which contain only the death's head and the fool's head, and fix our choice on the plain leaden chest which conceals the treasure. MACAULAY

148. Bernardo and King Alphonso.

WITH Some good ten of his chosen men,
Bernardo hath appeared

Before them all in the palace hall,

The lying king to beard;
With cap in hand and eye on ground,

He came in reverend guise,
But ever and anon he frowned,
And flame broke from his eyes.

"A curse upon thee," cries the king,
"Who com'st unbid to me!

But what from traitor's blood should spring,
Save traitor like to thee?

His sire, lords, had a traitor's heart;

Perchance our champion brave

May think it were pious part
To share Don Sancho's grave."

"Whoever told this tale

The king hath rashness to repeat,"
Cries Bernard, "here my gage I fling
Before the liar's feet.

No treason was in Sancho's blood,

No stain in mine doth lie;

Below the throne, what knight will own
The coward calumny?

And ye've thanked the son for life and crown

By the father's bloody fate.

"Ye pledged to me your kingly faith

To set Don Sancho free;

But curse upon your paltering breath!
The light he ne'er did see;
He died in dungeon cold and dim,
By Alphonso's base decree;

And visage blind, and mangled limb,

Were all they gave to me.

"The king that swerveth from his word
Hath stained his purple black;

No Spanish lord shall draw his sword
Behind a liar's back.

But noble vengeance shall be mine,

And oven hate I'll show ;

The king hath injured Carpio's line,
And Bernard is his foe!"

Let his foul blood this instant stream.

What! caitiffs, do ye

Seize,

fear?

seize the traitor!" But not one

To move a finger dareth;

Bernardo standeth by the throne,

And calm his sword he bareth.

And here's the sword that owns no lord,
Excepting Heaven and me;

Fain would I know who dares its point,

King, condé, or grandee.”

1

LOCKHART.

149. Washington.

Ir matters very little what spot may have been the birthplace of Washington. No people can claim, no country can appropriate him. The boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, and his residence creation. Though it was the defeat of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion in which he had his origin. If the heavens thundered, and the earth rocked, yet, when the storm had passed, how pure was the climate that it cleared! how bright, in the brow of the firmament, was the planet which it revealed to us!

In the production of Washington, it does really appear as if Nature was endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. Individual instances, no doubt, there were, splendid exemplifications of some singular qualification; Cæsar was merciful, Scipio was continent, Hannibal was patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all in one, and, like the lovely masterpiece of the Grecian artist, to exhibit, in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of every master.

As a general, he marshalled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline the absence of experience; as a statesman, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his counsels, that to the soldier and the statesman he almost added the character of the sage! A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood; a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason; for aggression commenced the contest, and his country called him to the command.

Liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stained, victory returned it. If he had paused here, history might have doubted what station to assign him; whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers, her heroes or her patriots. But the

last glorious act crowns his career, and banishes all hesitation.

Who, like Washington, after having emancipated a hemisphere, resigned its crown, and preferred the retirement of domestic life to the adoration of a land he might almost be said to have created?

"How shall we rank thee upon Glory's page,

Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage?
All thou hast been reflects less fame on thee,
Far less, than all thou hast forborne to be !"

par

Such, sir, is the testimony of one not to be accused of tiality in his estimate of America. Happy, proud America! The lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy! The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism.

PHILLIPS.

150. Rights of the Indians defended.

THINK of the country for which the Indians fought! As Philip looked down from his

Who can blame them?

seat on Mount Hope, that glorious eminence, that

throne of royal state, which far

Outshone the wealth of Ormus or of Ind,

Or where the gorgeous east, with richest hand,
Showers on her kings barbaric pomp and gold," -

as he looked down and beheld the lovely scene which spread beneath at a summer sunset,—the distant hill tops blazing with gold, the slanting beams streaming along the waters, the broad plains, the island groups, the majestic forest, could he be blamed, if his heart burned within him, as he beheld it all passing, by no tardy process, from beneath his control into the hands of the stranger? As the river chieftains the lords of the waterfalls and the mountains ranged this lovely valley, can it be wondered at, if they

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