ing this interval of peace that he married Emily Wellesley, a daughter of the third Earl of Mornington, and a niece of the Duke of Wellington. When the war was renewed he again became military secretary and aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, and served with him in his last campaign. At Waterloo-he was riding at the time near the farm of La Haie Sainte-he lost his right arm from a shot.-A. W. Kinglake (Invasion of the Crimea).

50. MAHOMET.

If we are far from considering Mahomet the gross and impious impostor that some have represented him, so also are we indisposed to give him credit for vast forecast, and for that deeply concerted scheme of universal conquest which has been ascribed to him. He was undoubtedly a man of great genius and a suggestive imagination; but it appears to us that he was to a great degree the creature of impulse and excitement, and very much at the mercy of circumstances. His military triumphs awakened no pride or vainglory, as they would have done had they been effected for selfish purposes. In the time of his greatest power he maintained the same simplicity of manners and appearance as in the days of his adversity. So far from affecting regal state, he was displeased if, on entering a room, any unusual testimonial of respect were shown him.— Washington Irving (Life of Mahomet).

51. ICH DIEN.'

The king of Majorca and the king of Bohemia were slain in the battle of Cressy. The fate of the latter was remarkable. He was blind from age; but being resolved to hazard his person, and set an example to others, he ordered the reins of his bridle to be tied on each side to the horses of two gentlemen of his train. His body, and those of his attendants, were afterwards found amongst the slain, with their horses standing round them in that position. His crest was three ostrich feathers; and his motto the German words, Ich dien, 'I serve,' which the Prince of Wales and his successors adopted in memorial of the glorious victory.

52. ARNOLD DE WINKELRIED.

At the battle of Sempach, a knight of the Canton of Untervalden, in Switzerland, named Arnold de Winkelried, seeing that his countrymen could not break the line of battle of the Austrians, who were armed from head to foot, and formed a very close column, conceived the generous design of sacrificing himself for his country. 'My friends,' said he to the Swiss who surrounded him, 'I am about to sacrifice my life for my country: I only recommend to you my family. Follow me!' On this, he placed them in the form of a triangle, of which he formed the point; marched towards the centre of the enemy, and, grasping as many pikes as he could, he threw himself on the ground; thus opening, to those who followed him, a way to penetrate into this thick column. The Austrians, once broken, were conquered, the weight of their arms becoming fatal to them.

53. FRANCIS I. AND CHARLES V.

Francis I. died at Rambouillet, on the last day of March, in the fifty-third year of his age, and the thirty-third of his reign. During twenty-eight years of that time an avowed rivalship subsisted between him and the Emperor, which involved the greater part of Europe in wars. Many circumstances contributed to this. Their animosity was founded in opposition of interest, and exasperated not only by mutual injuries, but by reciprocal insults. At the same time, whatever advantage one seemed to possess, was wonderfully balanced by some favourable circumstance peculiar to the other. The Emperor's dominions were of greater extent, the French king's lay more compact; Francis governed his kingdom with absolute power; that of Charles was limited, but he supplied the want of authority by address the troops of the former were more impetuous and enterprising; those of the latter better disciplined and more patient of fatigue. The talents and abilities of the two monarchs were as different as the advantages which they possessed, and contributed to prolong the contest between them.-Robertson.

54. LA FAYETTE.

The American cause was very popular in France, out of hatred to this country. Franklin and Silas Deane had been sent as envoys to Paris, to solicit the support of the French; and though the latter were not yet prepared to declare openly in favour of the Americans, they gave them secret assistance. Many French officers proceeded to America to offer their services, among whom the most distinguished by rank and fortune was the young Marquis de La Fayette, who was not yet twenty years of age. The Americans gave him the rank of major-general, and he undertook to serve without emolument. In England, Chatham again appeared in the House of Lords and made an eloquent appeal for conciliating America, but without success. The exertions of Chatham in this cause were noble, enlightened, and patriotic.-D. Hume.

assemblies where Such among the

55. ANCIENT CUSTOMS OF THE GAULS. Women were admitted into all the questions of peace and war were debated. men whose duty it was to enforce silence, had a right to cut off a piece of the dress of him who was too noisy. A man too corpulent was condemned to a fine, which was greater or less in proportion as his corpulency increased or diminished. When a girl was marriageable, her father invited the young men of the district to dine. She might choose him whom she liked best; and as a mark of the preference which she gave him, he was the first to whom she presented the basin to make his ablutions.

The Gauls often committed the settlement of their difference to two ravens. The parties placed two cakes of flour soaked in wine and oil upon the same board, which they carried to the border of a certain lake. Two ravens were soon seen pouncing upon the cakes, scattering one about, and eating the whole of the other. The party whose cake had only been scattered about, gained his cause.

56. PROGRESS.

It is pleasing to reflect that the public mind of England has softened while it has ripened, and that we have, in the course of

ages, become, not only a wiser, but also a kinder people. There is scarcely a page of the history or lighter literature of the seventeenth century which does not contain some proof that our ancestors were less humane than their posterity. The discipline of workshops, of schools, of private families, though not more efficient than at present, was infinitely harsher. Masters, well born and bred, were in the habit of beating their servants Pedagogues knew no way of imparting knowledge but by beating their pupils. Husbands, of decent station, were not ashamed to beat their wives. The implacability of hostile factions was such as we can scarcely conceive.—Macaulay.

57. FIDELE.

Fidele, the famous Swedish dog, was young and strong when his master died. He followed his master's funeral to the churchyard of Saint Mary in Stockholm; and when the grave was filled up, he laid himself down upon it. It was in vain that a number of persons tried to entice him away: he resisted all their efforts.

A lady, touched by this faithful affection, brought him food every day; and during the winter, she sent him carpets and blankets. The dog, constant in his grief, remained several years on the grave, summer and winter, day and night, with his eyes constantly fixed on the resting-place of him whom neither absence nor time could efface from his memory.

58. THE CLOAK.

Several soldiers came to a village in a time of war, and asked for a guide. They desired an old labourer to go with them. It was very cold-snow was falling, and the wind was very violent. He begged the peasants to lend him a cloak, but they refused to listen to his request. Only a strange old man, who had been driven from his home by the war, had pity on the labourer, and gave him his old cloak, though he was very poor. The soldiers marched away. Late in the evening a handsome young officer, dressed in a splendid uniform, and with an order on his breast, rode into the village; he desired to be led to the old man who had lent his cloak to the guide. When the kind old man saw the officer, he gave a loud cry: 'That is my son

Rudolf,' he exclaimed, and ran towards him to embrace the youth. Rudolf had been obliged to become a soldier several years before, and as he was very upright and brave, as well as clever, he had been made an officer. He had heard nothing of his father, who had formerly been a merchant in a large town; but he had recognised the old cloak, and the story of the guide had convinced him that his father was now living in this village. The father and son shed tears of joy, and the people who stood around them wept with them.

59. THE VAIN COCK.

A cock stood on a high wall and said: 'No one is so tall as I am. No one has such fine plumes, or such a brightred comb. The hens all mind what I say. I call them, and they come. I give them a worm to eat, and I stand by and say: "Eat it, eat it, my good hens, don't mind me; don't be shy. I am very glad to see you like it. I can find you more when I please.' "That cock makes such a noise,' said a man who came into the yard, 'that I must kill him, if he does not be quiet.' The cock heard what he said, and got down from the wall, and hid in the barn. Here he would have had no food, but the hens found him, and brought him some. He grew quite meek and still, and when he got on the wall, it was to see that the man was out of sight. If he was far off, the cock would give one long crow, and then run back to the barn as fast as he could; but if he were within sight or hearing, master cock had not a word to say.

60. LORD WELLINGTON'S LETTER TO GENERAL FREYRE. '24th of December, 1813.

"The question between these gentlemen (the Spanish Generals) and myself, is to know if they shall or shall not pillage; and I have been obliged to adopt severe measures against the troops of General Morillo. I am sorry that these measures are displeasing to the gentlemen; but the acts of which I complain are much more dishonourable to them than the measures that they have rendered necessary.

...

'If I were villain enough to suffer pillage, do you not see