Page images
PDF
EPUB

Thou wilt not fail thy master, wilt thou? Thou
Hast never failed him yet, old servant No,

[ocr errors]

I'm sure of thee I know thy honesty.

Thou art stanch - stanch. — Let me see my quiver. Ges. Give him a single arrow.

[blocks in formation]

Tell. Is it so you pick an arrow, friend? The point, you see, is bent; the feather jagged:

That's all the use 't is fit for.

Ges. Let him have another.

Tell. Why, 't is better than the first, But yet not good enough for such an aim

As I'm to take 't is heavy in the shaft:

[ocr errors]

[Breaks it.]

I'll not shoot with it! [Throws it away.] Let me see my quiver.

Bring it! 'T is not one arrow in a dozen

I'd take to shoot with at a dove, much less

[blocks in formation]

Ver. He is.

[Tell here hides an arrow under his vest.]

Tell. I'm ready, too!

Keep silent for

Heaven's sake and do not stir and let me have

prayers your prayers and be witnesses my

[ocr errors]

Your
That if his life's in peril from my hand,

'Tis

"T is only for the chance of saving it. [To the people.]

Ges.

Go on.

Tell. I will.

O friends, for mercy sake, keep motionless

And silent.

[ocr errors]

[Tell shoots a shout of exultation bursts from the crowd-Tell's head drops on his bosom; he with difficulty supports himself upon his bow.]

Ver. [Rushing in with Albert.] The boy is safe, no hair of him is touched.

Alb. Father, I'm safe!

father,

Speak to me! Speak to me!
Ver. He cannot, boy!

Alb. You grant him life?

your Albert's safe, dear

[blocks in formation]

Alb.

[Crossing angrily behind.]

Thank Heaven! - thank Heaven!

Ver. Open his vest,

And give him air.

[Albert opens his father's vest, and the arrow drops.

Tell starts, fixes his eye upon Albert, and clasps

him to his breast.]

Tell. My boy!- My boy!

Ges. For what

Hid you that arrow in your breast?

Speak, slave!

Tell. To kill thee, tyrant, had I slain my boy!

ADDRESS TO THE SURVIVORS OF THE BATTLE OF

BUNKER HILL.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

DANIEL WEBSTER, one of the greatest of American statesmen, was born at Salisbury, N. H., in 1782.

His father, Ebenezer Webster, was a farmer and Justice of the County Court. He had been an officer in the Revolutionary war. Daniel received his early instruction from his mother, a woman 5 of rare intellectual powers, and from the country school which he attended during the winters.

[graphic]

Although he became a distinguished orator, he failed utterly in public speaking at school. He afterwards said: "There was one thing I could not do; I could not make a declamation. I could not speak before the school."

Daniel showed so great ability as a student that the family decided he must attend college,

although this step called for additional hardship and sacrifice 20 on the part of those at home. He studied under the direction

of a clergyman in a neighboring town, spent one year at Phillips Exeter Academy, and entered Dartmouth College when he was fifteen years old. During his vacations he taught school to pay his expenses. He also assisted his brother Ezekiel in 25 obtaining his education.

4

He finished his course at college with credit, and then studied law in Boston. He began his practice in Boscawen, a country town near his home; but after the death of his father he removed to Portsmouth, and was soon regarded as the leading 30 man in his profession.

After a time he removed to Boston, where he became known as one of the ablest lawyers of his time.

Webster was elected to Congress from Boston, and took his seat in December, 1823, and continued to serve in that position 5 till he was elected to the Senate, in which body he took his seat on the 4th of March, 1827.

The awkward village lad who could not declaim in the district school now ranked among the most eloquent orators of the country.

On the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, 10 Webster delivered a stirring oration, which made him famous throughout the country; and at the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill Monument he delivered an address which has not been equaled in this century. From that time Daniel Webster was sought after for every public occasion. He twice held the 15 office of Secretary of State. He resigned the latter office on account of failing health during the summer of 1852, and retired to his country seat at Marshfield, Mass., where he died in the following October.

You have come down to us from a former generation. 20 Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives that you might behold this joyous day. You are now where you stood fifty years ago this very hour, with your brothers and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder in the strife of your country. Behold how altered! The 25 same heavens are indeed over your heads; the same ocean rolls at your feet; but all else, how changed! You hear now no roar of hostile cannon; you see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning Charlestown. The ground strewed with the dead and 30 the dying; the impetuous charge; the steady and successful repulse; the loud call to repeated assault; the summoning of all that is manly to repeated resistance;

a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror there may be in war and death, — all these you have witnessed, but you witness them no more. All is peace. The heights of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, which you then saw 5 filled with wives and children and countrymen in distress and terror, and looking with unutterable emotions. for the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day with the sight of its whole happy population, come out to welcome and greet you with a universal jubilee. 10 Yonder proud ships, by a felicity of position appropriately lying at the foot of this mount, and seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoyance to you, but your country's own means of distinction and defense. All is peace; and God has granted you 15 this sight of your country's happiness ere you slumber in the grave forever. He has allowed you to behold and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils, and he has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you here, and, in the name of the present generation, 20 in the name of your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you.

But, alas! you are not all here. Time and the sword have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Read, Pomeroy, Bridge! our eyes seek for you 25 in vain amidst this broken band. You are gathered to your fathers and live only to your country in her grateful remembrance and your own bright example. But let us not too much grieve that you have met the

« PreviousContinue »