35 37 Jena, hostile, warlike; unfriendly. 36 annihilated, destroyed. a town on the river Saale in Prussia. 38 Cossacks, Russian irregular cavalry. "irretrievable, incapable of recovery or repair; irreparable; irrecoverable. 40 Rochefort, a seaport in West France. WHEN Napoleon was carrying war into Italy, he ordered one of his officers, Marshal Macdonald, to cross the Splugen with fifteen thousand soldiers, and join him on the plains below. The Splugen is one of the four great roads which cross the Alps from Switzerland to Italy. When Macdonald received the order it was about the end of November, and the winter storms were raging among the mountain passes. It was a perilous undertaking, yet he must obey; and the men began their terrible march through narrow 1defiles and overhanging precipices, six thousand feet high, up among the gloomy solitudes of the Alps. The cannon were placed on sleds drawn by oxen, and the ammunition was packed on mules. First came the guides, sticking their long poles in the snow, in order to find the path; then came workmen to clear away the drifts; then the dragoons, mounted on their most powerful horses, to beat down the track; after which followed the main body of the army. They encountered severe storms and piercing cold. When half-way up the summit, a rumbling noise was heard among the cliffs. The guides looked at each other in alarm; for they knew well what it meant. It grew louder and louder. "An avalanche! an avalanche!" they shrieked; and the next moment a field of ice and snow came leaping down the mountain, striking the line of march, and sweeping thirty dragoons in a wild plunge below. The black forms of the horses and their riders were seen for an instant struggling for life, and then they disappeared for ever. The sight struck the soldiers with horror; they crouched and shivered in the blast. Their enemy was not now flesh and blood, but wild winter storms; swords and bayonets could not defend them from the desolating avalanche. Flight or retreat was hopeless; for all around lay the drifted snow, like a vast winding-sheet. On they must go, or death was certain; and the brave men struggled forward. "Soldiers!" exclaimed their commander, "you are called to Italy; your general needs you. Advance and conquer, first the mountain and the snow, then the plains and the enemy!" Blinded by the winds, benumbed with the cold, and far beyond the reach of aid, Macdonald and his men pressed on. Sometimes a whole company of soldiers were suddenly swept away by an avalanche. On one occasion, a poor drummer, crawling out from the mass of snow, which had torn him from his comrades, began to beat his drum for relief. The muffled sound came up from his gloomy resting-place, and was heard by his brother soldiers; but none could go to his rescue. For an hour he beat rapidly, then the strokes grew fainter, until they were heard no more, and the poor drummer laid himself down to die. Two weeks were occupied in this perilous march, and two hundred men perished in the undertaking. This passage of the Splugen is one of the bravest "exploits in the history of Napoleon's generals, and illustrates the truth of the proverb "Where there is a will there is a way." No one can read the heroic deeds of brave men grappling with danger and death, without a feeling of respect and “admiration; but heroic deeds are always the fruit of toil and self-sacrifice. No one can accomplish great things, unless he aims at great things, and pursues that aim with unflinching courage and perseverance. 1 1 defile, a narrow passage in which troops can march only in file, or but few abreast (side by side). 2 ammunition, the articles used in charging fire-arms and ordnance of all kinds—as powder, shot, balls, bombs, etc. 3 winding-sheet, a sheet in which a corpse is wound or wrapped. muffled sound, sound rendered indistinct or inaudible by coming from a covered-up place. 5 exploits, daring actions; heroic deeds. admiration, wonder mingled with love or esteem. self-sacrifice, self-denial; surrendering or giving up as a duty anything we value. unflinching, not showing signs of yielding, or of suffering; not wincing; unshrinking. 7 6 8 HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE. THE following passages are taken from Pope's translation of the Iliad, a poem written in Greek by Homer, a blind poet who is said to have lived about 900 years before the birth of Christ. It relates to the siege of Troy by the Greeks. Hector, the bravest of the Trojan heroes, is about to pass out through one of the gates of the city in order to fight against the Greeks, when he is met by his wife, Andromache, and the nurse bearing their little son. Andromache endeavours in vain to persuade him to remain in the city. The nurse stood near, in whose embraces prest And think'st thou not how wretched we shall be, For sure such courage length of life denies, Andromache then goes on to relate how her father had been slain by Achilles, the famous Greek hero, her mother sold into slavery, and her seven brave brothers killed by the same hand. She then proceeds Yet while my Hector still survives, I see Let others in the field their arms employ, How would the sons of Troy in arms renown'd, Attaint the 'lustre of my former fame Should Hector basely quit the field of fame? He then speaks of the coming destruction of his native city, the death of his father, his mother, and his brethren; but adds that the thought of these calamities is light compared with that of his wife carried into captivity and suffering the labours and insults imposed on her by the Greeks. May I lie cold before that dreadful day, Press'd with a load of monumental clay! Thy Hector, wrapt in everlasting sleep, Shall neither hear thee sigh, nor see thee weep. Thus having spoke, the illustrious chief of Troy |