EXERCISES.-1. Explain the following: (1) The brilliant picture has its reverse; (2) without any stipulation or scruple concerning the means; (3) egotistic and monopolising; (4) intriguing to involve in bankruptcy; (5) a prodigious gossip; (6) he listened after the compliments of the street incognito.

2. Analyse and parse the following: 'When the first salutations had passed, Fergus said to his sister: "My dear Flora, before I return to the barbarous ritual of our forefathers, I must tell you that Captain Waverley is a worshipper of the Celtic muse."

3. Name all the words you know connected with the following English words: (1) Bank; (2) sense; (3) reverse; (4) pretend; (5) impostor.

DEATH THE LEVELLER.

[The following fine verses occur in a play, the Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, by James Shirley (1594-1666), a dramatic writer.]

The glories of our birth and state

Are shadows, not substantial things;

There is no armour against fate:
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and Crown

Must tumble down,

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant with laurels where they kill;

But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still:
Early or late

They stoop to fate,

And must give up their murmuring breath
When they, pale captives, creep to death.

The garlands wither on your brow ;
Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
Upon Death's purple altar now

See where the victor-victim bleeds!
Your heads must come

To the cold tomb;

Only the actions of the just,

Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.

[The following extract is from the well-known History of England (from 1528 to 1588) of James Anthony Froude, a distinguished living writer. It describes the setting out and the fate of the so-called invincible Armada, which sailed for the conquest of England in 1588.]

1. The scene as the fleet passed out of the harbour must have been singularly beautiful. It was treacherous interval of real summer. The early sun

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was lighting the long chain of the Galician mountains, marking with shadows the cleft defiles, and shining softly on the white walls and vineyards of Corunna. The wind was light, and falling towards a calm; the great galleons drifted slowly with the tide on the purple water, the long streamers trailing from the trucks, the red crosses-the emblem of the Crusadeshowing bright upon the hanging sails. The fruitboats were bringing off the last fresh supplies, and the pinnaces hastening to the ships with the last loiterers on shore. Out of thirty thousand men who that morning stood upon the decks of the proud Armada, twenty thousand and more were never again to see the hills of Spain. Of the remnant who, in two short months, crept back ragged and torn, all but a few hundred returned only to die.

2. The Spaniards, though a great people, were usually over-conscious of their greatness, and boasted too loudly of their fame and prowess; but among the soldiers and sailors of the doomed expedition against England the national vain-glory was singularly silent. They were the flower of the country, culled and chosen over the entire Peninsula, and they were going with a modest nobility upon a service which they knew to be dangerous, but which they believed to be peculiarly sacred. Every one-seaman, officer, and soldier-had confessed and communicated before he went on board. Gambling, swearing, profane language of all kinds, had been peremptorily forbidden. Private quarrels and differences had been made up or suspended. In every vessel, and in the whole fleet, the strictest order was prescribed and observed. Medina Sidonia led the way in the San Martin, showing lights at night, and firing guns when the weather was hazy.

Mount's Bay was to be the next place of rendezvous if they were again separated. . . .

3. To the ships at Plymouth, the news that the enemy was in sight was as a message of salvation. By thrift and short rations, by good management, contented care, and lavish use of private means, there was still one week's provisions in the magazines, with powder and shot for one day's sharp fighting, according to English notions of what fighting ought to be. They had to meet the enemy, as it were, with one arm bandaged by their own sovereign; but all wants, all difficulties, were forgotten in the knowledge that he was come, and that they could grapple with him before they were dissolved by starvation.

4. The warning light flew on to London, swift messengers galloping behind it. There was saddling and arming in village and town, and musters flocking to their posts. Loyal England forgot its difference of creeds, and knew nothing but that the invader was at the door. One thing was wanting, a soldier to take the supreme command; but the queen found what she needed, found it in the person in whom, in her eyes, notwithstanding his offences in the Low Countries, all excellences were still combined-her own Leicester. Worse appointment could not possibly have been made; but even Leicester was lifted into a kind of hero by the excitement of the moment. He was not a coward, and not entirely a fool. Tilbury had been chosen as the place where the force was to assemble which was intended to cover London. It was the lowest spot where the Thames could be easily crossed, and it was impossible to say on which side of the river the enemy might choose to approach. Leicester flew at once to his post there, and so far he had fulfilled his duty that

he had sixteen thousand men with him at Tilbury, with thirty thousand forming rapidly in his rear out of the musters of the midland counties, before Parma could have advanced, under the most favourable circumstances, within a day's march of London.

5. Meanwhile, on the night of the 19th of July, while the Armada was still some leagues to the south of the Lizard, the wind blowing fresh into Plymouth Sound, the queen's ships and a few of the privateers were warped out behind the shelter of Mount Edgecombe. All hands went merrily to work; vessel after vessel was brought to moorings behind Ram Head, so placed that they could fetch clear to the sea; and by Saturday morning, when the Spaniards were first sighting the coast of Cornwall, forty sail were lying ready for action under the headland. [A memorable week of fighting followed, as the Armada slowly made its way up the Channel, attacked by the English ships at every point.

6. After this,] Sidonia, left to himself, extricated his miserable vessels, and made sail for the North Sea, the Santa Maria going down with all hands as the sun went under the horizon. When the ships' companies were called over, it was found that four thousand men had been killed or drowned. The wounded were not mentioned, but were perhaps at least as many more. The galleons, pierced and shattered, were leaking in all directions, the rigging cut up, the masts splintered, the sails torn, rudders, yards, and bowsprits shot away, and, still more unfortunately, most of the water-butts destroyed. The men had been kept hard at work the day before, cleaning and polishing the guns. Through some accident, they had missed their evening meal. The fire-ships had spoiled their night's rest, and through