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stances by consum'mate conduct. The honors paid him which had hitherto been reserved only for

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success, purchased by the bloods and tears of thousands, were in his case, a homage to intellectual power, successfully exerted in behalf of the noblest interests of humanity for an an 19 10 20 Tow bп999; all 10. After a brief interval, the sovereigns requested from Columbus a recital of his adventures. to His manner was sedate and dignified, but warmed by theo of natural enthusiasm. He enumerated the several islands which he had visited, expa tiated on the temperate character of the climate, and the capacity of the soft for every variety of agricultural production, appealque estige sides aid Tot aaqt borddgid.hat v! ing to the samples imported by him, as evidence of their natural fruitfulness. He dwelt more at large on the precious metals to be found in these islands, which he inferred, less from the specimens actually obtained, than from the uniform testimony of the natives to their abundance in the unexplored regions of the interior.onLastly, he pointed out the wide scope afforded to ChrisItianezeallinathe illumination of a race of men, whose minds, [far from being wedded to any system of idolatry, were prepared, by their extreme simplicity, for the reception of pure and uncor rupted dobtrinfera 19ven a ti bas; abmeldgid odt of aniely Jaal. The last consideratian touched Isabella's heart most ensibly; and the whole audience, kindled with various emotions.by othe Ispeaker's eloquence, filled up the perspective with the gorigeme coloring of their own faciekias ambition orjavanice, or odexfational feeling predominated in their bosoms When Colum-bulicensed, the king and queen, tidgether with all present, profstrated themselves on libei kinesin grateful thanksgivings, while the solemit strains bidtbd Te Deum were poured forth by the choir of the royal chapel, as in commemoration of some glorious triętoryno asw ti dtro2 odt of beirйWenaIAM H. PRESCOTT. & Wine HZBRESCOTT, the qrübent historian, was born in Salem, Massachu -gether on the Athens May 1396 His By JP BAG 9tt, LL.Da guished lawyer and Judge noted for intellectual and

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honth of 1894, at the advanced road grahather who the bole-arateadofoner Want Presgat,chocommanded the American forbes at Poin -HAH Anglis memomble 17th of June 175 But Mr Prescott needs none of the pride of ancestry to stamp him as one of nature's noblemen. An untoward q8ssidentijnielleger by which he lost the sight of one eye, and the sympathy subsequently excited in the other rendered him almost totally blind but notTe Deum, mn of thanksgiving, so tuned From the Rist words, "Te Deum laudamlls Thee, God, we praise.

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withstanding, his indefatigable industry, united with fine taste and a well-stored mind, elevated him to the highest rank in that difficult department, historical composition. Indeed, it is the concurrent judgment of the best European critics that he had no superior, if he had an equal, among contemporary historians. His first work, "Ferdinand and Isabella," was published in the beginning of 1838, and was soon republished in nearly all the great cities of Europe. That, with his second work, "The Conquest of Mexico," are not only among the finest models of historical composition, but in a very genuine sense they are national works. The choicest words of panegyric can not do injustice to the exquisite "beauty of Mr. Prescott's descriptions, the just proportion and dramatic interest of his narrative, his skill as a character writer, the expansiveness and completeness of his views, and that careful and intelligent research which enabled him to make his works as valuable for their accuracy as they are attractive by all the graces of style." In private life Mr. Prescott was as much admired for his amiability, simplicity, and highbred courtesy as for his remarkable abilities and acquirements. He died January 28th, 1859.

D

IV.

89. THE REVOLUTIONARY ALARM.

ARKNESS closed upon the country and upon the town,

was no

but it was no night for sleep. Heralds on swift relays of horses transmitted the war-message from hand to hand, till village repeated it to village; the sea to the backwoods; the plains to the highlands; and it was never suffered to droop, till it had been bōrne North, and South, and East, and West, throughout the land.

2. It spread over the bays that receive the Saco' and the Penobscot. Its loud reveille' broke the rest of the trappers of New Hampshire, and ringing like bugle-notes from peak to peak, overleapt the Green Mountains, swept onward to Montreal, and descended the ocean river, till the responses were echoed from the cliffs of Quebec. The hills along the Hudson told to one another the tale.

3. As the summons hurried to the South, it was one day at New York; in one more at Philadelphia; the next it lighted a watchfire at Baltimore; thence it waked an answer at Annapolis. Crossing the Potomac near Mount Vernon, it was sent forward without a halt to Williamsburg. It traversed the Dismal Swamp' to Nansemond, along the route of the first emito rise, and for the sentinels to stop challenging.

1

Saco, (sá ko).

'Reveille, (re vål' yå), the beat of drum about break of day, to give notice that it is time for the soldiers

4

* Swamp, (swomp).
'Route, (rôt).

grants to North Carolina. It moved onwards and still onwards through boundless groves of evergreen to Newbern and to Wilmington.

4. "For God's sake, forward it by night and by day," wrote Corneliüs Harnett, by the express which sped for Brunswick Patriots of South Carolina caught up its tones at the border and despatched it to Charleston, and through pines and palmettos and moss-clad live oaks, further to the South, till it resounded among the New England settlements beyond the Savannah.

5. The Blue Ridge took up the voice and made it heard from one end to the other of the valley of Virginia. The Alleghānies, as they listened, opened their barriers that the "loud call" might pass through to the hardy riflemen on the Holston, the Watauga and the French Broad. Ever renewing its strength, powerful enough even to create a commonwealth, it breathed its inspiring word to the first settlers of Kentucky; so that hunters who made their halt in the matchless valley of the Elkhorn, commemorated the 19th day of April, 1776, by naming their encampment Lexington.

6. With one impulse the colonies sprung to arms; with one spirit they pledged themselves to each other "to be ready for the extreme event." With one heart the continent cried, “LIBERTY OR DEATH.” BANCROFT.

GEORGE BANCROFT, the eminent historian, was born in 1800, in Worcester, Massachusetts. He graduated at Harvard College at the early age of seventeen. The next year he went to Europe, and studied for four years at Gottingen and Berlin, and traveled in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and England. On his return, in 1823, he published a volume of poems, which were principally written while he was abroad. He soon after established the academy at Round Hill, at Northampton. He was appointed collector of Boston in 1838; was made secretary of the navy in 1845; was sent as minister plenipotentiary to England in 1846; and on his return, in 1849, became a resident of New York, where he has since devoted himself principally to the composition of his "History of the United States," the ninth volume of which appeared in 1866. He has also lately published a volume of “Literary and Historical Miscellanies." His "History of the United States" has been published in its original language in London and Paris, and has been translated into several foreign languages. It is a work of great labor, originality, and ability, and eminently American, in the best sense of that word as used in regard to literature. It is the most accurate and philosophical account that has been given of the United States; and is elaborately and strongly, yet elegantly written.

V.

40. THE REVOLUTIONARY RISING.

UT of the North the wild news came,

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Far flashing on its wings of flame,
Swift as the bōreäl' light which flies
At midnight through the startled skies.
And there was tumult in the air,

The fife's shrill note, the drum's loud beat,
And through the wide land everywhere
The answering tread of hurrying feet;
While the first oath of Freedom's gun
Came on the blast from Lexington;
And Concord roused, no longer tame,
Forgot her old baptismal name,
Made bare her patriot arm of power,
And swelled the discord of the hour.
2. Within its shade of elm and oak

The church of Berkley Manor stood;
There Sunday found the rural folk,
And some esteemed of gentle blood.

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In vain their feet with loitering tread emertze edt
Passed mid the graves where rank is haught;яо Tя
All could not reach the lesson taught,тя

In that Tepublic of the dea

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came";

How incgole toy vignoтte bus Hallowed his brow of thought and care;"

'B5' re al, northern; pertaining to the north, or the north wind.

And calmly, as shepherds lead their flocks,
He led into the house of prayer.

Then soon he rose; the prayer was strong;
The psalm was warrior David's song ;
The text, a few short words of might,-
"The Lord of hosts shall arm the right !”
He spoke of wrongs too long endured,
Of sacred rights to be secured;
Then from his patriot tongue of flame
The startling words for Freedom came.
The stirring sentences he spake
Compelled the heart to glow or quake,
And, rising on his theme's broad wing,
And grasping in his nervous hand
The imaginary battle-brand,
In face of death he dared to fling
Defiance to a tyrant king.

5. Even as he spoke, his frame, renewed
In eloquence of attitude,

Rose, as it seemed, a shoulder higher;
Then swept his kindling glance of fire
From startled pew to breathless choir;
When suddenly his mantle wide
His hands impatient flung aside,
And, lo! he met their wondering eyes
Complete in all a warrior's guise.

6. A moment there was awful pause,

When Berkley cried, "Cease, traitor! cease!
God's temple is the house of peace!"
The other shouted, "Nay, not so,
When God is with our righteous cause;
His holiest places then are ours,
His temples are our fōrts and towers
That frown upon the tyrant foe;
In this, the dawn of Freedom's day,
There is a time to fight and pray!"
7. And now before the open door-

The warrior priest had ordered so-
The enlisting trumpet's sudden roar

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