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jects which her own visions had dictated. She had saved France. What remained was-to suffer. But adversity could not weaken her heroic faith.

7. Having placed the king on his throne, it was her fortune thenceforward 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. 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.

8. 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. 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 ensnarer and making dumb the oracles 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. Never did grim inquisitors doom to death a fairer victim by baser

means.

9. 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 burns 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 lath and plaster, and traversed

by hollow

currents.

spaces in every direction for the creation of air

10. With an undaunted soul, but a meek and saintly demeanor, the maiden encountered her terrible fate. Upon her head was placed a miter bearing the inscription, “Relapsed heretic, apostate, idolatress." Her piety displayed itself in the most touching manner to the last, and her angelic forgetfulness of self was manifested in a remarkable degree. 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. Wrapt up in his sublime office, he saw not the danger, but still persisted in his prayers. Even then, when the last 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 care for his own preservation, but to leave her to God.

11. "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." Then, protesting her innocence and recommending her soul to Heaven, she continued to pray as the flames leaped up and walled her in. Her last audible word was the name of Jesus. Sustained by faith in Him in her last fight upon the scaffold, she had triumphed gloriously; victoriously she had tasted death. 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 soar to heaven from the ashes where the brave girl had stood. THOMAS DE QUINCEY (altered).

SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Absurd: L. absur'dus, proceeding from one deaf; fr. ab and sur'dus, deaf; h., surd (that cannot be expressed by rational numbers)... Apostate: Gr. apos'tates; fr. apostas'ia, a standing off from; fr. ap'ò, from, and ste'nai, to stand; stas'is, a standing; h., ec-stasy (lit., a standing out from), hydro-static (hu'dōr, water), etc. . . . Audible: L. audib'ilis; fr. au'dio, audi'tum, to hear; h., audience, auditor, dis-ob-ey, in-audible, ob-eisance, ob-ey (L. ob-ed'io, I listen to), ob-edient, etc. . . .

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Cause: L. cau'sa; h., ac-cuse, ac-cusative, causality, ex-cuse, in-ex-cusable, re-cusant, etc. Celebration: L. celebra'tio; fr. cel'eber, cel'ebris, frequent, famous; h., celebrate, celebrity. . . Declare: L. declar'o, declara'tum, to make clear; fr. de and cla'rus, clear; h., clarify, clarion, clear. . . Devout: L. devo'tus; fr. de and vov'eo, vo'tum, to vow, to promise solemnly; h., a-vow, de-vote, votary, vote, votive, vow. . . . Enemy: L. inimi'cus; fr. in-, not, and ami'cus, friend; h., amity, amicable, en-mity, in-imical. Examine: L. exam'ino, examina'tum, to swarm, to weigh; fr. exa'men, a multitude issuing forth, a weighing, etc. . . . Feminine: L. femini'nus ; fr. fem'ina, a woman; h., ef-feminale, etc. . . . .. Foundation: L. funda'tio; fr. fun'dus, bottom; h., found, foundery, funda-mental, pro-found, pro-fundity, un-founded. . . . Glorious : L. glorio'sus; fr. glo'ria, glory; h., in-glorious. . . . Grand L. gran'dis, great; h., ag-grandize, grandeur, etc. Heir: L. hæ'res; h., dis-in-herit, heritage, hereditary, in-herit. . . . Heretic: Gr. hairěť'ikšs, able to choose; fr. hai'rein (aipeív), to grasp, to choose. Honor: L. hon'or or hon'os; h., honest, etc.. Inevitable: fr. L. in-, not, and evitab'ilis, capable of being shunned; fr. e, out, and vito, vita'tum, to shun; h., a-void. . . . Lineal: L. lin-e-a'lis; fr. lin'e-a, a line; h., de-lineate, inter-linear, lineal, lineage, out-line, etc. . . . Malice: L. mali'tia; fr. mal'us, bad; h., malady, male-diction, male-factor, male-volent, malign, malignity, etc. Manifest: L. manifes'tus, palpable, plain. . . . Oracle : L. oraculum; fr. o'ro, ora'tum, to speak, to pray; fr. os, o'ris, the mouth; h., ad-ore, ex-orable (that may be moved by prayer), in-ex-orable, oral (delivered by mouth), orator, oratorio, ori-fice, per-oration, etc. Piety: L. pi'etas; fr. pi'us, pious; h., im-pious. . . . Peasant: F. paysan; fr. L. pa'gus, the country; h., pagan. . . . Refuse probably fr. the L. recu'so, I reject. Severe: L. sev-e'rus; al. to se'rius, grave, serious; h., per-severe (L. persever'us, very strict). Sorcery: probably fr. the L. sors, sor'tis, lot, sort; h., as-sort, con-sort, sorti-lege (lego, I gather), etc. Terrible: L. terrib'ilis; fr. ter'reo, ter'ritum, to frighten; h., de-ter, terror, etc. Vitiate: L. vi'tio, vitia'tum; fr. vi'tium, a fault; h., vice, vicious.

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SHORTSIGHTEDNESS OF MAN.

AN ALLEGORY.

A DEW-DROP, falling on the ocean wave,
Exclaimed in fear, "I perish in this grave;"
But, in a shell received, that drop of dew
Unto a pearl of marvelous beauty grew;
And happy now, the grace did magnify
Which thrust it forth, as it had feared to die:
Until again, "I perish quite," it said,
Torn by rude diver from its ocean bed:
O unbelieving! so it came to gleam
Chief jewel in a monarch's diadem.

TRENCH.

XXXVII.—THE KEEPING OF THE BRIDGE.

It is recorded in the annals of ancient Rome that Horatius, assisted by Lar'tius and Hermin'ius, defended the Sublician Bridge, over the Tiber, against the whole Etruscan army under Por'sena, while the Romans oroke down the bridge behind the "dauntless three." When the work was nearly finished, Hora'tius sent back his two companions. As soon as the bridge was quite destroyed, he plunged into the stream and swam across to the city in safety, amid the arrows of the enemy.

I.

OUT spake the consul roundly,

"The bridge must straight go down;
For, since Janiculum* is lost,
Naught else can save the town."
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The captain of the gate,
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.

And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers

And the temples of his gods?
Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed you may;
I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon straight path a thousand

May well be stopped by three.
Now, who will stand on either hand
And keep the bridge with me?"

II.

Then out spake Spurius Lartius—

A Rhamniant proud was he

* One of the hills of ancient Rome, from which it was separated by the river Tiber. Por'sena took the fort of Janic'ulum and compelled the Romans to retreat over the bridge into the city.

+ Rom'ulus divided the Romans into three tribes, called Rhamnenses, Tatienses and Lucerenses.

"Lo, I will stand on thy right hand
And keep the bridge with thee."
And out spake strong Herminius—
Of Tatian blood was he-

"I will abide on thy left side

And keep the bridge with thee."
"Horatius," quoth the consul,
"As thou say'st so let it be,"
And straight against that great array
Forth went the dauntless three.
For Romans, in Rome's quarrel,
Spared neither land nor gold,
Nor son nor wife nor limb nor life,
In the brave days of old.

III.

Meanwhile the Tuscan army,
Right glorious to behold,

Came flashing back the noonday light,
Rank behind rank, like surges bright
Of a broad sea of gold.
Four hundred trumpets sounded
A peal of warlike glee,

As that great host, with measured tread,
And spears advanced and ensigns spread,
Rolled slowly toward the bridge's head,
Where stood the dauntless three.

IV.

The three stood calm and silent,
And looked upon their foes,
And a great shout of laughter
From all the vanguard rose.
But soon Etruria's noblest

Felt their hearts sink to see
On the earth the bloody corpses,
In the path the dauntless three!

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