Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form
10Glasses itself in tempests; in all time,

Calm or convuls'd-in breeze, or gale, or storm,
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime

Dark-heaving ;-boundless, endless, and sublime— The image of Eternity-the throne

Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime
The monsters of the deep are made; each zone
Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, "fathomless, alone.

And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward from a boy
I 12wantoned with thy breakers-they to me

Were a delight; and if the freshening sea
Made them a terror-'twas a pleasing fear,
For I was as it were a child of thee,
And trusted to thy billows far and near,

And laid my hand upon thy mane-as I do here.
LORD BYRON.

'unknell'd, not having the funeral bell tolled for him. lay. ungrammatical. The proper word is "lie," but this would not rhyme with "bay." sarmaments, navies, armed with cannon. *leviathan, properly a great sea-monster. It here means a shipof-war, built of oak. arbiter, one who decides a dispute. 6 Armada, the Spanish Armada, sent against England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was dispersed by a storm. Spoils of Trafalgar, the ships taken by the English at the Battle of Trafalgar were almost destroyed in a storm. Assyria, etc., ancient empires and states which once flourished on the shores of the Mediterranean. azure, sky-blue. 10glasses, reflects. "fathomless, unable to be measured by fathoms, bottomless. 12 wantoned, played; sported.

8

As the 'Knight of the Leopard fixed his eyes attentively on the distant cluster of palm trees which arose beside the well assigned for his midday station, it seemed to him as if some object was moving among them. The distant form separated itself from the trees which partly hid its motions, and advanced towards the knight with a speed which soon showed a mounted horseman, whom his turban, long spear, and green caftan floating in the wind, on his nearer approach, showed to be a 3Saracen cavalier. "In the desert," saith an Eastern proverb, no man meets a friend." The crusader was totally

indifferent whether the infidel, who now approached on his gallant barb, as if borne on the wings of an eagle, came as friend or foe: perhaps, as a vowed champion of the Cross, he might rather have preferred the latter. He disengaged his lance from the saddle, seized it with the right hand, placed it in rest, with its point half elevated, gathered up the reins in the left, waked his horse's mettle with the spur, and prepared to encounter the stranger with the calm self-confidence belonging to the victor in many contests.

The Saracen came on at the speedy gallop of an Arab horseman, managing his steed more by his limbs and the inflection of his body, than by any use of the reins, which hung loose in his left hand; so that he was enabled to wield the light round buckler of the skin of the rhinoceros, ornamented with silver loops, which he wore on his arm, swinging it, as if he meant to oppose its slender circle to the formidable thrust of the western lance.

His own long spear was not couched or levelled like that of his antagonist, but grasped by the middle with his right hand, and brandished at arm's length, above his head. As the cavalier approached his enemy at full career, he seemed to expect that the Knight of the Leopard would put his horse to the gallop, to encounter him. But the Christian knight, well acquainted with the customs of eastern warriors, did not mean to exhaust his good horse by any unnecessary exertion; and, on the contrary, made a dead halt, confident that if the advanced to the actual shock, his own weight enemy and that of his powerful charger would give him sufficient advantage, without the momentum gained by rapid motion.

Equally sensible and apprehensive of such a proba

ble result, the Saracen cavalier, when he had approached toward the Christian within twice the length of his lance, wheeled his steed to the left, with "inimitable dexterity, and rode twice round his antagonist, who, turning without quitting his ground, and presenting his front constantly to his enemy, frustrated his attempts to attack him on an unguarded point; so that the Saracen, wheeling his horse, was fain to retreat to a distance of a hundred yards. A second time, like a hawk attacking a heron, the heathen renewed the charge, and a second time was fain to retreat without coming to a close struggle.

A third time he approached in the same manner, when the Christian knight, desirous to terminate this 7illusory warfare, in which he might at length have been worn out by the activity of his foeman, suddenly seized the mace which hung at his saddle-bow, and with a strong hand and unerring aim hurled it against the head of his assailant. The Saracen was just aware of the formidable missile, in time to interpose his light buckler betwixt the mace and his head; but the violence of the blow forced the buckler down on his turban, and though that defence also contributed to deaden its violence, the Saracen was beaten from his horse.

Ere the Christian could avail himself of this mishap, his nimble foeman sprang from the ground, and, calling on his steed, which instantly returned to his side, he leaped into his seat, and regained all the advantage of which the Knight of the Leopard had hoped to deprive him. But the latter had, in the meanwhile, recovered his mace, and the Eastern cavalier, who remembered the strength and dexterity with which his antagonist had aimed it, seemed to keep cautiously out of reach of that weapon, of which he had so lately felt the force; while

he showed his purpose of waging a distant warfare with missile weapons of his own. Planting his long spear in the sand at a distance from the scene of combat, he strung, with great address, a short bow which he carried at his back, and putting his horse to the gallop, once more described two or three circles, of a wider extent than formerly, in the course of which he discharged six arrows with such unerring skill, that the goodness of the knight's armour alone saved him from being wounded in as many places.

The seventh shaft apparently found a less perfect part of the harness, and the Christian dropped heavily from his horse. But what was the surprise of the Saracen, when, dismounting to examine the condition of his prostrate enemy, he found himself suddenly within the grasp of the European, who had had recourse to this artifice to bring his enemy within his reach! Even in this deadly grapple the Saracen was saved by his agility and presence of mind. He unloosed the sword-belt, in which the Knight of the Leopard had fixed his hold, and thus eluding the fatal grasp, mounted his horse, which seemed to watch his motions with the intelligence of a human being, and again rode off.

But in the last encounter the Saracen had lost his sword and his quiver of arrows, both of which were attached to the girdle, which he was obliged to abandon. He had also lost his turban in the struggle. These disadvantages seemed to incline the Moslem to a 10truce. He approached the Christian with right hand extended, but no longer in a menacing attitude. "There is truce betwixt our nations," he said; "wherefore should there be war betwixt thee and me? Let there be peace betwixt us."

“I am well contented,” answered he of the Leopard