7. The Lady Alice sits with her maidens in her bower, The gray-haired warder watches from the castle's

topmost tower; “What news? what news, old Hubert ? "_" The

battle's lost and won : The royal troops are melting, like mists before the

sun! And a wounded man approaches-I'm blind and

cannot see,

Yet, sure I am, that sturdy step my master's step

must be !” 8. “I've brought thee back thy banner from as rude

and red a fray As e'er was proof of soldier's thew, or theme for

minstrel's lay! Here, Hubert, bring the silver bowl, and liquor

quantum suff., I'll make a shift to drain it yet, ere I part with boots

and buff— Though Guy, through many a gaping wound, is

breathing forth his life, And I come to thee a landless man, my fond and

faithful wife! 9. “Sweet, we will fill our money-bags, and freight a

ship for France, And mourn in merry Paris for this poor land's mis

chance : For if the worst befall me, why, better axe and rope, Than life with Lenthall for a king, and Peters for a

pope!

Alas! alas ! my gallant Guy !--curse on the crop

eared boor Who sent me, with my standard, on foot from Marston Moor!”

W. M. PRAED. Marston Moor.—Perhaps the greatest battle of the Civil

War, fought 2nd July, 1644, on Marston Moor, four miles from York.

Cavaliers.—The name given to the adherents of the king

in the Civil War. Fairfac.--The commander of the Parliamentary forces in

the North. He commanded the forces at the battle of

Marston Moor. Oliver.–Oliver Cromwell, afterwards Lord Protector of

England, the greatest Englishman of the seventeenth

century. Rupert.—Prince Rupert, nephew of Charles I., a dashing

but unfortunate cavalry officer, who commanded the

cavaliers in the Civil War. Newcastle.—The Earl of Newcastle, who commanded for

the king in the North. The German boar. —Prince Rupert. Roundhead.—The name given to those who opposed King

Charles. They were so called from having their hair

closely cropped. Belial.- Bible ternis were much in use in the times of the

Puritans. “ Sons of Belial” meant wicked persons. Quantum suff.- Part of a Latin phrase, which in full is

quantum sufficit, and means as much as is sufficient." Crop-eared boor.-A Roundhead.

THE EVENING CLOUD. [JOHN Wilson, better known as Christopher North, was born

19th May, 1785 ; was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy
in Edinburgh University in 1820, an office which he held
until his death in 1854. He is better known by his prose
writings than by his poetry. He was the principal con-
tributor to the “Noctes Ambrosianæ."]
A CLOUD lay cradled near the setting sun,
A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow :
Long had I watch'd the glory, moving on
O'er the still radiance of the lake below.
Tranquil its spirit seem’d, and floated slow!
Even in its very motion there was rest :

breath of eve that chanced to blow
Wafted the traveller to the beauteous West.
Emblem, methought, of the departed soul !
To whose white robe the gleam of bliss is given;

E

While every

And by the breath of mercy made to roll
Right onwards to the golden gates of Heaven,
Where, to the eye of faith, it peaceful lies,
And tells to man his glorious destinies.

WILSON.

CORONACH.
1. He is gone on the mountain,

He is lost to the forest,
Like a summer-dried fountain,

When our need was the sorest.
The font, re-appearing,

From the rain-drops shall borrow,
But to us comes no cheering,

To Duncan no morrow !
2. The hand of the reaper

Takes the ears that are hoary,
But the voice of the weeper

Wails manhood in glory.
The autumn winds rushing,

Waft the leaves that are searest,
But our flower was in flushing,

When blighting was nearest.
3. Fleet foot on the correi,
Sage counsel in cumber,

difficulty Red hand in the foray,

How sound is thy slumber!
Like the dew on the mountain,

Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubble on the fountain,

Thou art gone, and for ever! Scott. Coronach.-The coronach of the Highlanders was a wild

expression of lamentation, poured forth by the mourners over the body of a departed friend ; when the words of it were articulate, they expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss the clan would sustain by his decease.

THE CATARACT OF VELINO. [GEORGE GORDON, LORD Byron, born 22nd January, 1788, early

became famous as a poet. He died at the early age of 36, in 1824. His poems are too numerous to be mentioned here. Our extract is taken from “ Childe Harold,” perhaps

the most enduring of all his works.]
1. The roar of waters !—from the headlong height

Velino cleaves the wave-worn precipice;
The fall of waters ! rapid as the light
The flashing mass foams shaking the abyss;
The hell of waters ! where they howl and hiss,
And boil in endless torture ; while the sweat
Of their great agony, wrung out from this

Their Phlegethon, curls round the rocks of jet That gird the gulf around, in pitiless horror set, 2. And mounts in spray the skies, and thence again

Returns in an unceasing shower, which round,
With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain,
Is an eternal April to the ground,
Making it all one emerald :-how profound
The gulf ! and how the giant element
From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound,

Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent 3. To the broad column which rolls on, and shows

More like the fountain of an infant sea
Torn from the womb of mountains by the throes
Of a new world, than only thus to be
Parent of rivers, which flow gushingly,
With many windings, through the vale:—Look back!
Lo! where it comes like an eternity,

As if to sweep down all things in its track, Charming the eye with dread,--a matchless cataract, 4. Horribly beautiful ! but on the verge,

From side to side, beneath the glittering morn,

An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge,
Like Hope upon a death-bed, and, unworu
Its steady dyes, while all around is torn
By the distracted waters, bears serene
Its brilliant hues with all their beams' unshorn :

Resembling, ʼmid the torture of the scene,
Love watching Madness with unalterable mien.

BYRON. Velino. A river of Italy, which rises in the west slope of

the Apennines, flows S.S.W. until it enters Rieti, where it turns N.N.W., and, dashing over a precipice of about 900 feet in height, forms the celebrated falls of Ternione of the grandest falls in Europe. Phlegethon.—Literally means flaming, and was the name

given to a river in the lower world, in whose channel

flowed flames instead of water. Iris.—The personification of the rainbow, which was

regarded as the swift messenger of the gods.

THE ISLES OF GREECE.
1. The isles of Greece ! the isles of Greece !

Where burning Sappho loved and sung;
Where grew the arts of war and peace;

Where Delos rose, and Phobus sprung ;-
Eternal summer gilds them yet-

But all, except their sun, is set ! 2. The Scian and the Teian muse,

The bero's harp, the lover's lute,
Have found the fame your shores refuse. --

Their place of birth alone is mute
To sounds, which echo farther west
Than
your

sires' - Islands of the bless'd." 3. The mountains look on Marathon,

And Marathon looks on the sea :
And musing there an hour, alone,

I dreamed—that Greece might still be free!