Right sharp and quick the bells rang out, all night, from Bristol town ; And, ere the day, three hundred horse had met on Clifton Down. The sentinel on Whitehall gate looked forth into the night, And saw o'erhanging Richmond Hill, that streak of bloodred light. The bugle's note, and cannon's roar, the deathlike silence broke, And with one start, and with one cry the royal city woke ; At once, on all her stately gates, arose the answering fires; At once the wild alarum clashed from all her reeling spires; From all the batteries of the Tower pealed loud the voice of fear, And all the thousand masts of Thames sent back a louder cheer; And from the farthest wards was heard the rush of hurrying feet, And the broad streams of flags and pikes dashed down each rousing street; And broader still became the blaze, and louder still the din, At fast from every village round the horse came spurring in ; And eastward straight, for wild Blackheath, the warlike errand went; And roused in many an ancient hall, the gallant squires of Kent; Southward, for Surrey's pleasant hills, flew those bright coursers forth; High on black Hampstead's swarthy moor, they started for the north; And on, and on, without a pause untired they bounded still; All night from tower to tower they sprang, all night from hill to hill; Till the proud peak unfurled the flag o'er Derwent's rocky dales; Till, like volcanoes, flared to heaven the stormy hills of Wales; Till twelve fair counties saw the blaze on Malvern's lonely height; Till streamed in crimson, on the wind, the Wrekin's crest of light; Till, broad and fierce the star came forth, on Ely's stately fane, And town and hamlet rose in arms, o'er all the boundless plain : Till Belvoir's lordly towers the sign to Lincoln sent, And Lincoln sped the message on, o'er the wide vale of Trent; Till Skiddaw saw the fire that burnt on Gaunt's' embattled pile, And the red glare on Skiddaw roused the burghers of Car lisle. 1. Give the number of ships of war, men, and pieces of cannon, employed by Philip for the invasion of England. 2. Of what number of ships did the English fleet consist? 3. To what number was it soon increased by the zeal of the people ? 4. Describe the Queen as she appeared in the camp at Tilbury, and give the noble words with which she addressed the army. 5. With what success did the English squadron attack the Armada ? 6. What completed its destruction ? 7. Give the beautiful inscription on the medal. 8. Should we not trace all our successes to God's hand? 9. Who spied the Armada and gave the alarm? Macaulay. 10. What was immediately done in Plymouth? 11. What does unbonneted apply to ? 12. Who is called "her grace"? 13. What country is meant by "the lion of the sea," and what by the "gay lilies" ? 14. What have you to tell me about "Picard field" ? 15. What about Agincourt? 16. Explain the Latin words "semper eadem."" 17. If I put the large map of England before you, will any one point to Eddystone and tell me something about it? 18. Now who will point to each of the places mentioned ? 19. For what is Stonehenge celebrated? 20. Why comes Lancaster castle to be called Gaunt's embattled pile? XXVII.-HYMN BEFORE SUNRISE IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI. THE valley of Chamouni on N. W. of Mont Blanc, is the most celebrated in the Alps for its picturesque sites and the wild grandeur of its glaciers. The glaciers which descend into the valley from M. Blanc are without doubt the grandest in the Alps, and the grandest among these is the Mer de Glace or sea of ice. Cheever in his "Wanderings of a Pilgrim in the Shadow of M. Blanc," says, "This Mer de Glace is an easy and excellent residence for the scientific study of the glaciers, a subject of very great interest, formerly filled with mysteries, which the bold and persevering investigations and theories of some modern naturalists have quite cleared up. The strange movements of the glaciers, their apparent wilful rejection of extraneous bodies and substances to the surface and the margin, their increase and decrease, long remained invested with something of the supernatural; they seemed to have a soul and a life of their own. They look motionless and silent, yet they are always moving and sounding on, and they have great voices that give prophetic warning of the weather to the shepherds of the Alps. Scientific men have set up huts upon the sea, and landmarks on the mountains opposite, to test the progress of the icy masses, and in this way it was found that a cabin constructed by Professor Hugi on the glacier of the Aar, had travelled, between the years 1827 and 1840, a distance of 4600 feet. It is supposed that the Mer de Glace moves down between four and five huudred feet annually. It is impossible to form a grander image of the rigidity and barrenness, the coldness and death of winter, than when you stand among the billows of one of these frozen seas; and yet it is here that Nature locks up in her careful bosom the treasures of the Alpine valleys, the sources of rich summer verdure and vegetable life. They are hoarded up in winter, to be poured forth beneath the sun, and with the sun in summer. Some of the largest rivers in Europe take their rise from the glaciers, and give to the Swiss valleys their most abundant supply of water, in the season when ordinary streams are dried up. This is a most interesting provision in the economy of nature, for if the glaciers did not exist, those verdant valleys into which the summer sun pours with such fervour would be parched with drought. So the mountains are parents of perpetual streams, and the glaciers are reservoirs of plenty." -Cheever's Wanderings of a Pilgrim. 1 "Gaunt's embattled pile."-The castle of Lancaster. John, duke of Lancaster, was born in Gaunt or Ghent, in Belgium. He was the progenitor of the Lancastrian line of kings. HAST thou a charm to stay the Morning-Star O dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee, Didst vanish from my thought: entranc'd in prayer Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody, So sweet we know not we are listening to it, Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought, Into the mighty Vision passing-there As in her natural form, swell'd vast to Heaven! Awake, my soul! not only passive praise Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink Companion of the morning-star at dawn, And you, ye five wild torrents, fiercely glad! Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, And who commanded (and the silence came), Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow Who made you glorious as the gates of Heaven God! sing ye meadow-streams with gladsome voice! Ye livery flowers that skirt th' eternal frost! Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise! Once more, hoar mount! with thy sky-pointing peaks, Oft from whose feet the Avalanche,1 unheard, Slow travelling with dim eyes suffus'd with tears, To rise before me-Rise, O ever rise, Rise like a cloud of incense, from the earth! 1. Why seems the morning star to pause on the mountain top? 2. Name the principal rivers in the vale? 3. Are these the only rivers there? 4. What sort of trees abound at the foot of the mountain ? 5. How high does the mountain lift its head into the air? 6. Is the air around the summit really an ebon mass? 7. What gives it the dark appearance? 8. Is "calm home" correctly descriptive of the sky at the summit? 9. At what height in the air do storms usually rage? 10. Is the word eternity in line 12th strictly correct? 11. Substitute the correct word. 12. What was the effect of the poet's long and steady gaze at the mountain? 13. What mean you by the soul in her natural form? 14. In what state was the soul of man originally? 15. Did he then see God in everything? 16. Are tears, thanks, ecstasy, passive or active praise ? 17. What active praise does the poet propose to give? 18. Do stars rise in the east and set in the west just like the sun? 19. Explain lines 31st and 32nd. Coleridge. 20. Change the conjunctions in line 33rd. 21. Is Mont Blanc the highest point of the Alps? 22. Where will the rosy beams of morning first light? 39. 23. Name the heralds of the dawn? 25. Whence have the five torrents their source? 26. How many questions are asked of the torrents? 27. What is the answer to them all? 28. By what agent does God stiffen the billows? 29. What do the icefalls seem in the poet's eye? 30. Name the colours of which light is made up. 31. Show that the icefalls are glorious in the moonlight. 32. Enumerate the questions put to the icefalls. 33. With what voice are the torrents to answer? 34. What objects echo the shout? 36. Why is the 3rd personal pronoun used in speaking of the piles of snow? (Ans. They are so far above human reach, that he cannot speak to them, he must speak of them.) 1 Avalanches are the most dangerous and terrible phenomena to which the valleys embosomed between high snow-topped mountain-ranges are exposed. They are especially frequent in the Alps owing to the steepness of their declivities, but they are also known in other mountain regions, as in the Pyrenees and in Norway. They originate in the higher region of the mountains, when the accumulation of snow becomes so great that the inclined plane on which the mass rests cannot any longer support it. It is then pushed down the declivity by its own weight, and precipitated into the subjacent valley, where it often destroys forests and villages, buries men and cattle, and sometimes fills up the rivers and stops their course.-Knight's Cyclopædia. |