3. No, Romans, the confidence of our enemies is not from a belief in their own courage, or in your cowardice. They have been too often vanquished, not to know both themselves and you. Discord, discord amongst ourselves, is the ruin of this city. The eternal disputes between the Senate and the People are the sole cause of our misfortune.

4. In the name of Heaven, what is it, Romans, you would have? You desired Tribunes of the commons For the sake of concord, we granted Tribunes. You were eager to have Decemvirs. We suffered them to be created. You grew weary of Decemvirs. We compelled them to abdicate. You insisted on the restoration of the Tribuneship. We yielded. You invaded our rights. We have borne, and still bear.

5. What termination is there to be to these dissensions? When shall we have a united city? When one common country? With the enemy at our gates,-with the Volscian foe scaling your rampart,-there is no one to hinder it. But against us you are valiant,-against us you diligently take up arms!

6. Come on, then. Besiege the Senate-house. Make a camp of the Forum. Fill the jails with our chief nobles. Then sally out with the same determined spirit against the enemy. Does your resolution fail? Look, then, to see your lands ravaged, your houses plundered and in flames, the whole country laid waste with fire and sword.

7. Extinguish, O Romans, these fatal divisions! Break the spell of this enchantment, which renders you powerless and inactive! If you will but summon up the ancient Roman courage, and follow your Consuls to the field, I will submit to any punishment, if I do not rout and put to flight these ravagers of our territories, and transfer to their own cities the terror of war.

LIVI.

A

27. RICHARD TO THE PRINCES OF THE CRUSADE.

ND is it even so? And are our brethren at such pains to note the infirmities of our natural temper, and the rough precipitance of our zeal, which may have sometimes urged us to issue commands when there was little time to hold council? I could not have thought that offences, casual and unpremeditated, like mine, could find such deep root in the hearts of my allies in this most holy cause, that for my sake they should withdraw their hand from the plough when the furrow was near the end; for my sake turn aside from the direct path to Jerusalem which their swords have opened.

2. I vainly thought that my small services might have outweighed my rash errors; that if it were remembered that I pressed to the van in an assault, it would not be forgotten that I was ever the last in the retreat; that if I elevated my banner upon conquered fields of battle, it was all the advantage I sought, while others were dividing the spoil. I may have called the conquered city by my name, but it was to others that I yielded the dominion.

3. If I have been headstrong in urging bold counsels, I have not, methinks, spared my own blood, or my people's, in carrying them into as bold execution; or if I have, in the hurry of march or battle, assumed a command over the soldiers of others, such have ever been treated as my own, when my wealth purchased the provisions and medicines which their own sovereigns could not procure.

4. But it shames me to remind you of what all but myself seem to have forgotten. Let us rather look forward to our future measures; and believe me, brethren, you shall not find the pride, or the wrath, or the ambition of Richard, a stumblingblock of offence in the path to which religion and glory summon you, as with the trumpet of an archangel!

5. O, no, no! Never would I survive the thought that my frailties and infirmities had been the means to sever this goodly fellowship of assembled princes. I would cut off my left hand

with my right, could my doing so attest my sincerity. I will yield up, voluntarily, all right to command in the host even mine own liege subjects.

6. They shall be led by such sovereigns as you may nominate; and their king, ever but too apt to exchange the leader's baton for the adventurer's lance, will serve under the banner of Beauseant among the Templars-aye, or under that of Austria, if Austria will name a brave man to lead his forces.

7. Or, if ye are yourselves aweary of this war, and feel your armor chafe your tender bodies, leave but with Richard some ten or fifteen thousand of your soldiers to work out the accomplishment of your vow; and when Zion is won-when Zion is won-we will write upon her gates, not the name of Richard Plantagenet, but of those generous princes who intrusted him with the means of conquest! SIR WALTER SCOTT.

28. ALFRED THE GREAT TO HIS MEN.

MY friends, our country must be free! The land

Is never lost that has a son to right her—

And here are troops of sons, and loyal ones!
Strong in her children should a mother be.

Shall ours be helpless, that has sons like us?
God save our native land, whoever pays
The ransom that redeems her! Now, what wait we?
2. For Alfred's word to move upon the foe?

Upon him, then! Now think ye on the things
You most do love! Husbands and fathers, on
Their wives and children; lovers, on their beloved ;
And all, upon their COUNTRY! When you use
Your weapons, think on the beseeching eyes,
To whet them, could have lent you tears for water!
O, now be men, or never! From your hearths
Thrust the unbidden feet, that from their nooks
Drove forth your agéd sires-your wives and babes i

3. The couches your fair-handed daughters used
To spread, let not the vaunting stranger press,
Weary from spoiling you! Your roofs, that hear
The wanton riot of the intruding guest,

That mocks their masters-clear them for the sake
Of the manhood to which all that's precious clings,
Else perishes. The land that bore you-O!
Do honor to her! Let her glory in

Your breeding! Rescue her! Revenge her-or
Ne'er call her mother more! Come on, my friends!
4 And where you take your stand upon the field,
However you advance, resolve on this-

That you will ne'er recede, while from the tongues
Of age, and womanhood, and infancy,

The helplessness whose safety in you lies,

Invokes you to be strong! Come on! Come on!
I'll bring you to the foe! And when you meet him,
Strike hard! Strike home! Strike while a dying blow
Is in an arm! Strike till you're free, or fall!

KNOWLES.

29. THE BATTLE.

EAVY and solemn,

HEAVY

A cloudy column,

Thro' the green plain they marching came!

Measureless spread, like a table dread,

For the wild grim dice of the iron game..
The looks are bent on the shaking ground,

And the heart beats loud with a knelling sound
Swift by the breasts that must bear the brunt
Gallops the Major along the front,—

"Halt!"

And fettered they stand at the stark command,
And the warriors, silent, halt!

;

II.

Proud in the blush of morning glowing,
What on the hill-top shines in flowing!
"See you the foeman's banners waving?"
"We see the foeman's banners waving !"

III.

God be with ye-children and wife!

Hark to the music-the trump and the fife,

How they ring through the ranks which they rouse to the

strife!

Thrilling they sound with their glorious tone,

Thrilling they go through the marrow and bone!

Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er,

In the life to come that we meet once more!

IV.

See the smoke, how the lightning is clearing asunder! Hark the guns, peal on peal, how they boom in their

thunder!

From host to host, with kindling sound,

The shouting signal circles round;
Aye, shout it forth to life or death-
Freer already breathes the breath!
The war is waging, slaughter raging,
And heavy through the reeking pall
The iron death-dice fall!

V.

Nearer they close-foes upon foes-
"Ready!"-from square to square it goes.

Down on the knee they sank,

And the fire comes sharp on the foremost rank;
Many a man to the earth is sent,

Many a gap by the balls is rent

O'er the corpse before springs the hinder man,
That the line may not fail to the fearless van.