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LI. THE SUMMONS AND THE LAMENT.

PI'вROCH (pi'brok), n., martial music | CUM'BER, n., vexation; trouble.

produced by the bagpipe.

HEAD'Y, a., rash; impetuous.

COR'EI (cor'ray), n., side of the hill

where the game lies.

PLAID (plăd), n., a striped cloth.

GEAR, n., dress; furniture.

in poetry or music.

FO'RAY, n., a sudden attack.

PEN'NON, n., a banner.

CU'MU-LA-TIVE, a., heaped up.

VAS'SAL, n., a dependent.

RHYTHM (rithm), n., measure of time SUFFRAGE, n., vote; assent.

COR'O-NACH (-nak), n., a dirge.

Pronounce Beattie, Beet'y; Donuil, Don'nil; de-ceased', not deceazed.

1. WE are told by Sir Walter Scott that those persons acquainted with the pipe-music of Scotland affect to discover, in a well-composed pibroch, the imitative sounds of a march, conflict, pursuit, and all the current of a heady fight. To this opinion Dr. Beattie has given his suffrage in the following passage:

2. "A pibroch is a species of tune peculiar, I think, to the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. It is performed on a bagpipe, and differs totally from all other music. Its rhythm is so irregular, and its notes, especially in the quick movement, so mixed and huddled together, that a stranger finds it impossible to reconcile his ear to it, so as to perceive its modulation.

3. "Some of these pibrochs, being intended to represent a battle, begin with a grave motion, resembling a march; then gradually quicken into the onset; run off with noisy confusion and turbulent rapidity, to imitate the conflict and pursuit; then swell into a few flourishes of triumphant joy; and perhaps close with the wild and slow wailings of a funeral procession."

4. In the following admirable poem, Sir Walter Scott seems to have tried to convey, as far as he could by language, an idea of this imitative modulation. The first two stanzas should be delivered in a moderate

though animated style. At the third stanza the reader's utterance should increase in rapidity, and then rise louder and louder, and quicker and quicker, with cumulative force, to the conclusion.

"Pibroch of Donuil Dhu, pibroch of Donuil,

Wake thy wild voice anew, summon Clan Conuil !
Come away, come away - hark to the summons!
Come in your war array, Gentles and Commons!

"Come from deep glen, and from mountain so rocky;
The war-pipe and pennon are at Inverlochy.

Come every hill-plaid, and true heart that wears one;
Come every steel blade, and strong hand that bears one.

“Leave untended the herd, the flock without shelter ;
Leave the corpse uninterred, the bride at the altar;
Leave the deer, leave the steer, leave nets and barges;
Come with your fighting gear, broadswords and targes.

"Come, as the winds come, when forests are rended;
Come, as the waves come, when navies are stranded.
Faster come, faster come, faster and faster!

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Chief, vassal, page and groom, tenant and master!

"Fast they come, fast they come, see how they gather!

Wide waves the eagle's plume, blended with heather.
Cast your plaids, draw your blades; forward each man set!
Pibroch of Donuil Dhu, knell for the onset!"

5. The coronach of the Highlanders, like the ululoo or funeral song of the Irish, 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 death. Sir Walter Scott has given us an exquisite imitation of the coronach in the following lines. They afford an excellent exercise in low vocal pitch, and in a modulation, slow, impressive, and pathetic as a funeral march.

"He is gone on the mountain, he is lost to the forest,

Like a summer-dried fountain, when our need was the sōrest,
The fount, reappearing, from the rain-drops shall borrow;
But to us comes no cheering, to Duncan no morrow!

“The hand of the reaper takes the ears that are hōary,
But the voice of the weeper wails manhood in glory;
The autumn winds, rushing, waft the leaves that are serest,
But our flower was in flushing when blighting was nearest.

Fleet foot on the corei, sage counsel in cumber,

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 forever! "

LII.― JOAN OF ARC.

LIN ́E-AL, a., being in a direct line; | CHIV'AL-ROus (shiv-), a., knightly.

hereditary.

AB'JECT, a., mean; base.

DAUPHIN, n., title of the French

king's eldest son.

SOR'CER-Y, n., magic; witchcraft. HER'E-TIC, n., one who rejects an established religious creed.

VITIATE (vish'yāte), v. t., to spoil.

BIL'LET, n., a log of wood cut with a A-POS'TATE, n., one who forsakes his

bill or small hatchet.

RE-LAPSE', v. i., to fall back.

religion.

IN-EV'I-TA-BLE, a., not to be shunned.

PRE-TER-NAT'U-RAL, a., beyond what MA-LIG'NI-TY, n., malice; spite.

is natural.

LAG'GARD, a., backward; slow.

Pronounce Jo'an in two syllables; Domremy, Dong-re-me'; Orleans, Or-le-ahng'; Troyes, Trō-ah'; Rheims, Răngz; coup-de-main (a rapid, successful attack), koo-demang'; neither, ne'ther or ni'ther; the former mode is preferred.

1. JOAN OF ARC was born, in 1412, in the little village of Domremy, on the borders of Lorraine, in France. Her parents were poor, and maintained themselves by their own labor upon a little land, with a few cattle. Jo'an worked in the field in summer, and in winter she sewed and spun. Small was her stock of learning, for she could neither read nor write; but she would often go apart by herself, in the pasture, as if to talk with God. She was a devout attendant at church, and gave to the poor to the utmost extent

of her means; a girl of natural piety, that saw God in forests, and hills, and fountains, but did not the less seek him in places consecrated by religion.

2. Her native land was, at this period, in a distracted state. Paris was occupied by English troops, and the King of England was declared by a strong party the rightful heir of the throne of France. The people of the north of France, seeing in his success the end of strife, favored his cause; but in the south the country people and a part of the nobility stood by the lineal heir, Charles the Seventh, and by the old nǎtionality. Meanwhile the English were extending their power; and the city of Orleans was so closely besieged by them that its fall seemed inevitable. It was a dark day for France.

3. For some time Joan had entertained the belief that she was in communion with the spirits of departed saints; that she saw angelic visions, and heard angelic voices. These voices now whispered to her the duty imposed upon herself of delivering France and restoring its nationality. She found the means of making her way to the presence of the true heir of the throne, Charles the Seventh; and although, as he stood among his courtiers, he at first, in order to test her prophetic gift, maintained that he was not the king, she fell down and embraced his knees, declaring that he was the man. She offered to raise the siege of Orleans, and to conduct Charles to Rheims to be crowned.

4. At this time she was eighteen years old, slender and delicate in shape, with a pleasant countenance, a somewhat pale complexion, eyes rather melancholy than eager, and rich chestnut-brown hair. As the king's affairs were hopeless, he did not refuse what seemed the preternatural aid proffered by Joan. She demanded for herself a particular sword in the church

of St. Catharine, which was given to her. She put on a male dress, and unfurled her banner at the head of the French army, whom she had inspired with her own strong convictions of help from on high through her

means.

5. She now appeared frequently in battle, and was several times wounded; still no unfeminine cruelty ever stained her conduct. She never killed any one, never shed blood with her own hand. She interposed to protect the captive or the wounded. She mourned over the excesses of her countrymen, and would throw herself from her horse to administer comfort to a dying foeman. Resolute, chivalrous, gentle, and brave, wise in council, constant in her faith in her high mission, and inspiring the whole immense host by her enthusiasm, the secret of her success seemed to lie as much in her good sense as in her courage and her visions. This girl of the people clearly saw the question before France, and knew how to solve it.

6. When she had first appeared before the king, he had been on the point of giving up the struggle with the English, and of flying to the south of France. Joan taught him to blush for such abject counsels. She liberated Orleans, that great city, so decisive by its fate for the issue of the war. Entering the city after sunset, on the 29th of April, 1429, she took part, on Sunday, May 8th, in the religious celebration for the entire disappearance of the besieging force. On the 29th of June, she gained, over the English, the decisive battle of Patay'; on the 9th of July, she took Troyes by a coup-de-main; on the 15th of that month, she carried the dauphin into Rheims; on Sunday, the 17th, she crowned him; and there she rested from her labor of triumph. She had accomplished the capital objects which her own visions had dictated. She had saved France. What remained was- to suffer.

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