And breadless serfs; England fomenting discord;
Austria, her clutch on your dominion; Spain
Forging the prodigal gold of either Ind

To armed thunderbolts. The Arts lay dead;
Trade rotted in your marts; your armies mutinous;
Your treasury bankrupt. Would you now revoke
Your trust, so be it! and I leave you, sole
Supremest monarch of the mightiest realm,
From Ganges to the icebergs. Look without:
No foe not humbled. Look within: the Arts
Quit for your schools their old Hesperides,
The golden Italy; while through the veins
Of your vast empire flows, in strengthening tides,
Trade, the calm health of nations.

Sire, I know
Your smoother courtiers please you best,-nor measure
Myself with them,-yet sometimes I would doubt

If statesmen rocked and dandled into power

Could leave such legacies to kings.

(LOUIS appears irresolute.)

Baradas (passing him, whispers). But Julie,— Shall I not summon her to court?

Louis (motions to BARADAS and turns haughtily to the Cardinal). Enough!

Your Eminence must excuse a longer audience.

Το

your own palace! For our conference, this

Nor place nor season.

Richelieu. Good my liege, for Justice

All place a temple, and all season summer.
Do you deny me justice ?-Saints of heaven!

He turns from me!-Do you deny me justice?
For fifteen years, while in these hands dwelt empire,

The humblest craftsman, the obscurest vassal,
The very leper shrinking from the sun,

Though loathed by Charity, might ask for justice!
Not with the fawning tone and crawling mien
Of some I see around you-counts and princes—
Kneeling for favors, but erect and loud,

As men who ask man's rights. My liege, my Louis,
Do you refuse me justice—audience even—

In the pale presence of the baffled Murther?

Louis. Lord Cardinal, one by one you have severed

from me

The bonds of human love. All near and dear

Marked out for vengeance,-exile or the scaffold.
You find me now amidst my trustiest friends,
My closest kindred: you would tear them from me.
They murder you, forsooth, since me they love!

Enough of plots and treasons for one reign.
Home! home! and sleep away these phantoms!
Richelieu. Sire,

I- Patience, heaven! sweet heaven!-Sire, from the foot
Of that Great Throne these hands have raised aloft

On an Olympus, looking down on mortals
And worshiped by their awe,-before the foot
Of that high throne spurn you the gray-haired man
Who gave you empire, and now sues for safety?

Louis. No! When we see your Eminence in truth
At the foot of the throne, we'll listen to you.

DEFINITIONS.-€är'di nal, one of the seventy ecclesiastical princes who constitute the Pope's council. Ex eul pa'tion, the act of vindicating from a charge of fault or crime. În ter çeş ́sion, mediation. Är'ti fiçe, a trick or fraud. Ri'fle, to plunder. Єoffers, chests or trunks for holding money or other valuables. Her'e sies, doctrines opposed to sound belief. Fo měnt'Ing, exciting.

Prod ́i gal, profuse; lavish. Au'di ençe, a hearing. Eon'fer ençe, interview. Crafts/man, mechanic. Văs'sal, subject or dependent. Olympus, a mountain in Greece on which the gods were supposed to reside.

NOTES.-Cardinal Richelieu (Resh'ê loo) (born at Paris in 1585; died in 1642) was the prime minister of Louis XIII. of France.

Bas tile', an old fortification in Paris, built in the fourteenth century. It was long used as a state-prison, but was finally demolished by the populace in 1789.

Either Ind, the East and West Indies, from which Spain at that time was obtaining large amounts of treasure.

Louis XIII. was born in 1601, began to reign in 1614, and died in 1643, a few months after the great cardinal, his minister.

41. THE FAIRIES OF THE CALDON-LOW.

MARY HOWITT was born at Coleford, England, in 1804. She was the wife of William Howitt, who was also an author of some celebrity. They published many of their works conjointly, the first of which was The Forest Minstrel, in 1823. Mary wrote The Seven Temptations, Wood Leighton, and Tales for Children. She also translated the works of Miss Bremer and of Hans Christian Andersen. Her poems are marked by a simple tenderness that charms the reader.

1. "AND where have you been, my Mary,
And where have you been from me?"
"I've been to the top of the Caldon-Low,
The midsummer night to see."

2. "And what did you see, my Mary,
All up on the Caldon-Low ?"
"I saw the blithe sunshine come down,
And I saw the merry winds blow."

3. "And what did you hear, my Mary,
All up on the Caldon-Hill?"
"I heard the drops of the water made,

And the ears of the green corn fill."

4. "Oh, tell me all, my Mary,-
All, all that ever you know;
For you must have seen the fairies
Last night on the Caldon-Low."

5. "Then take me on your knee, mother,
And listen, mother of mine:
A hundred fairies danced last night,
And the harpers they were nine.

6. "And merry was the glee of the harp-strings, And their dancing feet so small;

But, oh, the sound of their talking
Was merrier far than all."

7. "And what were the words, my Mary,
That you did hear them say?"
"I'll tell you all, my mother,

But let me have my way :

8. "And some they played with the water,
And rolled it down the hill.

'And this,' they said, 'shall speedily turn
The poor old miller's mill;

666

9. 'For there has been no water

Ever since the first of May;

And a busy man shall the miller be
By the dawning of the day.

10. "Oh, the miller, how he will laugh
When he sees the mill-dam rise!

The jolly old miller, how he will laugh,
Till the tears fill both his eyes!'

11. And some they seized the little winds That sounded over the hill,

And each put a horn into his mouth,

And blew so sharp and shrill.

12. "And there,' said they, 'the merry Away from every horn;

winds go,

And those shall clear the mildew dank

From the blind old widow's corn.

13. "Oh, the poor blind old widow !

Though she has been blind so long,

She'll be merry enough when the mildew's gone,
And the corn stands stiff and strong.'

14. "And some they brought the brown lintseed,
And flung it down from the Low.

'And this,' said they, 'by the sunrise,
In the weaver's croft shall grow.

15. "Oh, the poor lame weaver!
How will he laugh outright

When he sees his dwindling flax-field
All full of flowers by night!

16. "And then upspoke a brownie
With a long beard on his chin.

'I have spun up all the tow,' said he,
'And I want some more to spin.

17. "I've spun a piece of hempen cloth,
And I want to spin another,—

A little sheet for Mary's bed,

And an apron for her mother.'