France would decorate no garland for her. Flower nor bud, bell nor blossom, would ever bloom for her.

10. Having placed the king on his throne, it was her fortune henceforward to be thwarted. More than one military plan was entered upon which she did not approve. Too well she felt that the end was nigh at hand. Still she continued to jeopard her person in battle as before; severe wounds had not taught her caution; and at length she was made prisoner by the Burgundians, and finally given up to the English.

11. The object now was to vitiate the coronation of Charles the Seventh as the work of a witch, and for this end Joan was tried for sorcery. She resolutely defended herself from the absurd accusation. Never from the foundations of the earth was there such a trial as this, if it were laid open in all its beauty of defense and all its malignity of attack.

12. O child of France! shepherdess, peasant girl! trodden under foot by all around thee, how I honor thy flashing intellect, quick as the lightning and as true to its mark, that ran before France and laggard Europe by many a century, confounding the malice of the insnârer and making dumb the Ŏracles of falsehood! "Would you examine me as a witness against myself?" was the question by which many times she defied their arts. The result of this trial was the condemnation of Joan to be burnt alive.

13. Woman, sister! there are some things which you do not execute as well as your brother, man-no, nor ever will. Yet, sister, woman, cheerfully and with the love that bûrns in depths of admiration, I acknowledge that you can do one thing as well as the best of men-you can die grandly! On the 20th of May, 1431, being then about nineteen years of age, Joan of Arc underwent her martyrdom. She was conducted before midday, guarded by eight hundred spearmen, to a platform of prodigious height, constructed of wooden billets, supported by occasional walls of läth and plåster, and traversed by hollow spaces in every direction for the creation of air-currents.

14. With an undäunted soul, but a meek and saintly demeanor, the maiden encountered her terrible fate. The executioner had been directed to apply his torch from below. He did so. The fiery smoke rose upward in billowing volumes. A monk was then standing at Joan's side.

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15. Wrapt up in his sublime ŏffice, he saw not the danger, but still persisted in his prayers. Even then, when the låst enemy was racing up the fiery stairs to seize her, even at that moment did this noblest of girls think only for him—the one friend that would not forsake her-and not for herself, bidding him with her last breath to câre for his own preservation, but to leave her to God.

16. "Go down," she said; "lift up the cross before me, that I may see it in dying, and speak to me pious words to the end." Her last audible word was the name of Jesus. A soldier who had sworn to throw a fagot on the pile turned away, a penitent for life, on hearing her last prayer to her Saviour. He had seen, he said, a white dove sōar to heaven from the ashes where the brave girl had stood. DE QUINCEY.1

SECTION VI.

I.

19. EGGS AND FEATHERS.

PART FIRST.

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`AR south, in the Indian Ocean, in the midst of almost

and is appropriately

Danger Island. Of all the lonely spots on the globe whose existence has been ascertained, this is probably the most lonely. Once only since the creation has it been known to be visited by man.

2. The sea for many hundred miles rolls and flashes over a shållow bottom, till, arriving at a certain degree of latitude, the floor of rock abruptly ends, and the ocean becomes, in a moment, of unfathomable depth. On the věry edge of this abyss stands Danger Island.

1 Thomas De Quincey, born at Manchester, Eng., August 15, 1785; died December 8, 1859. He was a vivid and powerful writer, noted for his wide range of learning and

of speculation, and for the brilliancy of his style.

2 Indian (ind'yan).

' A býss', a gulf; a bottomless depth; hence, any very deep space.

4. A surveying ship, traversing 1 the ocean in all directions, for scientific purposes, once approached this wild rock. The weather was calm and lovely; the waves, usually so rěstlèss, being afforded by the wind no pretext for climbing and roaring about the cliffs, lay still and smooth, as if to entrap the unwary 2 mǎriner.3

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5. Taking advantage of the occasion, a few dâring young officers ordered a boat to be lowered, and, pushing off with many a sturdy rower from the ship's side, soon drew near the perpendicular 5 precipices of Danger Island. Nature has perhaps nowhere produced a more strange or fairy spot.

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6. As the men rested on their ōars, and looked up, they beheld trees of dense and beautiful fōliäge throwing out their arms over the cliffs 10 on all sides; while birds of the mōst variegated and brilliant plumage seemed to hang like clustering flowers on the boughs. Having never been disturbed by man, they were ignorant that his approach boded 11 them mischief, so that if they now and then quitted their perches, and spread out their dazzling wings, it was only in frolic and spōrt.

7. After rowing to a considerable distance ǎlong the foot of the precipices, the gentlemen discovered a small fissure,1 through which they felt confident they could climb to the summit; and the boat being pushed quite close to the rocks, two or three of the most dâring landed, and, after no slight toil and peril, reached the top. The prospect which then presented itself was truly extraordinary. Rendered green as an emerald 18 by the agency of hidden springs, the whole surface of the island was thickly strewn with eggs of innumerable oceanic 14 birds, which,

1 Trǎv'ers ing, wandering over; crossing.

? Un wa'ry, not watchful against danger; unguarded.

3 Măr'in er, seaman; sailor. 4 Sturdy (ster'dí), hardy; strong. ' Per'pen dic'u lar, exactly upright; toward the earth's centre.

"Prec'i pĭce, a very steep descent of land or rock.

7 Fairy (fâr'i), relating or belonging to fairies. Fairies were imaginary, not real, spirits, once thought to be able to take a human form,

either male or female, and to meddle in the affairs of mankind.

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9

Dense, compact; close.

Fō'li age, leaves; a cluster of leaves, flowers, and branches.

10 Cliff, a high and steep rock; a very steep or overhanging place.

11 Bōd'ed, foreshadowed. 12 Fissure (fish'or), a split, or narrow opening.

13 Em'e rald, a precious stone of a rich green color.

14 Oceanic (ō she ăn'ik), relating to, or found or formed in, the ocean.

rising from the task of incubation,1 formed a canopy of fluttering wings overhead'.

8. The eggs were of all colors-white, light chocolate, and dark blue, dotted with brown or crimson, tûrquoïse 2 or black. Here and there little bills protruded from the shells; and the mothers, though scâred away for a moment by the unusual appearance of men, soon alighted near their young, being, in spite of the name of their home, thoroughly unacquainted with danger. It might almost be said that the whole surface of the isle formed but one nest, divided into several compartments, where the naturalist, if he could live on eggs, might study the appearance, habits, and character of hälf the winged dwellers on the deep.

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9. It is altogether unnecessary, however, to voyage so far in order to contěm'plate the beauty of one of Nature's måsterpieces-the egg. On few things has so much beauty been lavished. Just peep, in any lane, or break, in spring, into a bird's nest, and, lying cozily in their mossy couch, you will behold a number of mysterious spheres, every one of them with life within, but externally smooth and brilliant as a gem, penciled with delicate lines, flecked with red, cloudy, streaked, furnished with thousands of invisible" pōres, through which the air penetrates to the imprisoned bird, to hästen its development, and coöperate with animal heat in imparting to it all the mysterious powers of organization and vitality."

10. Considering one of these marvels from our own point of view, we should, before instructed by experience, imagine it was something intended to last for ever, so wonderful is its constitution, so râre its beauty, so ex'quisite 10 the finish and polish

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1 1 In'cu ba'tion, the act of sitting on, or otherwise warming, eggs for the purpose of hatching young.

2 Turquoise, (tēr kēz), a mineral, used in jewelry, of a peculiar bluishgreen color.

3 Protruded (pro trọd'ed), thrust out; came fōrth.

4 Con těm'plāte, to look at on all sides or in all beârings; to study.

5 In vis'i ble, unseen; not capable of being seen.

6 Or'găn i za'tion, the parts of which a thing is formed; structure.

Vi tǎl'i ty, life; the power or means of maintaining life.

8 Mar❜věl, that which causes admiration or surprise; a wonder.

9 Con'sti tu'tion, the state of being; make.

10 Exquisite (ěks'kwi zit), cârefully selected or sought out; hence, very nice; very great; giving râre satisfaction.

with which, so to speak, it has been chiseled and turned out of hand. Yet it is meant to endure but for a few days at fûrthèst. The young birds are cradled in things of beauty, which, when they have served their pûrpose, are thrown aside like the merèst dross; not here and there, scantily and by driblets, but profusely, in incalculable quantities, over the whōle sûrface of our globe. And why not? The power that called the egg into existence can, when it is broken and thrown aside, bring forth others of equal loveliness in multitudes that know no limit.

11. If you pierce the shell, what do you find within? First, a covering, white, thin, and delicate like the pětal1 of the rârèst flower, which envelops the young bird, and preserves it from contact with the polished but hard substance of the shell. Then, if you proceed further, you come upon the mighty process of matter quickening into life—the changing of two dissimilar fluids into bones, and flesh, and feathers, and tǎlons, and heart, and brains, together with all the machinery of voice, instinct,2 affection, and such other things as characterize life in all creatures, whether they emerge, like the ostrich, from a huge globe, or like the humming-bird, from an egg scarcely equaling in size the smallest pea.

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12. Every one has heard of the egg-hatching ovens of Grand Cairo ; but unless by actual inspection, it would be almost impossible to form a correct ide'a of them. They are, in fact, not ovens at all, but long suites of small, low chambers, lighted from above, and heated by hypocausts 5 below the flooring. When you look down the long line of rooms, you imagine yourself to be gazing upon whōle acres of eggs, and experience a most intense warmth. About the nineteenth day, after having been placed in these ovens, the throbbings of life are first seen in the egg; soon after which the shell parts, and leaves the bird exposed to the outer changes of life. Then man takes

1 Pět'al, one of the inner or colored leaves of a flower.

2 In'stinct, inward impulse; the natural, unreasoning impulse in an animal by which it is guided to the performance of any action.

4 Suite (swēt), a connected series; a collection; also, a train of fol. lowers.

5 Hyp ́o caust, an arched, underground room from which the heat of a fire is conducted to rooms above

3 Cairo (ki'ro), the capital city of by means of earthen tubes. It was Egypt. Population, 250,000.

first used in baths.