drenched the same field. When the chill morning dawned, their dead lay cold and stark together: —in the same deep pit their bodies were deposited — the green corn of spring is now breaking from their commingled dust- the dew 5 falls from heaven upon their union in the grave. Partak

ers in every peril -- in the glory shall we not be permitted to participate; and shall we be told, as a requital, that we are estranged from the noble country for whose salvation our life-blood was poured out?

CXLVI. THE RISING OF THE VENDEE.

CROLY.

[The Rev. GEORGE CROLY was born in Dublin in 1780, and died in 1860. He was for many years rector of St. Stephens, Walbrook, in London. He was a well-known writer in prose and verse. Among his productions were “Catiline," a tragedy; "Salathiel," a romance; a biography of Burke; and the novel of "Marston, or Memoirs of a Statesman," from which the following spirited poem is taken.

La Vendée,* or the Vendée, is a district on the western coast of France, the inhabitants of which were royalists, and broke out into open rebellion against the revolutionary government of France in 1793. The insurrection was suppressed after a few months, during which the Vendeans displayed the most heroic courage. An Angevine is an inhabitant of the district of Anjou. The Oriflamme was the ancient royal standard of France.]

-

Ir was a Sabbath morning, and sweet the summer air,
And brightly shone the summer sun upon the day of prayer,
And silver sweet the village-bells o'er mount and valley tolled,
And in the church of St. Florent † were gathered young and old, —
When, rushing down the woodland hill, in fiery haste, was seen,
With panting steed and bloody spur, a noble Angevine;
And bounding on the sacred floor, he gave his fearful cry:
"Up! up for France! the time is come for France to live or die!

"Your queen is in the dungeon; your king is in his gore;
O'er Paris waves the flag of death, the fiery Tricolour;
Your nobles in their ancient halls are hunted down and slain;
In convent cells and holy shrines the blood is poured like rain;

* Vendée, vän(g)-dā'.

† S*. Florent, sắn(g)-flö-rän(g).

The peasant's vine is rooted up, his cottage given to flame;
His son is to the scaffold sent, his daughter sent to shame.
With torch in hand and hate in heart, the rebel host is nigh.
Up! up for France! the time is come for France to live or die!"

That live-long night the horn was heard from Orleans * to Anjou, †
And poured from all their quiet fields our shepherds bold and true.
Along the pleasant banks of Loire shot up the beacon-fires,
And many a torch was blazing bright on Luçon's stately spires;
The midnight cloud was flushed with flame, that hung o'er Par-
thenay; §

The blaze that shone o'er proud Brissac || was like the breaking day,
Till east, and west, and north, and south, the loyal beacons shone
Like shooting stars from haughty Nantes to sea-begirt Olonne.**

And through the night, on horse and foot, the sleepless summons flew,
And morning saw the Lily-flag wide-waving o'er Poitou.††
And many an ancient musketoon was taken from the wall,
And many a jovial hunter's steed was harnessed in the stall,
And many a noble's armory gave up the sword and spear,
And many a bride, and many a babe, was left with kiss and tear,
And many a homely peasant bade farewell to his old dame,
As in the days when France's king unfurled the Oriflamme.

There, leading his bold marksmen, rode the eagle-eyed Lescure,‡‡
And dark Stofflet, §§ who flies to fight as an eagle to his lure;
And fearless as the lion roused, but gentle as the lamb,
Came marching at his people's head the great and good Bonchamp;||||
Charette, ¶¶ where honor was the prize, the hero sure to win;
And there, with Henri Quatre's plume, young la Rochejacquelein;
And there, in peasant garb and speech, - the terror of the foe,
A noble, made by Heaven's own hand, the great Cathelineau.ttt

We marched by tens of thousands, we marched by day and night,
The Lily-standard in our front, like Israel's holy light.
Around us rushed the rebels, as the wolf upon the sheep, -
We burst upon their columns as a lion roused from sleep;

* Orléans, ör-lā-än(g).

† Anjou, än(g)-zhô.

Luçon, lu-sân(g).

§ Parthenay, pär-tẹ-nā. Brissac, bris-săc. Nantes, nän(g)t.

** Olonne, Ŏl-lŎn.

†† Poitou, pwä-tô.

‡‡ Lescure, les-cure.
§§ Stofflet, stof-flā.

Bonchamp, bân(g)-shän(g).

TT Charette, shǎ-rět.

***

*** la Rochejaquelein, lah-rösh-zhäk-lăn(g). ttt Cathelineau, căt-eh-lî-nō,

We tore their bayonets from their hands, we slew them at their guns;
Their boasted horsemen fled like chaff before our forest sons.
That night we heaped their baggage high their lines of dead between,
And in the centre blazed to heaven their blood-dyed guillotine !

In vain they hid their heads in walls; we rushed on stout Thouar;
What cared we for shot or shell, for battlement or bar?

*

We burst its gates; then like a wind we rushed on Fontenay ; †
We saw its fiag with morning light—'t was ours by setting day;
We crushed like ripened grapes Montreuil, ‡ we bore down old ·

Vihiers; §

We charged them with our naked breasts, and took them with a

cheer.

We'll hunt the robbers through the land, from Seine | to sparkling

Rhone;

Now, "Here's a health to all we love, our king shall have his own."

CXLVII. -THE AWAKING OF A GREAT NATION.

MILTON.

METHINKS I see, in my mind, a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks; methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her dazzled eyes at the full midday beam; purging and unscaling her long abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and, in their envious gabble, would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms.

Thouar, tô-är. tFontenay, fân(g)-teh-nā.

Montreuil, mân(g)-trërl.
Vihiers, vî-yā.

|| Seine, sān.

CXLVIII. - ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

[ABRAHAM LINCOLN was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, February 12, 1809. After a youth of toil and struggle, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1836. In the autumn of 1846 he was elected a representative in Congress from the central district of Illinois, and served in that capacity for one term. In November, 1860, he was chosen President of the United States, and reëlected to the same office in 1864. On the evening of April 14, 1865, he was assassinated at the theatre in Washington. This execrable deed excited throughout the country a degree of horror, indignation, and grief unparalleled in history. The death of President Lincoln was also universally felt to be an irreparable misfortune to the country, as he had acquired the confidence of men of all parties from his pure and disinterested patriotism, his sincere conscientiousness, his kindness of heart, and the sound practical sense which he was applying to the solution of the important political problems which the close of the war had devolved upon the government.

The battle of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, was fought on the first, second, and third days of July, 1863, between the United States troops under General Meade and the rebel forces under General Lee. The result of the successive conflicts was the entire defeat of the rebels. A portion of the field of battle was appropriated for a cemetery for the Union soldiers who fell in the fight, and was duly consecrated by religious services on the 19th of November, 1863. An interesting historical and patriotic discourse was pronounced by Mr. Everett, after which President Lincoln spoke as follows.]

FOURSCORE and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, 5 testing whether that nation – or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated endure. We are met on a

10

can long

great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who have given their lives that that nation might live.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our power to add or to detract. The world will 15 very little note, nor long remember, what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated, here, to

the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly car ried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which 5 they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

CXLIX. - SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

[The following discourse was pronounced by President Lincoln, March 4, 1865, on the occasion of his being for a second time inducted into the office of President of the United States.]

FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be 5 pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have constantly been called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new 10 could be presented.

The progress of our arms. upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in re15 gard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it. all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without