Puslapio vaizdai
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Then of the locks which, dark and large, o'er his broad shoulders hung;

That streamed war-pennons in the charge, yet like caressings clung

In peace around his forehead high, which, more than diadem, Beseemed the curls that lovingly replaced the cold hard gem; He cut him one for wife-for child-'twas all he had to will; But, with the regal wealth and state, he lost its heartless chill! The iciness of alien power, what gushing love may thaw ? -The agony of such an hour as this-thy last-Murat!

"Comrade-though foe!—a soldier asks from thee a soldier's aid,

They're not a warrior's only tasks that need his blood and blade

That upon which I latest gaze—that which I fondest clasp, When death my eye-balls wraps in haze, and stiffens my hands' grasp !

With these love-locks around it twined, say, wilt thou see them sent

Need I say where ?-Enough!-'tis kind !-to death, then, I'm content!

O! to have found it in the field, not as a chained outlaw! No more!-to destiny I yield-with mightier than Murat!

They led him forth-'twas but a stride between his prison

room

And where, with yet a monarch's pride, he met a felon's doom. "Soldiers !—your muzzles to my breast will leave brief space for pain.

Strike to the heart!"-His last behest was uttered not in vain. He turned him to the levelled tubes that held the wishedfor boon;

He gazed upon some love-clasped pledge,-then vollied the platoon;

And when their hold the hands gave up, the pitying gazers saw, In the dear image of a wife, thy heart's best trait, Murat!

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Thomas Atkinson.

6. How was he employed in 1812 ? 7. Why did he join Napoleon's enemies? 8. How did he act after this, and what was his fate ?

9. Repeat the words that Murat wrote

5. The throne of what kingdom did he to his wife. ascend?

10. Name his children.

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A MARINER, whom fate compelled
To make his home ashore,

Lived in yon cottage on the mount,

With ivy mantled o'er ;
Because he could not breathe beyond
The sound of ocean's roar.

He placed yon vane upon the roof,
To mark how stood the wind;
For breathless days and breezy days
Brought back old times to mind,
When rocked amid the shrouds, or on
The sunny deck reclined.

And in his spot of garden ground,
All ocean plants were met—
Salt lavender, that lacks perfume,
With scented mignonette;
And blending with the rose's bloom,
Sea-thistles freaked with jet.

Models of cannoned ships of war,

Rigged out in gallant style;

Pictures of Camperdown's1 red fight,

And Nelson at the Nile,

Were round his cabin hung,—his hours,

When lonely, to beguile.

1 Camperdown, a village of the Netherlands 27 miles N. W. of Amsterdam, in the North Sea, celebrated for Admiral Duncan's victory over the Dutch fleet 11th Oct, 1797.

And there were charts and soundings, made
By Anson, Cook, and Bligh;
Fractures of coral from the deep,
And storm-stones from the sky;
Shells from the shores of gay Brazil;
Stuffed birds, and fishes dry.

Old Simon had an orphan been,
No relative had he:

E'en from his childhood was he seen
A haunter of the quay;
So at the age of raw thirteen,
He took him to the sea.

Four years on board a merchantman
He sailed-a growing lad;
And all the isles of Western Ind,
In endless summer clad,

He knew, from pastoral St. Lucie,
To palmy Trinidad.

But sterner life was in his thoughts,
When 'mid the sea-fight's jar,
Stooped Victory from the battered shrouds,
To crown a British tar ;-
'Twas then he went-a volunteer-
On board a man-of-war.

Through forty years of storm and shine,
He ploughed the changeful deep;
From where, beneath the tropic line,
The winged fishes leap,

To where frost rocks the Polar Seas,
To everlasting sleep.

I recollect the brave old man

Methinks

upon my view

He comes again-his varnished hat,
Striped shirt, and jacket blue;
His bronzed and weather-beaten cheek,
Keen eye, and plaited queue.

2 Two islands in Windward group, West Indies.

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Oft would he tell, how, under Smith,
Upon the Egyptian strand,
Eager to beat the boastful French,
They joined the men on land,
And plied their deadly shots, intrenched
Behind their bags of sand:

And when he told, how, through the Sound,
With Nelson1 in his might,
They passed the Cronberg batteries,

To quell the Dane in fight,—
His voice with vigour filled again!

His veteran eye with light!

But chiefly of hot Trafalgar

The brave old man would speak;
And when he showed his oaken stump,
A glow suffused his cheek,

While his eye filled-for wound on wound
Had left him worn and weak.

Ten years in vigorous old age,
Within that cot he dwelt,

Tranquil as falls the snow on snow

Life's lot to him was dealt;

1 Lord Nelson, a celebrated English Admiral, born in 1758, entered the navy when 12 years of age, rapidly gained distinction, and was in 1797 made Rear-Admiral. He annihilated the fleet which had conveyed the French into Egypt, in the bay of Aboukir, 1799. He as Vice-Admiral conducted the fleet against Copenhagen, 1801. He destroyed the united French and Spanish fleets at Cape Trafalgar, 21st Oct., 1805, but paid for the victory with his life.

But came infirmity at length,
And slowly o'er him stealt.

We missed him on our seaward walk.
The children went no more
To listen to his evening talk,
Beside the cottage door;-
Grim palsy held him to the bed,
Which health eschewed before.

"Twas harvest time ;-day after day
Beheld him weaker grow;
Day, after day, his labouring pulse
Became more faint and slow;
For, in the chambers of his heart,
Life's fire was burning low.

Thus did he weaken and he wane,
Till frail as frail could be ;
But duly at the hour which brings
Homeward the bird and bee,

He made them prop him in his couch,
Το
gaze upon the sea.

And now he watched the moving boat,
And now the moveless ships,
And now the western hills remote,
With gold upon their tips,

As ray by ray the mighty sun
Went down in calm eclipse.

Welcome as homestead to the feet
Of pilgrim, travel-tired,

Death to old Simon's dwelling came,
A thing to be desired;

And, breathing peace to all around,
The man of war expired.

1. Why did our tar build his cottage on the mount?

2. Why placed he a vane on the roof? 3. What plants were found in his garden? 4. What were hung round his cabin ? 5. Name the three celebrated navigators? 6. What curiosities had he collected? 7. Give us the history of Simon when a boy.

Moir.

8. Where sailed he when serving his time?

9. What "sterner life" is meant ?
10. Where went he then ?

11. Into what climes had he sailed during the forty years?

12. Give the appearance of the brave old man,

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