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the battles fought was that at Ivry, a village not far from Paris. It was fought in 1590. The king was victorious and the following poem, by Lord Macaulay, is the supposed song of triumph spoken by a soldier of the royal army. It should be read with clear ringing tones, and a rate of speed varying according to the sentiment. The pitch should be higher than medium.

Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are! And glory to our sovereign liege, King Henry of Navarre ! Now let there be the merry sound of music and the dance, Through thy cornfields green, and sunny vines, O pleasant land of France !

And thou, Rochelle, our own Rochelle, proud city of the waters,

Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourning daugh

ters.

As thou wert constant in our ills, be joyous in our joy,

For cold and stiff, and still are they who wrought thy walls

annoy.

Hurrah! hurrah! a single field hath turned the chance of war;

Hurrah! hurrah! for Ivry and King Henry of Navarre!

Oh! how our hearts were beating, when, at the dawn of day, We saw the army of the League drawn out in long array; With all its priest-led citizens, and all its rebel peers,

And Appenzel's stout infantry, and Egmont's Flemish spears. There rode the brood of false Lorraine, the curses of our land!

And dark Mayenne was in the midst, a truncheon in his hand;

And, as we looked on them, we thought of Seine's empurpled flood,

And good Coligni's hoary hair all dabbled with his blood; And we cried unto the living God, who rules the fate of

war,

To fight for His own holy name and Henry of Navarre !

The king is come to marshal us, in all his armor dressed, And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant

crest:

He looked upon his people, and a tear was in his eye;

He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and

high.

Right graciously he smiled on us, as rolled from wing to wing,

Down all our line, in deafening shout, "God save our lord, the King!"

"And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may— For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray— Press where you see my white plume shine, amidst the ranks

of war,

And be your oriflamme, to-day, the helmet of Navarre!"

Hurrah! the foes are moving! Hark to the mingled din
Of fife and steed and trump and drum and roaring culverin!
The fiery duke is pricking fast across St. Andre's plain,
With all the hireling chivalry of Guelders and Almayne.
Now by the lips of those ye love, fair gentlemen of France,
Charge for the golden lilies now! upon them with the lance!—
A thousand spurs are striking deep, a thousand spears in

rest,

A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white

crest;

And in they burst, and on they rushed;-while, like a guiding star,

Amidst the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Navarre !

Now God be praised, the day is ours! Mayenne hath turned his rein,

D'Aumale hath cried for quarter, the Flemish Count is slain,

Their ranks are breaking like thin clouds before a Biscay

gale;

The field is heaped with bleeding steeds, and flags, and cloven mail.

And then we thought on vengeance, and all along our van, "Remember St. Bartholomew," was passed from man to

man;

But out spake gentle Henry then, "No Frenchman is my foe; Down, down with every foreigner; but let your brethren go.

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Oh! was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war,
As our sovereign lord, King Henry, the soldier of Navarre !

Ho maidens of Vienna! Ho! matrons of Lucerne !
Weep, weep, and rend your hair for those who never shall

return.

Ho! Philip, send, for charity, thy Mexican pistoles,

That Antwerp monks may sing a mass for thy poor spearmen's souls!

Ho! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be bright!

Ho! burghers of St. Genevieve, keep watch and ward to

night!

For our God hath crushed the tyrant, our God hath raised

the slave,

And mocked the counsel of the wise, and the valor of the brave.

Then glory to His holy name, from whom all glories are ; And glory to our sovereign lord, king Henry of Navarre !

IX.-APPEAL FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.

LORD BROUGHAM.

During the years 1830, 1831, and 1832, the English nation, and both houses of Parliament, were intensely agitated, in reference to parliamentary reform. Under the system that had previously prevailed, there were such inequalities, that in some instances a member of the House of Commons represented hundreds of thousands of persons, and in some instances only one or two dwellings. Old Sarum had two members, and not a single inhabitant. The members were appointed by the owner of the land on which the town had formerly stood. In 1831, Lord Brougham made a powerful speech in the House of Lords, in favor of a better system. The following is an extract from it. It requires great force, high pitch, and marked falling inflections. It is an expression of the most earnest supplication :

But, among the awful considerations that now bow down my mind, there is one that stands preeminent above the rest. You are the highest judicature in the realm; you sit here as judges, and decide all causes, civil and criminal, without appeal. It is a judge's first duty never to pronounce a

sentence, in the most trifling case, without a hearing. Will you make this the exception? Are you really prepared to determine, but not to hear, the mighty cause upon which a nation's hopes and fears hang? You are? Then beware of your decision! Rouse not, I beseech you, a peace-loving, but a resolute people! Alienate not from your body the affections of a whole empire! As your friend, as the friend of my order, as the friend of my country, as the faithful servant of my sovereign, I counsel you to assist, with your uttermost efforts, in preserving the peace, and upholding and perpetuating the Constitution. Therefore, I pray and exhort you not to reject this measure. By all you hold most dear,—by all the ties that bind every one of us to our common order, and our common country, I solemnly adjure you,-I warn you,— I implore you,-yea, on my bended knees, I supplicate you, -reject not this bill!

X.-THE LOSS OF THE ARCTIC.

H. W. BEECHER.

In September, 1854, the Steamer Arctic, in making a voyage from Liverpool to New York, encountered another vessel in the fog, off Newfoundland. The Arctic was sunk, and most of those on board perished. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher preached a sermon upon the event, from which the following is an extract. The mate, Mr. Gourley, with some of the crew, had been sent to ascertain what damage had been done to the other vessel. Moderate pitch and slow speed are required :

They departed, and with them the hope of the ship, for now the waters, gaining upon the hold, and rising upon the fires, revealed the mortal blow. Oh, had now that stern, brave mate, Gourley, been on deck, whom the sailors were wont to mind, had he stood to execute efficiently the commander's will, we may believe that we should not have had to blush for the cowardice and recreancy of the crew, nor to weep for the untimely dead. But, apparently, each subordinate officer lost all presence of mind, then courage, and so honor. In a wild scramble, that ignoble mob of firemen, engineers, waiters, and crew, rushed for the boats, and abandoned the helpless women, children, and men, to the mercy

of the deep! Four hours there were from the catastrophe of collision to the catastrophe of SINKING!

Oh, what a burial was here! Not as when one is borne from his home, among weeping throngs, and gently carried to the green fields, and laid peacefully beneath the turf and the flowers. No priest stood to pronounce a burial service. It was an ocean-grave. The mists alone shrouded the burial place. No spade prepared the grave, nor sexton filled up the hollowed earth. Down, down they sank, and the quick returning waters smoothed out every ripple, and left the sea as if it had not been.

XI. PEACEABLE SECESSION.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

For many years before the civil war of 1861, some of the Southern politicians had been threatening to dissolve the Union of the American States, and to set up a Southern Confederacy. This was done by way of terrifying men in other parts of the country. The impossibility of this idea of "peaceable secession" was thus forcibly exposed by Daniel Webster in 1850. Full volume is required:

Peaceable secession! Peaceable secession ! The concurrent agreement of all the members of this great Republic to separate! A voluntary separation, with alimony on one side and on the other. Why, what would be the result? Where is the line to be drawn? What states are to secede? What is to remain American? What am I to be? An American no longer? Am I to become a sectional man, a local man, a separatist, with no country in common with the gentlemen who sit around me here, or who fill the other house of Congress? Heaven forbid! Where is the flag of the Republic to remain? Where is the eagle still to tower? or is he to cower, and shrink, and fall to the ground? Why, Sir, our ancestors, our fathers and our grandfathers, those of them that are yet living amongst us with prolonged lives, would rebuke and reproach us; and our children and our grandchildren would cry out shame upon us, if we of this generation should dishonor these ensigns of the power of the government and the harmony of that Union which is every day felt among us with so much joy and gratitude.

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