godwinson: himself, like half the upper classes of England
+then, of all-dominant Norse blood; for his mother was a Danish princess.
+
+[Illustration: _Edward the Confessor's Tomb._]
+
+2. Then out of Norway, with a mighty host, came Harold Hardraade,
+taller than all men, the ideal Viking of his time. He had been away to
+Russia to King Jaroslaf; he had been in the Emperor's Varanger guard
+at Constantinople--and, it was whispered, had slain a lion there with
+his bare hands; he had carved his name and his comrades' in Runic
+characters--if you go to Venice you may see them at this day--on the
+loins of the great marble lion, which stood in his time not in Venice
+but in Athens. And now, King of Norway and conqueror, for the time, of
+Denmark, why should he not take England, as Sweyn and Canute took it
+sixty years before, when the flower of the English gentry perished at
+the fatal battle of Assingdune? If he and his half-barbarous host had
+conquered, the civilization of Britain would have been thrown back,
+perhaps, for centuries. But it was not to be.
+
+3. England _was_ to be conquered by the Normans; but by the civilized,
+not the barbaric; by the Norse who had settled, but four generations
+before, in the northeast of France under Rou, Rollo, Rolf the Ganger,
+so called, they say, because his legs were so long that, when on
+horseback, he touched the ground and seemed to gang, or walk. He and
+his Norsemen had taken their share of France, and called it Normandy
+to this day; and meanwhile, with that docility and adaptability which
+marks so often truly great spirits, they changed their creed, their
+language, their habits, and had become, from heathen and murderous
+Berserkers, the most truly civilized people in Europe, and--as was
+most natural then--the most faithful allies and servants of the Pope
+of Rome. So greatly had they changed, and so fast, that William Duke
+of Normandy, the great-great grandson of Rolf the wild Viking, was
+perhaps the finest gentleman, as well as the most cultivated sovereign
+and the greatest statesman and warrior in Europe.
+
+4. So Harold of Norway came with all his Vikings to Stamford Bridge by
+York; and took, by coming, only that which Harold of England promised
+him, namely, "forasmuch as he was taller than any other man, seven
+feet of English ground."
+
+5. The story of that great battle, told with a few inaccuracies, but
+as only great poets tell, you should read, if you have not read it
+already, in the "Heimskringla" of Snorri Sturluson, the Homer of the
+North:
+
+    High feast that day held the birds of the air and the beasts of the
+              field,
+    White-tailed erm and sallow glede,
+    Dusky raven, with horny neb,
+    And the gray deer the wolf of the wood.
+
+The bones of the slain, men say, whitened the place for fifty years to
+come.
+
+6. And remember that on the same day on which that fight
+befell--September 27, 1066--William, Duke of Normandy, with all his
+French-speaking Norsemen, was sailing across the British Channel,
+under the protection of a banner consecrated by the Pope, to conquer
+that England which the Norse-speaking Normans could not conquer.
+
+7. And now King Harold showed himself a man. He turned at once from
+the north of England to the south. He raised the folk of the southern,
+as he had raised those of the central and northern shires, and in
+sixteen days--after a march which in those times was a prodigious
+feat--he was intrenched upon the fatal down which men called
+Heathfield then, and Senlac, but Battle to this day--with William and
+his French Normans opposite him on Telham Hill.
+
+8. Then came the battle of Hastings. You all know what befell upon
+that day, and how the old weapon was matched against the new--the
+English axe against the Norman lance--and beaten only because the
+English broke their ranks.
+
+9. It was a fearful time which followed. I can not but believe that
+our forefathers had been, in some way or other, great sinners, or two
+such conquests as Canute's and William's would not have fallen on them
+within the short space of sixty years. They did not want for courage,
+as Stamford Brigg and Hastings showed full well. English swine, their
+Norman conquerors called them often enough, but never English cowards.
+
+10. Their ruinous vice, if we trust the records of the time, was what
+the old monks called _accidia_, and ranked it as one of the seven
+deadly sins: a general careless, sleepy, comfortable habit of mind,
+which lets all go its way for good or evil--a habit of mind too often
+accompanied, as in the case of the Anglo-Danes, with self-indulgence,
+often coarse enough. Huge eaters and huger drinkers, fuddled with ale,
+were the men who went down at Hastings--though they went down like
+heroes--before the staid and sober Norman out of France.
+
+11. But these were fearful times. As long as William lived, ruthless
+as he was to all rebels, he kept order and did justice with a strong
+and steady hand; for he brought with him from Normandy the instincts
+of a truly great statesman. And in his sons' time matters grew worse
+and worse. After that, in the troubles of Stephen's reign, anarchy let
+loose tyranny in its most fearful form, and things were done which
+recall the cruelties of the old Spanish _conquistadores_ in America.
+Scott's charming romance of "Ivanhoe" must be taken, I fear, as a too
+true picture of English society in the time of Richard I.
+
+[Illustration: _Battle Abbey._]
+
+12. And what came of it all? What was the result of all this misery and
+wrong? This, paradoxical as it may seem: that the Norman conquest was
+the making of the English people; of the free commons of England.
+
+13. Paradoxical, but true. First, you must dismiss from your minds the
+too common notion that there is now in England a governing Norman
+aristocracy, or that there has been one, at least since the year 1215,
+when the Magna Charta was won from the Norman John by Normans and by
+English alike. For the first victors at Hastings, like the first
+_conquistadores_ in America, perished, as the monk chronicles point
+out, rapidly by their own crimes; and very few of our nobility can
+trace their names back to the authentic Battle Abbey roll.
+
+14. The cause is plain: The conquest of England by the Normans was not
+one of those conquests of a savage by a civilized race, or of a
+cowardly race by a brave race, which results in the slavery of the
+conquered, and leaves the gulf of caste between two races--master and
+slave. The vast majority, all but the whole population of England,
+have always been free, and free as they are not when caste exists to
+change their occupations. They could intermarry, if they were able
+men, into the rank above them; as they could sink, if they were unable
+men, into the rank below them.
+
+15. Nay, so utterly made up now is the old blood-feud between Norman
+and Englishman, between the descendants of those who conquered and
+those who were conquered, that, in the children of the Prince of
+Wales, after eight hundred years, the blood of William of Normandy is
+mingled with the blood of Harold, who fell at Hastings. And so, by the
+bitter woes which followed the Norman conquest was the whole
+population, Dane, Angle, and Saxon, earl and churl, freeman and slave,
+crushed and welded together into one homogeneous mass, made just and
+merciful toward each other by the most wholesome of all teachings, a
+community of suffering; and if they had been, as I fear they were, a
+lazy and a sensual people, were taught--
+
+    That life is not as idle ore,
+    But heated hot with burning fears,
+    And bathed in baths of hissing tears,
+    And battered with the strokes of doom
+    To shape and use.
+
+                                              _Charles Kingsley._
+
+
+
+
+_XLII.--KING RICHARD CŒUR DE LION IN THE HOLY LAND._
+
+
+1. At the end of August, 1191, Richard led his crusading troops from
+Acre into the midst of the wilderness of Mount Carmel, where their
+sufferings were terrible; the rocky, sandy, and uneven ground was
+covered with bushes full of long, sharp prickles, and swarms of
+noxious insects buzzed in the air, fevering the Europeans with their
+stings; and in addition to these natural obstacles, multitudes of Arab
+horsemen harrassed them on every side, slaughtering every straggler
+who dropped behind from fatigue, and attacking them so unceasingly
+that it was remarked, that throughout their day's track there was not
+one space of four feet without an arrow sticking in the ground.
+Richard fought indefatigably, always in the van, and ready to reward
+the gallant exploits of his knights. A young knight who bore a white
+shield, in hopes of gaining some honorable bearing, so distinguished
+himself that Richard thus greeted him at the close of the day: "Maiden
+knight, you have borne yourself as a lion, and done the deed of six
+crusaders."
+
+[Illustration: _Battle of Arsaaf._]
+
+2. At Arsaaf, on the 7th of September, a great battle was fought.
+Saladin and his brother had almost defeated the two religious orders
+(the Templars and the Hospitallers), and the gallant French knight
+Jacques d'Avesne, after losing his leg by a stroke from a cimeter,
+fought bravely on, calling on the English king until he fell
+overpowered by numbers. Cœur de Lion and Guillaume des Barres
+retrieved the day, hewed down the enemy on all sides, and remained
+masters of the field. It is even said that Richard and Saladin met
+hand to hand, but this is uncertain. This victory opened the way to
+Joppa, where the crusaders spent the next month in the repair of the
+fortifications, while the Saracen forces lay at Ascalon.
+
+3. While here, Richard often amused himself with hawking, and one day
+was asleep under a tree when he was aroused by the approach of a party
+of Saracens, and springing on his horse Frannelle, which had been
+taken at Cyprus, he rashly pursued them and fell into an ambush. Four
+knights were slain, and he would have been seized had not a Gascon
+knight named Guillaume des Parcelets called out that he himself was
+the Malak Rik (great king), and allowed himself to be taken. Richard
+offered ten noble Saracens in exchange for this generous knight, whom
+Saladin restored together with a valuable horse that had been captured
+at the same time. A present of another Arab steed accompanied them;
+but Richard's half-brother, William Longsword, insisted on trying the
+animal before the king should mount it. No sooner was he on its back,
+than it dashed at once across the country, and before he could stop it
+he found himself in the midst of the enemy's camp. The two Saracen
+princes were extremely shocked and distressed lest this should be
+supposed a trick, and instantly escorted Longsword back with a gift of
+three chargers, which proved to be more manageable.
+
+4. From Joppa the crusaders marched to Ramla, and thence, on New
+Year's Day, 1192, set out for Jerusalem through a country full of
+greater obstacles than they had yet encountered. They were too full of
+spirit to be discouraged until they came to Bethany, where the two
+Grand Masters represented to Richard the imprudence of laying siege to
+such fortifications as those of Jerusalem at such a season of the
+year, while Ascalon was ready in his rear for a post whence the enemy
+would attack him.
+
+5. He yielded, and retreated to Ascalon, which Saladin had ruined and
+abandoned, and began eagerly to repair the fortifications so as to be
+able to leave a garrison there. The soldiers grumbled, saying they had
+not come to Palestine to build Ascalon, but to conquer Jerusalem;
+whereupon Richard set the example of himself carrying stones, and
+called on Leopold, the Duke of Austria, to do the same. The sulky
+reply, "He was not the son of a mason," so irritated Richard, that he
+struck him a blow; Leopold straightway quitted the army, and returned
+to Austria.
+
+6. It was not without great grief and many struggles that Cœur de
+Lion finally gave up his hopes of taking Jerusalem. He again advanced
+as far as Bethany; but a quarrel with Hugh of Burgundy, and the
+defection of the Austrians made it impossible for him to proceed, and
+he turned back to Ramla. While riding out with a party of knights, one
+of them called out, "This way, my lord, and you will see Jerusalem."
+"Alas!" said Richard, hiding his face with his mantle, "those who are
+not worthy to win the Holy City are not worthy to behold it." He
+returned to Acre; but there hearing that Saladin was besieging Joppa,
+he embarked his troops and sailed to its aid.
+
+7. The crescent (the standard of the Saracens) shone on its walls as
+he entered the harbor; but while he looked on in dismay, he was hailed
+by a priest who had leaped into the sea and swum out to inform him
+that there was yet time to rescue the garrison, though the town was in
+the hands of the enemy. He hurried his vessel forward, leaped into the
+water breast-high, dashed upward on the shore, ordered his immediate
+followers to raise a bulwark of casks and beams to protect the landing
+of the rest, and rushing up a flight of steps, entered the city alone.
+"St. George! St. George!" That cry dismayed the infidels, and those in
+the town to the number of three thousand fled in the utmost confusion,
+and were pursued for two miles by three knights who had been fortunate
+enough to find him.
+
+8. Richard pitched his tent outside the walls, and remained there with
+so few troops that all were contained in ten tents. Very early one
+morning, before the king was out of bed, a man rushed into his tent,
+crying out: "O king! we are all dead men!" Springing up, Richard
+fiercely silenced him: "Peace! or thou diest by my hand!" Then, while
+hastily donning his suit of mail, he heard that the glitter of arms
+had been seen in the distance, and in another moment the enemy were
+upon them, seven thousand in number. Richard had neither helmet nor
+shield, and only seventeen of his knights had horses; but undaunted he
+drew up his little force in a compact body, the knights kneeling on
+one knee covered by their shields, their lances pointing outward, and
+between each pair an archer with an assistant to load his cross-bow;
+and he stood in the midst encouraging them with his voice, and
+threatening to cut off the head of the first who turned to fly. In
+vain did the Saracens charge that mass of brave men, not one seventh
+of their number; the shields and lances were impenetrable; and without
+one forward step or one bolt from the cross-bows, their passive
+steadiness turned back wave after wave of the enemy.
+
+9. At last the king gave the word for the cross-bowmen to advance,
+while he, with the seventeen mounted knights charged, lance in rest.
+His curtal axe bore down all before it, and he dashed like lightning
+from one part of the plain to another, with not a moment to smile at
+the opportune gift from the polite Malek-el-Afdal, who, in the hottest
+of the fight, sent him two fine horses, desiring him to use them in
+escaping from this dreadful peril. Little did the Saracen princes
+imagine that they would find him victorious, and that they would mount
+two more pursuers!
+
+10. Next came a terrified fugitive with news that three thousand
+Saracens had entered Joppa! Richard summoned a few knights, and
+without a word to the rest galloped back into the city. The panic
+inspired by his presence instantly cleared the streets, and riding
+back, he again led his troops to the charge; but such were the swarms
+of Saracens, that it was not till evening that the Christians could
+give themselves a moment's rest, or look round and feel that they had
+gained one of the most wonderful of victories. Since daybreak Richard
+had not laid aside his sword or axe, and his hand was all over
+blistered. No wonder that the terror of his name endured for centuries
+in Palestine, and that the Arab chided his starting horse with, "Dost
+think that yonder is the Malek Rik?" while the mother stilled her
+crying child by threats that the Malek Rik should take it.
+
+11. These violent exertions seriously injured Richard's health, and a
+low fever placed him in great danger, as well as several of his best
+knights. No command or persuasion could induce the rest to commence
+any enterprise without him, and the tidings from Europe induced him to
+conclude a peace and return home. Malek-el-Afdal came to visit him,
+and a truce was signed for three years, three months, three weeks,
+three days, three hours, and three minutes, thus so quaintly arranged
+in accordance with some astrological views of the Saracens. Ascalon
+was to be demolished on condition that free access to Jerusalem was to
+be allowed to the pilgrims; but Saladin would not restore the piece of
+the True Cross, as he was resolved not to conduce to what he
+considered idolatry.
+
+12. Richard sent notice that he was coming back with double his
+present force to effect the conquest, and the Sultan answered, that if
+the Holy City was to pass into Frank hands, none could be nobler than
+those of the Malek Rik. Fever and debility detained Richard a month
+longer at Joppa, during which time he sent the Bishop of Salisbury to
+carry his offerings to Jerusalem. The prelate was invited to the
+presence of Saladin, who spoke in high terms of Richard's courage, but
+censured his rash exposure of his own life. On October 9, 1193,
+Cœur de Lion took leave of Palestine, watching with tears its
+receding shores, as he exclaimed, "O, Holy Land, I commend thee and
+thy people unto God. May He grant me yet to return to aid thee!"
+
+                                            _Charlotte M. Yonge._
+
+
+
+
+_XLIII.--KING JOHN AND THE CHARTER._
+
+
+1. On his return from the crusade Richard was taken prisoner by the
+Duke of Austria. He bought his release only to find King Philip
+attacking his French dominions, and to plunge into wearisome and
+indecisive wars, in the midst of which he was slain at the Castle of
+Chaluz. His brother John, who followed him on the throne, was a vile
+and weak ruler, under whom the great sovereignty built up by Henry II
+broke utterly down. Normandy, Maine, and Anjou were reft from him by
+Philip of France, and only Aquitaine remained to him on that side of
+the sea. In England his lust and oppression drove people and nobles to
+join in resistance to him; and their resistance found a great leader
+in the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton.
+
+2. From the moment of his landing in England, Stephen Langton had
+taken up the constitutional position of the primate in upholding the
+old customs and rights of the realm against the personal despotism of
+the kings. As Anselm had withstood William the Red, as Theobald had
+withstood Stephen, so Langton prepared to withstand and rescue his
+country from the tyranny of John. He had already forced him to swear
+to observe the laws of Edward the Confessor, in other words the
+traditional liberties of the realm. When the baronage refused to sail
+for Poitou, saying that they owed service to him in England, but not
+in foreign lands, he compelled the king to deal with them not by arms,
+but by process of law. But the work which he now undertook was far
+greater and weightier than this. The pledges of Henry the First had
+long been forgotten when the justiciar brought them to light, but
+Langton saw the vast importance of such a precedent. At the close of
+the month he produced Henry's charter in a fresh gathering of barons
+at St. Paul's, and it was at once welcomed as a base for the needed
+reforms. From London Langton hastened to the king, whom he reached at
+Northampton on his way to attack the nobles of the north, and wrested
+from him a promise to bring his strife with them to legal judgment
+before assailing them in arms.
+
+3. With his enemies gathering abroad, John had doubtless no wish to be
+entangled in a long quarrel at home, and the archbishop's mediation
+allowed him to withdraw with seeming dignity. After a demonstration
+therefore at Durham John marched hastily south again, and reached London
+in October. His justiciar Geoffry Fitz-Peter at once laid before him the
+claims of the Council of St. Alban's and St. Paul's, but the death of
+Geoffry at this juncture freed him from the pressure which his minister
+was putting upon him. "Now, by God's feet," cried John, "I am for the
+first time king and lord of England," and he intrusted the vacant
+justiciarship to a Poitevin, Peter des Roches, the Bishop of Winchester,
+whose temper was in harmony with his own. But the death of Geoffry only
+called the archbishop to the front, and Langton at once demanded the
+king's assent to the charter of Henry the First.
+
+4. In seizing on this charter as a basis for national action, Langton
+showed a political ability of the highest order. The enthusiasm with
+which its recital was welcomed showed the sagacity with which the
+archbishop had chosen his ground. From that moment the baronage was no
+longer drawn together in secret conspiracies by a sense of common
+wrong or a vague longing for common deliverance; they were openly
+united in a definite claim of national freedom and national law.
+Secretly, and on the pretext of pilgrimage, the nobles met at St.
+Edmundsbury, resolute to bear no longer with John's delays. If he
+refused to restore their liberties they swore to make war on him till
+he confirmed them by charter under the king's seal, and they parted to
+raise forces with the purpose of presenting their demands at
+Christmas. John, knowing nothing of the coming storm, pursued his
+policy of winning over the Church by granting it freedom of election,
+while he imbittered still more the strife with his nobles by
+demanding scutage[A] from the northern nobles who had refused to
+follow him to Poitou. But the barons were now ready to act, and early
+in January, in the memorable year 1215, they appeared in arms to lay,
+as they had planned, their demands before the king.
+
+5. John was taken by surprise. He asked for a truce till Easter-tide,
+and spent the interval in fevered efforts to avoid the blow. Again he
+offered freedom to the Church, and took vows as a crusader against
+whom war was a sacrilege, while he called for a general oath of
+allegiance and fealty from the whole body of his subjects. But month
+after month only showed the king the uselessness of further
+resistance. Though Pandulf, the Pope's legate, was with him, his
+vassalage had as yet brought little fruit in the way of aid from Rome;
+the commissioners whom he sent to plead his cause at the shire courts
+brought back news that no man would help him against the charter that
+the barons claimed; and his efforts to detach the clergy from the
+league of his opponents utterly failed. The nation was against the
+king. He was far indeed from being utterly deserted. His ministers
+still clung to him, men such as Geoffry de Lucy, Geoffry de Furnival,
+Thomas Basset, and William Briwere, statesmen trained in the
+administrative school of his father, and who, dissent as they might
+from John's mere oppression, still looked on the power of the crown as
+the one barrier against feudal anarchy; and beside them stood some of
+the great nobles of royal blood, Earl William of Salisbury, his cousin
+Earl William of Warenne, and Henry, Earl of Cornwall, a grandson of
+Henry the First. With him too remained Ranulf, Earl of Chester, and
+the wisest and noblest of the barons, William Marshal, the elder Earl
+of Pembroke. William Marshal had shared in the rising of the younger
+Henry against Henry II, and stood by him as he died; he had shared in
+the overthrow of William Longchamp, and in the outlawry of John. He
+was now an old man, firm, as we shall see in his aftercourse, to
+recall the government to the path of freedom and law, but shrinking
+from a strife which might bring back the anarchy of Stephen's day, and
+looking for reforms rather in the bringing constitutional pressure to
+bear upon the king than in forcing them from him by arms.
+
+6. But cling as such men might to John, they clung to him rather as
+mediators than adherents. Their sympathies went with the demands of
+the barons when the delay which had been granted was over and the
+nobles again gathered in arms at Brackley in Northamptonshire to lay
+their claims before the king. Nothing marks more strongly the
+absolutely despotic idea of his sovereignty which John had formed than
+the passionate surprise which breaks out in his reply. "Why do they
+not ask for my kingdom?" he cried. "I will never grant such liberties
+as will make me a slave!" The imperialist theories of the lawyers of
+his father's court had done their work. Held at bay by the practical
+sense of Henry, they had told on the more headstrong nature of his
+sons. Richard and John both held with Glanvill that the will of the
+prince was the law of the land; and to fetter that will by the customs
+and franchises which were embodied in the baron's claims seemed to
+John a monstrous usurpation of his rights.
+
+[Illustration: _King John and the Charter._]
+
+7. But no imperialist theories had touched the minds of his people.
+The country rose as one man at his refusal. At the close of May,
+London threw open her gates to the forces of the barons, now arrayed
+under Robert Fitz Walter as "Marshal of the Army of God and Holy
+Church." Exeter and Lincoln followed the example of the capital;
+promises of aid came from Scotland and Wales, the northern barons
+marched hastily under Eustace de Vesci to join their comrades in
+London. Even the nobles who had as yet clung to the king, but whose
+hopes of conciliation were blasted by his obstinacy, yielded at last
+to the summons of the "Army of God." Pandulf, indeed, and Archbishop
+Langton still remained with John, but they counseled as Earl Ranulf
+and William Marshal counseled his acceptance of the charter. None, in
+fact, counseled its rejection save his new justiciar, the Poitevin
+Peter des Roches and other foreigners who knew the barons purposed
+driving them from the land. But even the number of these was small;
+there was a moment when John found himself with but seven knights at
+his back and before him a nation in arms. Quick as he was, he had been
+taken utterly by surprise. It was in vain that in the short respite he
+had gained from Christmas to Easter, he had summoned mercenaries to
+his aid and appealed to his new suzerain, the Pope. Summons and appeal
+were alike too late. Nursing wrath in his heart, John bowed to
+necessity, and called the barons to a conference on an island in the
+Thames between Windsor and Staines, near a marshy meadow by the
+river-side, the meadow of Runnymede.
+
+8. The king encamped on one bank of the river, the barons covered the
+flat of Runnymede on the other. Their delegates met on the 15th of
+July in the island between them, but the negotiations were a mere
+cloak to cover John's purpose of unconditional submission. The Great
+Charter was discussed and agreed to in a single day.
+
+                                            _John Richard Green._
+
+[Footnote A: Scutage, or shield-money, was the commutation paid in
+lieu of military service by all who owed service to the king.]
+
+
+
+
+_XLIV.--AN EARLY ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT._
+
+     The following preliminary sketch by J. R. Green, the historian,
+     serves as an introduction to Palgrave's picture of an election
+     under Edward I:
+
+     "It was Edward the First, who first made laws in what has ever
+     since been called Parliament. For this purpose he called on the
+     shires and larger towns to choose men to 'represent' them, or
+     appear in their stead in the Great Council; the shires sending
+     knights of the shire, the towns burgesses. These, added to the
+     peers or high nobles and to the bishops, made up Parliament.
+
+     "The business of Parliament was not only to make good laws for
+     the realm, but to grant money to the king for the needs of the
+     state in peace and war, and to authorize him to raise this money
+     by taxes or subsidies from his subjects. So at first people saw
+     little of the great good of such Parliaments, but dreaded their
+     calling together, because they brought taxes with them. Nor did
+     men seek, as they do now, to be chosen members of Parliament, for
+     the way thither was long and travel costly, and so they did their
+     best not to be chosen, and when chosen had to be bound over under
+     pain of heavy fines to serve in Parliament."
+
+
+1. During the last half-hour the suitors had been gathering round the
+shire-oak awaiting the arrival of the high officer whose duty it was
+to preside. Notwithstanding the size of the meeting, there was an
+evident system in the crowd. A considerable proportion of the throng
+consisted of little knots of husbandmen or churls, four or five of
+whom were generally standing together, each company seeming to compose
+a deputation. The churls might be easily distinguished by their dress,
+a long frock of coarse yet snow-white linen hanging down to the same
+length before and behind, and ornamented round the neck with broidery
+rudely executed in blue thread. They wore, in fact, the attire of the
+carter and plowman, a garb which was common enough in country parts
+about five-and-twenty years ago, but which will probably soon be
+recollected only as an ancient costume, cast away with all the other
+obsolete characteristics of merry old England.
+
+[Illustration: _An Early Election to Parliament._]
+
+2. These groups of peasantry were the representatives of their
+respective townships, the rural communes into which the whole realm
+was divided; and each had a species of chieftain or head-man in the
+person of an individual who, though it was evident that he belonged to
+the same rank in society, gave directions to the rest. Interspersed
+among the churls, though not confounded with them, were also very many
+well-clad persons, possessing an appearance of rustic respectability,
+who were also subjected to some kind of organization, being collected
+into sets of twelve men each, who were busily employed in
+confabulation among themselves. These were "the sworn centenary
+deputies" or jurors, the sworn men who answered for or represented the
+several hundreds.
+
+3. A third class of members of the shire court could be equally
+distinguished, proudly known by their gilt spurs and blazoned tabards
+as the provincial knighthood, and who, though thus honored, appeared
+to mix freely and affably in converse with the rest of the commons of
+the shire.
+
+4. A flourish of trumpets announced the approach of the high-sheriff,
+Sir Giles de Argentein, surrounded by his escort of javelin-men, tall
+yeomen, all arrayed in a uniform suit of livery, and accompanied,
+among others, by four knights, the coroners, who took cognizance of
+all pleas that concerned the king's rights within the county, and who,
+though they yielded precedence to the sheriff, were evidently
+considered to be almost of equal importance with him. "My masters,"
+said the sheriff to the assembled crowd, "even now hath the
+port-joye[B] of the chancery delivered to me certain most important
+writs of our sovereign lord the king, containing his Grace's high
+commands." At this time the chancellor, who might be designated as
+principal secretary of state for all departments, was the great medium
+of communication between king and subject: whatever the sovereign had
+to ask or tell was usually asked or told by, or under, the directions
+of this high functionary.
+
+5. Now, although the gracious declarations which the chancellor was
+charged to deliver were much diversified in their form, yet, somehow
+or other, they all conveyed the same intent. Whether directing the
+preservation of peace or preparing for the prosecution of a war,
+whether announcing a royal birth or a royal death, the knighthood of
+the king's son or the marriage of the king's daughter, the mandates of
+our ancient kings invariably conclude with a request or a demand for
+money's worth or money.
+
+6. The present instance offered no exception to the general rule. King
+Edward, greeting his loving subjects, expatiated upon the miseries
+which the realm was likely to sustain by the invasion of the wicked,
+barbarous, and perfidious Scots. Church and state, he alleged, were in
+equal danger, and "inasmuch as that which concerneth all ought to be
+determined by the advice of all concerned, we have determined,"
+continued the writ, "to hold our Parliament at Westminster in eight
+days from the feast of St. Hilary." The effect of the announcement was
+magical. Parliament! Even before the second syllable of the word had
+been uttered, visions of aids and subsidies rose before the appalled
+multitude, grim shadows of assessors and collectors floated in the
+ambient air.
+
+7. Sir Gilbert Hastings instinctively plucked his purse out of his
+sleeve; drawing the strings together, he twisted, and tied them in the
+course of half a minute of nervous agitation into a Gordian knot,
+which apparently defied any attempt to undo it, except by means
+practiced by the son of Ammon. The Abbot of Oseney forthwith guided
+his steed to the right about, and rode away from the meeting as fast
+as his horse could trot, turning the deafest of all deaf ears to the
+monitions which he received to stay.
+
+8. The sheriff and the other functionaries alone preserved a tranquil
+but not a cheerful gravity, as Sir Giles commanded his clerk to read
+the whole of the writ, by which he was commanded "to cause two knights
+to be elected for the shire; and from every city within his bailiwick
+two citizens; and from every borough two burgesses--all of them of the
+more discreet and wiser sort; and to cause them to come before the
+king in this Parliament at the before-mentioned day and place, with
+full powers from their respective communities to perform and consent
+to such matters as by common counsel shall then and there be ordained;
+and this you will in no wise omit, as you will answer at your peril."
+
+9. A momentary pause ensued. The main body of the suitors retreated
+from the high-sheriff, as though he had been a center of repulsion.
+After a short but vehement conversation among themselves, one of the
+bettermost sort of yeomen, a gentleman farmer, if we may use the
+modern term, stepped forward and addressed Sir Giles: "Your worship
+well knows that we, your commons, are not bound to proceed to the
+election. You have no right to call upon us to interfere. So many of
+the earls and barons of the shire, the great men, who ought to take
+the main trouble, burthen, and business of the choice of the knights
+upon themselves, are absent now in the king's service, that we neither
+can nor dare proceed to nominate those who are to represent the
+county. Such slender folks as we have no concern in these weighty
+matters. How can we tell who are best qualified to serve?"
+
+10. "What of that, John Trafford?" said the sheriff. "Do you think
+that his Grace will allow his affairs to be delayed by excuses such as
+these? You suitors of the shire are as much bound and obliged to
+concur in the choice of the county members as any baron of the realm.
+Do your duty; I command you in the king's name!"
+
+11. John Trafford had no help. Like a wise debater, he yielded to the
+pinch of the argument without confessing that he felt it; and, having
+muttered a few words to the sheriff, which might be considered as an
+assent, a long conference took place between him and some of his
+brother stewards, as well as with other suitors. During this
+confabulation several nods and winks of intelligence passed between
+Trafford and a well-mounted knight; and while the former appeared to
+be settling the business with the suitors, the latter, who had been
+close to Sir Giles, continued gradually backing and sidling away
+through the groups of shiresmen, and, just as he had got clear out of
+the ring, John Trafford declared, in a most sonorous voice, that the
+suitors had chosen Sir Richard de Pogeys as one of their
+representatives.
+
+12. The sheriff, who, keeping his eye fixed upon Sir Richard as he
+receded, had evidently suspected some manœuvre, instantly ordered
+his bailiffs to secure the body of the member. "And," continued he
+with much vehemence, "Sir Richard must be forthwith committed to
+custody, unless he gives good bail--two substantial freeholders--that
+he will duly attend in his place among the commons on the first day of
+the session, according to the law and usage of Parliament."
+
+13. All this, however, was more easily said than done. Before the
+verbal precept had proceeded from the lips of the sheriff, Sir Richard
+was galloping away at full speed across the fields. Off dashed the
+bailiffs after the member, amid the shouts of the surrounding crowd,
+who forgot all their grievances in the stimulus of the chase, which
+they contemplated with the perfect certainty of receiving some
+satisfaction by its termination; whether by the escape of the
+fugitive, in which case their common enemy, the sheriff, would be
+liable to a heavy amercement;[C] or by the capture of the knight, a
+result which would give them almost equal delight, by imposing a
+disagreeable and irksome duty upon an individual who was universally
+disliked, in consequence of his overbearing harshness and domestic
+tyranny.
+
+14. One of the two above-mentioned gratifications might be considered
+as certain. But, besides these, there was a third contingent
+amusement, by no means to be overlooked, namely, the chance that in
+the contest those respectable and intelligent functionaries, the
+sheriff's bailiffs, might somehow or another come to some kind of
+harm. In this charitable expectation the good men of the shire were
+not entirely disappointed. Bounding along the open fields, while the
+welkin resounded with the cheers of the spectators, the fleet courser
+of Sir Richard sliddered on the grass, then stumbled and fell down the
+sloping side of one of the many ancient British intrenchments by which
+the plain was crossed, and, horse and rider rolling over, the latter
+was deposited quite at the bottom of the foss, unhurt, but much
+discomposed.
+
+15. Horse and rider were immediately on their respective legs again:
+the horse shook himself, snorted, and was quite ready to start; but
+Sir Richard had to regird his sword, and before he could remount, the
+bailiffs were close at him. Dick-o'-the-Gyves attempted to trip him
+up, John Catchpole seized him by the collar of his pourpoint.[D] A
+scuffle ensued, during which the nags of the bailiffs slyly took the
+opportunity of emancipating themselves from control. Distinctly seen
+from the moot-hill, the strife began and ended in a moment; in what
+manner it had ended was declared without any further explanation,
+when the officers rejoined the assembly, by Dick's limping gait and
+the closed eye of his companion.
+
+16. In the mean time Sir Richard had wholly disappeared, and the
+special return made by the sheriff to the writ, which I translate from
+the original, will best elucidate the bearing of the transaction:
+
+"Sir Richard de Pogeys, knight, duly elected by the shire, refused to
+find bail for his appearance in Parliament at the day and place within
+mentioned, and having grievously assaulted my bailiffs in contempt of
+the king, his crown, and dignity, and absconded to the Chiltern
+Hundreds[E], into which liberty, not being shire-land or guildable, I
+can not enter, I am unable to make any other execution of the writ as
+far as he is concerned."
+
+17. At the present day a nominal stewardship connected with the
+Chiltern Hundreds, called an office of profit under the crown, enables
+the member, by a species of juggle, to resign his seat. But it is not
+generally known that this ancient domain, which now affords the means
+of retreating out of the House of Commons, was in the fourteenth
+century employed as a sanctuary in which the knight of the shire took
+refuge in order to avoid being dragged into Parliament against his
+will. Being a distinct jurisdiction, in which the sheriff had no
+control, and where he could not capture the county member, it enabled
+the recusant to baffle the process, at least until the short session
+had closed.
+
+                                                      _Palgrave._
+
+[Footnote B: The port-joye was the messenger of the chancellor.]
+
+[Footnote C: Fine.]
+
+[Footnote D: Overcoat, or doublet.]
+
+[Footnote E: The district of the Chilterns, or line of chalk-hills to
+the east of Buckinghamshire.]
+
+
+
+
+_XLV.--THE BATTLE OF CRESSY._
+
+
+1. Froissart was a brilliant historian of the middle ages. His
+writings are in quaint old French. At the request of Henry VIII of
+England, a translation of his "Battle of Cressy" was made into the
+English of that day. We insert this as a most lively description of
+the battle itself, and as a specimen of old literature in which pupils
+can not fail to take great interest:
+
+2. Thenglysshmen who were in three batayls, lyeing on the grounde to
+rest them, assone as they saw the frenchmen approche, they rose upon
+their fete, fayre and easily, without any haste, and arranged their
+batayls: the first, which was the prince's batell, the archers then
+strode in the manner of a harrow, and the men at armes in the botome
+of the batayle.
+
+3. Therle of Northāpton and therle of Arundell, with the second
+batell, were on a wyng in good order, redy to comfort the princes
+batayle, if nede were. The lordes and knyghtes of France, cāe not
+to the assemble togyder in good order, for some came before, and some
+cāe after, in such haste and yvell order, y^t one of thē dyd
+trouble another: when the french kyng sawe the englysshmen, his blode
+chaunged, and sayde to his marshals, make the genowayes go on before,
+and begynne the batayle in the name of god and saynt Denyse; ther were
+of the genowayse crosbowes, about a fiftene thousand, but they were so
+wery of goyng a fote that day, a six leages, armed with their
+crosbowes, that they sayde to their constables, we be not well ordered
+to fyght this day, for we be not in the case to do any great dede of
+armes, we have more nede of rest. These wordes came to the erle of
+Alanson, who sayd, a man is well at ease to be charged w^t suche a
+sorte of rascalles, to be faynt and fayle now at moost nede. Also the
+same season there fell a great rayne, and a clyps, with a terryble
+thunder, and before the rayne, ther came fleying over both batayls, a
+great nombre of crowes, for feare of the tempest comynge.
+
+4. Than anone the eyre beganne to wax clere, and the sonne to shyne
+fayre and bright, the which was right in the frenchmens eyen and on
+thenglysshmens backes. Whan the genowayes were assembled to-guyder,
+and began to aproche, they made a great leape and crye, to abasshe
+thenglysshmen, but they stode styll, and styredde not for all that;
+thāns the genowayes agayne the seconde tyme made another leape, and
+a fell crye, and stepped forward a lytell, and thenglysshmen remeued
+not one fote; thirdly agayne they leapt and cryed, and went forthe
+tyll they come within shotte; thane they shotte feersly with their
+crosbowes; thun thenglysshe archers stept forthe one pase, and lette
+fly their arowes so hotly, and so thycke, that it semed snowe; when
+the genowayes felte the arowes persynge through heeds, armes, and
+brestes, many of them cast downe their crosbowes, and dyde cutte their
+strynges, and retourned dysconfited.
+
+5. Whun the frenche kynge sawe them flye away, he sayd, slee these
+rascalles, for they shall lette and trouble us without reason: then ye
+shulde have sene the men of armes dasshe in among them, and kylled a
+great nombre of them; and ever styll the englysshmen shot where as
+they sawe thyckest preace; the sharpe arowes ranne into the men of
+armes, and into their horses, and many fell, horse and men, amōge
+the genowayes; and when they were downe, they coude not relyve agayne,
+the preace was so thycke, that one overthrewe another. And also amonge
+the englysshmen there were certayne rascalles that went a fote, with
+great knyves, and they went in among the men of armes, and slewe and
+murdredde many as they lay on the grounde, both erles, baronnes,
+knyghtes and squyers, whereof the kynge of Englande was after
+dyspleased, for he had rather they had bene taken prisoners.
+
+6. The valyant kyng of Behaygne, called Charles of Luzenbomge, sonne
+to the noble emperour Henry of Luzenbomge, for all that he was nyghe
+blynde, whun he understode the order of the batayle, he sayde to them
+about hym, where is the lorde Charles my son? his men sayde, sir, we
+can not tell, we thynke he be fyghtynge; thun he sayde, sirs, ye ar my
+men, my companyons, and frendes in this journey. I requyre you bring
+me so farre forwarde, that I may stryke one stroke with my swerde;
+they sayde they wolde do his commandement, and to the intent that they
+shulde not lese him in the prease, they tyed all their raynes of their
+bridelles eche to other, and sette the kynge before to accomplysshe
+his desyre, and so thei went on their ennemyes; the lorde Charles of
+Behaygne, his sonne, who wrote hymselfe kyng of Behaygne, and bare the
+armes, he came in good order to the batayle, but whāne he sawe that
+the matter went awrie on their partie, he departed, I can not tell you
+whiche waye, the kynge his father was so farre forwarde that he strake
+a stroke with his swerde, ye and mo thun foure, and fought valyuntly,
+and so dyde his compuny, and they advētured themselfe so forwarde,
+that they were ther all slayne, and the next day they were founde in
+the place about the kyng, and all their horses tyed eche to other.
+
+7. The erle of Alansone came to the batayle right ordy notlye, and
+fought with thenglysshmen; and the erle of Flaunders also on his
+parte; these two lordes with their cōpanyes wosted the englysshe
+archers, and came to the princes batayle, and there fought valyantly
+longe. The frenche kynge wolde fayne have come thyder whanne he saw
+their baners, but there was a great hedge of archers before hym. The
+same day the frenche kynge hadde gyven a great blacke courser to Sir
+John of Heynault, and he made the lorde Johan of Fussels to ryde on
+hym, and to bere his banerre; the same horse tooke the bridell in the
+tethe, and brought hym through all the currours of thē'glysshmen,
+and as he wolde have retourned agayne, he fell in a great dyke, and
+was sore hurt, and had been ther deed, and his page had not ben, who
+followed him through all the batayls, and sawe where his maister lay
+in the dyke, and had none other lette but for his horse, for
+thenglysshmen wolde not yssue out of their batayle, for takyng of any
+prisiner; thāne the page alyghted and relyved his maister, thun he
+went not backe agayn y^e same way that they came, there was to many in
+his way.
+
+8. This batyle bytwene Broy and Cressy, this Saturday was right cruell
+and fell, and many a feat of armes done, that came not to my
+knowledge; in the night, dyverse knyghtes and sqyers lost their
+maisters, and sometyme came on thenglysshmen, who receyved them in
+such wyse, that they were ever nighe slayne; for there was none taken
+to mercy nor to raunsome, for so thenglysshmen were determyned: in the
+mornyng the day of the batayle, certayne frenchmen and almaygnes
+perforce opyned the archers of the princes batayle, and came and
+fought with the men of armes hande to hande: than the seconde batayle
+of thenglysshmen came to sucour the princes batayle, the whiche was
+tyme, for they had as thān moche ado; and they with y^e prince sent
+a messanger to the kynge, who was on a lytell wyndmyll hyll; thun the
+knyght sayd to the kyng, sir, therle of Warwyke, and therle of
+Cāfort, Sir Reynolde Cobham, and other, suche as be about the
+prince your sonne, as feersly fought with all, and ar sore handled,
+wherefore they desyre you, that you and your batayle wolle come and
+ayde them, for if the frenchmen encrease, as they dout they woll, your
+sonne and they shall have much ado.
+
+9. Thun the kynge sayde, is my sonne deed or hurt, or on the yerthe
+felled? no sir, quoth the knyght, but he is hardely matched, wherefore
+he hath nede of your ayde. Well, sayde the king, returne to him, and
+to thrm that sent you hyther, and say to them, that they sende no more
+to me for an adventure that falleth, as long as my son is alyve, and
+also say to thē, that they suffre hym this day to wynne his
+spurres, for if god he pleased, I woll this journey be his, and the
+honoure therof, and to them that be aboute him. Thun the knyght
+returned agayn to thē, and shewed the kynges wordes, the which
+gretly encouraged them, and repoyned in that they had sende to the
+kynge as they dyd. Sir Godfray of Harecourt, wolde gladly that the
+erle of Harcourt, his brother, myghte have been saved, for he hurd say
+by thē that he sawe his baner, howe that he was ther in the felde
+on the french partie, but Sir Godfray coude not come to hym betymes
+for he was slayne or he coude coē at hym, and so also was therle of
+Almare, his nephue.
+
+10. In another place the erle of Aleuson, and therle of Flaunders,
+fought valyantly, every lorde under his owne banere; but finally they
+coude not resyst agaynt the payssance of thenglysshmen, and so ther
+they were also slayne, and dyvers knyghtes and sqyers, also therle of
+Lewes of Bloyes, nephue to the frenche kyng, and the duke of Lorayne,
+fought under their baners, but at last they were closed in among a
+cōpany of englysshmen and welshmen, and were there slayed, for all
+their powers. Also there was slayne the erle of Ausser, therle of
+Saynt Poule, and many others.
+
+11. In the evenynge, the frenche kynge, who had lefte about hym no
+more than a threscore persons, one and other, whereof Sir John of
+Heynalt was one, who had remounted ones the kynge, for his horse was
+slayne with an arowe, thā sayde to the kynge, sir, departe hense,
+for it is tyme, lese not yourselfe wylfully, if ye have losse at this
+tyme, ye shall recover it agaynt another season, and soo he took the
+kynge's horse by the brydell, and ledde hym away in a maner perforce;
+than the kyng rode tyll he came to the castell of Broy. The gate was
+closed, because it was by that tyme darke; than the kynge called the
+captayne, who came to the walles, and sayd, Who is that calleth there
+this tyme of night? than the kynge sayde, open your gate quickly, for
+this is the fortune of Fraunce; the captayne knewe than it was the
+kyng, and opyned the gate, and let downe the bridge; than the kyng
+entred, and he had with hym but fyve baronnes, Sir Johan of Heynault,
+Sir Charles of Monmorency, the lorde of Beaureive, the lorde Dobegny,
+and the lorde of Mountfort; the kynge wolde not tary there, but
+drāke and departed thense about mydnyght, and so rode by suche
+guydes as knewe the country, tyll he came in the mornynge to Anyeuse,
+and then he rested. This saturday the englysshmen never departed for
+their batayls for chasynge of any man, but kept styll their felde, and
+ever defended themselfe agaynst all such as came to assayle them; the
+batayle ended about evynsonge tyme.
+
+
+
+
+_XLVI.--THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT._
+
+
+    1.  Fair stood the wind for France
+        When we our sails advance,
+        Nor now to prove our chance
+          Longer will tarry;
+        But, putting to the main,
+        At Kaux, the mouth of Seine,
+        With all his martial train,
+          Landed King Harry.
+
+    2.  And taking many a fort,
+        Furnish'd in warlike sort,
+        March'd toward Agincourt
+          In happy hour;
+        Skirmishing day by day
+        With those that stop'd the way,
+        Where the French gen'ral lay
+          With all his power.
+
+    3.  Which in his height of pride,
+        King Henry to deride,
+        His ransom to provide
+          To the king sending;
+        Which he neglects the while,
+        As from a nation vile,
+        Yet with an angry smile,
+          Their fall portending.
+
+    4.  And turning to his men,
+        Quoth our brave Henry then,
+        Though they be one to ten,
+          Be not amazed.
+        Yet, have we well begun,
+        Battles so bravely won
+        Have ever to the sun
+          By fame been raised.
+
+    5.  And for myself, quoth he,
+        This my full rest shall be,
+        England ne'er mourn for me,
+          Nor more esteem me.
+        Victor I will remain,
+        Or on this earth lie slain,
+        Never shall she sustain
+          Loss to redeem me.
+
+    6.  Poictiers and Cressy tell,
+        When most their pride did swell,
+        Under our swords they fell,
+          No less our skill is,
+        Than when our grandsire great,
+        Claiming the regal seat,
+        By many a warlike feat,
+          Lop'd the French lilies.
+
+    7.  The Duke of York so dread
+        The eager vanward led;
+        With the main Henry sped
+          Amongst his henchmen.
+        Excester had the rear,
+        A braver man not there;
+        O Lord, how hot they were
+          On the false Frenchmen!
+
+    8.  They now to fight are gone,
+        Armor on armor shone,
+        Drum now to drum did groan,
+          To hear was wonder;
+        That with the cries they make,
+        The very earth did shake,
+        Trumpet to trumpet spake,
+          Thunder to thunder.
+
+    9.  Well it thine age became,
+        O noble Erpingham,
+        Which did the signal aim
+          To our hid forces;
+        When from a meadow by,
+        Like a storm suddenly,
+        The English archery
+          Struck the French horses.
+
+    10. With Spanish yew so strong,
+        Arrows a cloth-yard long,
+        That like to serpents stung,
+          Piercing the weather;
+        None from his fellow starts,
+        But playing manly parts,
+        And, like true English hearts,
+          Stuck close together.
+
+    11. When down their bows they threw
+        And forth their bilbows drew,
+        And on the French they flew;
+          Not one was tardy.
+        Arms from their shoulders sent,
+        Scalps to the teeth were rent,
+        Down the French peasants went,
+          Our men were hardy.
+
+    12. This while our noble king,
+        His broadsword brandishing,
+        Down the French host did ding,
+          As to o'erwhelm it;
+        And many a deep wound lent,
+        His arms with blood besprent,
+        And many a cruel dent
+          Bruisèd his helmet.
+
+    13. Glo'ster, that duke so good,
+        Next of the royal blood,
+        For famous English stood,
+          With his brave brother,
+        Clarence, in steel so bright,
+        Though but a maiden knight,
+        Yet in that furious fight
+          Scarce such another.
+
+    14. Warwick in blood did wade,
+        Oxford the foe invade,
+        And cruel slaughter made,
+          Still as they ran up;
+        Suffolk his axe did ply,
+        Beaumont and Willoughby;
+        Bore them right doughtily,
+          Ferrers and Fanhope.
+
+    15. Upon Saint Crispin's day
+        Fought was this noble fray,
+        Which fame did not delay
+          To England to carry.
+        O when shall Englishmen
+        With such acts fill a pen,
+        Or England breed again
+          Such a King Harry?
+
+              _Michael Drayton._
+
+
+      THE END.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+
+    * Punctuation errors have been corrected.
+
+    * Footnotes have been moved to the end of the respective story.
+
+    * Hyphenation of "housetops" and "house-tops" left as printed.
+
+    * Pg 51 Corrected spelling of "breastplace" to "breastplate" in
+    "... upon Orlando's breastplace that his sword ..."
+
+    * Pg 137 Corrected spelling of "acccess" to "access" in "... might
+    have acccess to them"
+
+    * Pg 148 Corrected spelling of "forescore" to "fourscore" in "... on
+    the left, and forescore on the ..."
+
+    * Pg 176 Corrected spelling of "Treves" to "Trèves" in "... Roman
+    road from Treves as far as the ..."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories of the Olden Time, by Various
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