Page images
PDF
EPUB

Fierce he broke forth: "And dar'st thou, then,

To beard the lion in his den,

The Douglas in his hall?

And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go?
No, by Saint Bryde of Bothwell, no!—
Up drawbridge, grooms!-what, warder, ho!
Let the portcullis fall."

Lord Marmion turned,-well was his need,-
And dashed the rowels in his steed.
Like arrow through the archway sprung,
The ponderous grate behind him rung ;-
To pass there was such scanty room,
The bars, descending, razed his plume.
The steed along the drawbridge flies,
Just as it trembled on the rise;
Not lighter does the swallow skim
Along the smooth lake's level brim:

And when Lord Marmion reached his band,
He halts, and turns with clench'ed hand,
A shout of loud defiance pours,

And shakes his gauntlet at the towers!

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

XCIX.-WILLIAM THE SILENT.

EPIC, n., a heroic poem.

BIG'OT, n., an illiberal believer.
AN-TIQUE' (an-teek'), a., ancient.
E-VOKE', v. t., to call forth.
O'DI-OUS, a., deserving hatred.

REV'E-NUE, n., income.

TORT'U-OUS, a., twisted; crooked.
PO'TENT-ATE, n., a prince or sovereign.
COUN'SEL-OR or COUN'SEL-LOR, я., one
who gives counsel.

SYM-MET'RI-CAL-LY, α., with due pro- PARʼSI-MO-NY, n., stinginess.

portions.

CON-FRONT' (-frunt), v. t., to face;
oppose.

TAC-I-TURN'I-TY (tas-), n., silence.
PRE-MA-TURE'LY, ad., too early.

COL-LA'TION, n., comparison; a repast.
FULL'NESS OF FULNESS, n., state of
being full.
Avoid saying endoord for en-dured; moddl for model; attemps for at-tempts'.

1. THE history of the rise of the Netherland Repub lic is at the same time the biography of William the

Silent. That life was a noble Christian epic; inspired with one great purpose from its commencement to its close; the stream flowing ever from one fountain with expanding fullness, but retaining all its original purity.

2. In person, William was above the middle height, perfectly well made and sinewy, but rather spare than stout. His eyes, hair, beard and complexion, were brown. His head was small, symmetrically shaped, combining the alertness and compactness characteristic of the soldier, with the capacious brow furrowed prematurely with the horizontal lines of thought, denoting the statesman and the sage. His physical appearance was, therefore, in harmony with his organization, which was of antique model.

3. Of his moral qualities, the most prominent was his piety. He was, more than any thing else, a religious man. From his trust in God, he ever derived support and consolation in his darkest hours. Implicitly rely. ing upon Almighty wisdom and goodness, he looked danger in the face with a constant smile, and endured incessant labors and trials with a serenity which seemed more than human. While, however, his soul was full of piety, it was tolerant of error. No man ever felt more keenly than he that the reformer who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious.

4. His firmness was al-lied' to his piety. His constancy in bearing the whole weight of a struggle as unequal as men have ever undertaken, was the theme of admiration, even to his enemies. The rock in the ocean, "tranquil amid raging billows," was the favorite emblem by which his friends expressed their sense of his firmness. A prince of high rank, and with royal revenues, he stripped himself of station, wealth, almost at times of the common necessaries of life, and became, in his country's cause, nearly a beggar as well as an outlaw. He lived and died, not for himself, but for

his country: "God pity this poor people!" were his dying words.

5. The supremacy of his political genius was entirely beyond question. He was the first statesman. of the age. The quickness of his perception was only equaled by the caution which enabled him to mature the results of his observation. His knowledge of human nature was profound. He governed the passions and sentiments of a great nation as if they had been but the keys and chords of one vast instrument; and his hand rarely failed to evoke harmony, even out of the wildest storms.

6. He possessed a ready eloquence- sometimes impassioned, oftener argumentative, always rational. His influence over his audience was unexampled in the annals of that country or age; yet he never condescended to flatter the people. He never followed the nation, but always led her in the path of duty and of honor, and was much more prone to rebuke the vices than to pander to the passions of his hearers. He never failed to administer ample chas'tisement, wherever it was due, to parʼsimony, to jealousy, to insubordination, to intolerance, to infidelity; nor feared to confront the states or the people, in their most angry hours, and to tell them the truth to their faces.

7. He had the rare quality of caution, a characteristic by which he was distinguished from his youth. At fifteen he was the confidential counselor, as at twenty-one he became the general-in-chief, to the most politic as well as the most warlike potentate of his age; and if he at times indulged in wiles which modern statesmanship, even while it practices, condemns, he ever held in his hand the clue of an honorable purpose to guide him through the tortuous labyrinth.

8. His enemies said that he was governed only by ambition by a desire of personal advancement.

They never attempted to deny his talents, his industry, his vast sacrifices of wealth and station; but they ridiculed the idea that he could have been inspired by any but unworthy motives. God alone knows the heart of man. He alone can unweave the tangled skein of human motives, and detect the hidden springs of human action; but as far as can be judged by a careful observation of undisputed facts, and by a diligent collation of public and private documents, it would seem that no man not even Washington

has ever been inspired by a purer pa'triotism.

9. Whether originally of a timid temperament or not, he was certainly possessed of perfect courage at last. In siege and battle in the deadly air of pesti lential cities in the long exhaustion of mind and body which comes from unduly protracted labor and anxiety — amid the countless conspiracies of assassins he was daily exposed to death in every shape. Within two years, five different attempts against his life had been discovered. Rank and fortune were offered to any malefactor who would compass the murder. He had already been shot through the head, and almost mortally wounded.

10. Under such circumstances even a brave men might have seen a pitfall at every step, a dagger in every hand, and poison in every cup. On the con trary, he was ever cheerful, and hardly took more pre caution than usual. "God, in his mercy," said he, with unaffected simplicity, "will maintain my inno cence and my honor during my life and in future ages. As to my fortune and my life, I have dedicated both, long since, to His service. He will do therewith what pleases Him for His glory and my salvation."

11. William the Silent went through life bearing the load of a people's sorrows upon his shoulders with a smiling face. Their name was the last word upon his

lips, save the simple affirmative, with which the soldier, who had been battling for the right all his lifetime, commended his soul in dying "to his great Captain, Christ." The people were grateful and affectionate, for they trusted the character of their "Father Wil liam," and not all the clouds which calumny could col lect ever dimmed to their eyes the radiance of that lofty mind, to which they were accustomed, in their darkest calamities, to look for light. As long as he lived he was the guiding-star of a whole brave nation, and when he died the little children cried in the streets. JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY.

12. William of Orange, the founder of the Dutch Republic, whose eulogy his American historian has here given, fell before the pistol of an assassin, July 10th, 1584, in the fifty-second year of his age. Three poisoned balls had been fired into his body. He received his title of Orange from the principality of that name in France, which had been held by his ancestors. He was, called "the Silent" because of his prudence and taciturnity on occasions when an incautious word or look might have betrayed great interests.

C. THE DEATH OF MARMION.

DOFFED, pp., put off; taken off.
CASQUE (cask), n., a helmet.

SLO'GAN, n., the war-cry of a Scottish
clan.

PEN'NON, n., small flag.

FALCON (faw'kn), n., a hawk.

HOUS'ING (houz-), n., a saddle-cloth.
SIG'NET, n., a private seal.
VAR'LET, n., a scoundrel; a footman.
A-MAIN', ad., with all force; without
stop; at once.
UN-NURT'URED, a., ill-bred.

Pronounce Dacre, Da'ker; wound, woond. 'Gan is a contraction of ¿3-gan'

WIDE raged the battle on the plain;

Spears shook, and falchions flashed amain ;

Fell England's arrow-flight like rain;

« PreviousContinue »