have omitted some of the words, only that it might have disturbed the measure and cadences, and have put me out. They are the very words my dearest father sang; and they are the last. Yet, shame upon me! the nurse (the same who 5 stood listening near, who attended me into this country) could remember them more perfectly; it is from her I have learned them since; she often sings them, even by herself.

Es. So shall others. There is much both in them and in thee to render them memorable. . . . The dullest of 10 mortals, seeing and hearing thee, would never misinterpret the prophecy of the fates. If, turning back, I could overpass the vale of years, and could stand on the mountain top, and could look again far before me at the bright ascending morn, we could enjoy the prospect together; 15 we would walk along the summit hand in hand, O Rhodope! and we would only sigh at last when we found ourselves below with others.

TWO SONNETS BY EDMUND SPENSER.

I.

Long-while I sought to what I might compare

Those powerful eyes, which lighten my dark spright:
Yet found I naught on earth, to which I dare
Resemble th' image of their goodly light.

Not to the Sun; for they do shine by night;
Nor to the Moon; for they are changed never;
Nor to the Stars; for they have purer sight;
Nor to the Fire; for they consume not never;

SCH. READ. VIII. -9

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

The battle of Waterloo which witnessed the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the allied forces of Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Prussia,

was one of the most important mili5 tary engagements in all history. Victor Hugo, in his famous romance, "Les Misérables," gives the following brilliant description of that great event.

Victor Hugo.

That Waterloo should be the end of Austerlitz, Providence needed only a little rain; and an unseasonable cloud crossing the sky sufficed for the overthrow of a world!

20 The battle of Waterloo - and this gave Blücher time to come up could not be commenced before half-past eleven. Why? Because the ground was soft. It was necessary to wait for it to acquire some little firmness, so that the artillery could maneuver.

25 Had the ground been dry and the artillery able to move, the action would have been commenced at six o'clock in the morning. The battle would have been

won and finished at two o'clock, three hours before the Prussians turned the scale of fortune.

How much fault is there on the part of Napoleon in the loss of this battle? His plan of battle was, all confess, a masterpiece. To march straight to the center í of the allied line, pierce the enemy, cut them in two, push the British half upon Hal and the Prussian half upon Tongres, make of Wellington and Blücher two fragments, carry Mont Saint-Jean, seize Brussels, throw the German into the Rhine and the Englishman into the 10 sea-all this, for Napoleon, was in this battle. What would follow, anybody can see.

Those who would get a clear idea of the battle of Waterloo, have only to lay down upon the ground, in their mind, a capital A. The left stroke of the A is 15 the road from Nivelles; the right stroke is the road from Genappe; the cross of the A is the sunken road from Ohain to Braine-l'Alleud. The top of the A is Mont Saint-Jean - Wellington is there; the left-hand lower point is Hougoumont Reille is there, with 20 Jerome Bonaparte; the right-hand lower point is La Belle Alliance - Napoleon is there.

A little below the point where the cross of the A meets and cuts the right stroke is La Haie Sainte. At the middle of this cross is the precise point where the 25 final battle word was spoken. The triangle contained at the top of the A, between the two strokes and the cross, is the plateau of Mont Saint-Jean. The struggle for this plateau was the whole of the battle.

Both generals had carefully studied the plain of Mont 30

Saint-Jean, now called the plain of Waterloo. Already, in the preceding year, Wellington, with the sagacity of prescience, had examined it as a possible site for a great battle. On this ground, and for this contest, Wellington 5 had the favorable side, Napoleon the unfavorable. The English army was above, the French army below.

Toward four o'clock the situation of the English army was serious. Hougoumont yielding, La Haie Sainte taken there was but one knot left the center. That still 10 held. Wellington reënforced it. He called thither Hill who was at Merbe-Braine, and Chassé who was at Braine-l'Alleud.

The center of the English army, slightly concave, very dense, and very compact, held a strong position. It 15 occupied the plateau of Mont Saint-Jean, with the village behind it, and in front the declivity, which at that time was steep. Wellington, anxious but impassible, was on horseback, and remained there the whole day in the same attitude, a little in front of the old mill of Mont 20 Saint-Jean, which is still standing, under an elm, which an Englishman, an enthusiastic vandal, has since bought for two hundred francs, cut down, and carried away..

Wellington was frigidly heroic. The balls rained down. His aide-de-camp, Gordon, had just fallen at his 25 side. Lord Hill, showing him a bursting shell, said: "My lord, what are your instructions, and what orders do you leave us, if you allow yourself to be killed?" "To follow my example," answered Wellington. To Clinton he said, laconically, "Hold this spot to the last man!" 30 The day was clearly going badly. Wellington cried to