"I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.

"And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this 5 writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof but they could not show the interpretation of the thing:

"And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst 10 read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom."

Then Daniel answered and said before the king: 15 "Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

"O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, 20 and honor:

"And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him : whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up, and whom he 25 would he put down.

"But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:

"And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he 5 knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

"And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

"But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of 10 heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, and thy wives, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know and the God 15 in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:

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"Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.

"And this is the writing that was written:

MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

This is the interpretation of the thing:

MENE;

God hath NUMBERED thy kingdom,
And finished it.

TEKEL;

Thou art WEIGHED in the balances,
And art found wanting.

PERES;

Thy kingdom is DIVIDED,

And given to the Medes and Persians."

Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck, 5 and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain.

And Darius, the Median, took the kingdom, being 10 about threescore and two years old.

From The Bible," Book of Daniel, Chap. V.

THE BATTLE OF QUEBEC.

FRANCIS PARKMAN.

FRANCIS PARKMAN was born in Boston in 1823. He was graduated from Harvard College when he was twenty-one. He visited

Europe and on his return went

on a tour in the far West, across the prairies and among the Rocky Mountains. He became well acquainted with the Indians, sharing their camps and hunting buffaloes with them. His book, "The California and Oregon Trail," contains a vivid account of his explorations. This book was followed by "The History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac" and a novel called "Vassal Morton." Mr. Parkman devoted a number of years to writing histories of the attempts of the French and English to settle North America. His qualities as a writer were of a high order. His style is marked by uncommon vigor. 20 His pages are alive with thrilling adventure, brilliant description, and romantic episodes. He has left no room for a competitor in the same field. Mr. Parkman died in 1893.

THE eventful night of the 12th was clear and calm, with no light but that of the stars. Within two hours 25 before daybreak thirty boats, crowded with sixteen hundred soldiers, cast off from the vessels and floated downward, in perfect order, with the current of the ebb tide. To the boundless joy of the army, Wolfe's malady had abated, and he was able to command in person.

His

ruined health, the gloomy prospects of the siege, and the disaster at Montmorenci had oppressed him with the deepest melancholy, but never impaired for a moment the promptness of his decisions or the impetuous energy of his action. He sat in the stern of one of the boats, 5 pale and weak, but borne up to a calm height of resolution. Every order had been given, every arrangement made, and it only remained to face the issue. The ebbing tide sufficed to bear the boats along, and nothing broke the silence of the night but the gurgling of the 10 river and the low voice of Wolfe, as he repeated to the officers about him the stanzas of Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard," which had recently appeared and which he had just received from England. Perhaps, as he uttered those strangely appropriate words,

"The paths of glory lead but to the grave,"

the shadows of his own approaching fate stole with mournful prophecy across his mind. "Gentlemen," he

said as he closed his recital, "I would rather have written those lines than take Quebec to-morrow."

As they approached the landing-place, the boats edged closer in towards the northern shore, and the woody precipices rose high on their left, like a wall of undistinguished blackness.

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They reached the landing-place in safety - an indenta- 25 tion in the shore about a league above the city, and now bearing the name of Wolfe's Cove. Here a narrow path led up the face of the heights, and a French guard was