2.

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Rise, rise! even now thy father comes, a ransomed man this day; Mount thy good horse, and thou and I will meet him on his way.” Then lightly rose that loyal son, and bounded on his steed,

And urged, as if with lance in rest, the charger's3 foamy speed.

3.

And, lo! from far, as on they pressed, there came a glittering band,
With one that 'midst them stately rode, as a leader in the land.
"Now haste, Bernardo, haste! for there, in very truth, is he,
The father, whom thy faithful heart hath yearned so long to see.”

4.

His dark eye flashed, his proud breast heaved, his cheeks' hue came and went; [bent; He reached that gray-haired chieftain's side, and, there dismounting, A lowly knee to earth he bent, his father's hand he took — What was there in its touch that all his fiery spirit shook ?

5.

That hand was cold! a frozen thing!— it dropped from his like lead: He looked up to the face above- the face was of the dead!

A plume waved o'er the noble brow - the brow was fixed and white! He met, at length, his father's eyes - but in them was no sight!

6.

Up from the ground he sprang, and gazed; but who could paint that gaze!
They hushed their very hearts, that saw its horror and amaze:
They might have chained him, as before that stony form he stood;
For the power was stricken from his arm, and from his lip the blood.

7.

Father!" at length he murmured low, and wept like childhood thenTalk not of grief till thou hast seen the tears of warlike men! He thought on all his glorious hopes, on all his young renown; Then flung his falchion from his side, and in the dust sat down;

8.

And covering with his steel-gloved hands his darkly mournful brow, "No more, there is no more," he said, "to lift the sword for now: My king is false! my hope betrayed! my father - O, the worth, The glory, and the loveliness are passed away from earth!"

9.

Then from the ground he sprang once more, and seized the monarch's rein,
Amidst the pale and wildered looks of all the courtier train;
And with a fierce, o'ermastering grasp, the rearing war-horse led,
And sternly set them face to face the king before the dead!

10.

"Came I not forth, upon thy pledge, my father's hand to kiss?
Be still, and gaze thou on, false king! and tell me, what is this?
The voice, the glance, the heart I sought- give answer, where are they?
If thou wouldst clear thy perjured soul, send life through this cold clay!

11.

"Into these glassy eyes put light-be still! keep down thine ire; Bid these white lips a blessing speak - this earth is not my sire!

-

Give me back him for whom I strove, for whom my blood was shed Thou canst not? — and a king! - his dust be mountains on thy head!"

12.

He loosed the steed - his slack hand fell;

upon the silent face

He cast one long, deep, troubled look, then turned from that sad place; His hope was crushed, his after-fate untold in martial strain ;

His banner led the spears no more amidst the hills of Spain!

1 LIEGE. Sovereign.

3 CHARGER. A war-horse.

2 RAN'SOMED. Redeemed from cap-4 YEARNED. Desired earnestly; longed. tivity of imprisonment by the pay- 5 PËR JURED. Guilty of taking a false ment of a ransom or price.

oath.

XCVII.-CLARENCE'S DREAM.

SHAKSPEARE.

[The following lesson is taken from the tragedy of "Richard III." The scene occurs in an apartment in the Tower of London, between George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Richard, Duke of Gloster (afterwards Richard III.), and Sir Robert Brakenbury, keeper of the Tower.]

SCENE IV. An Apartment in the Tower.

BURY.

Enter CLARENCE and BRAKEN

Brakenbury. Why looks your Grace so heavily' to-day? Clarence. O, I have passed a miserable night,

So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,

That, as I am a Christian faithful man,

I would not spend another such a night,
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days;
So full of dismal terror was the time.

Brak. What was your dream, my lord? I pray you tell me.

Clar. Methought that I had broken from the Tower,*
And was embarked to cross to Burgundy; †
And, in my company, my brother Gloster,
Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
Upon the hatches; thence we looked toward England,
And cited up a thousand heavy times,
During the wars of York and Lancaster,
That had befallen us. As we paced along
Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,

Methought that Gloster stumbled, and, in falling,
Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard
Into the tumbling billows of the main.

O Lord, methought, what pain it was to drown!
What dreadful noise of water in mine ears!
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes !
Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
A thousand men, that fishes gnawed upon;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,

All scattered in the bottom of the sea:

Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in those holes
Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept
(As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems,
That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep,
And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by.
Brak. Had you such leisure, in the time of death,

To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?

* The Tower of London is an assemblage of buildings on the north bank of the Thames, formerly used as a state prison.

BUR'GUN-Dy. A province in the northern part of France.

Clar. Methought I had: and often did I strive
To yield the ghost; but still the envious flood
Stopped in my soul, and would not let it forth
To seek the empty, vast, and wandering air;
But smothered it within my panting bulk,
Which almost burst to belch3 it in the sea.
Brak. Awaked you not with this sore agony?
Clar. O, no, my dream was lengthened after life;
O, then began the tempest to my soul!

I passed, methought, the melancholy flood,
With that grim ferryman* which poets write of,
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.

The first that there did greet my stranger soul,
Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick;
Who cried aloud, "What scourge for perjury
Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?"
And so he vanished. Then came wandering by
A shadow like an angel, with bright hair
Dabbled in blood; and he shrieked out aloud,

"Clarence is come!-false, fleeting, perjured Clarence-
That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury:
Seize on him, Furies! take him to your torments!".
With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends
Environed me, and howled in mine ears
Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise,
I trembling waked, and, for a season after,
Could not believe but that I was in Hell:
Such terrible impression made my dream.

Brak. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you;
I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.

Clar. Ah, Keeper, Keeper! I have done these things, That now give evidence against my soul,

*The shades of the dead were believed, by the ancient heathen, to be conveyed across the rivers of the lower world by a ferryman whom they named Charon.

For Edward's sake; and, see, how he requites' me!
O God! if my deep prayers cannot appease Thee,
But Thou wilt be avenged on my misdeeds,

8

Yet execute Thy wrath on me alone:

O, spare my guiltless wife, and my poor children!
I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me;

My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.

Brak. I will, my lord; God give your Grace good rest.

[Stephen Arnold Douglas was born in Brandon, Vermont, April 13, 1813, and died June 3, 1861. At the age of twenty he removed to Illinois, and was soon after admitted to the bar. In 1832 he was elected state attorney, and from that time till his death he was constantly in the public service,-being, in succession, state attorney, member of the legislature, secretary of state, and judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois; registrar of the land office of the United States, member of the House of Representatives, and member of the Senate. He was a man of great energy, ability, and self-reliance. The following extract is from a speech delivered by him at Chicago, Illinois, June 1, 1861.]

1

1. BUT this is no time spiracy is now known. levied to accomplish it. question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war: only

for a detail of causes. The conArmies have been raised, war is

There are only two sides to the

2. We cannot close our eyes to the sad and solemn fact that war does exist. The government must be maintained, its enemies overthrown; and the more stupendous our preparations the less the bloodshed, and the shorter the struggle will be. But we must remember certain restraints on our action even in time of war. We are a Christian