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His death-bell is tolling; oh! mercy dispel
Yon sight, that it freezes my spirit to tell!
Life flutters, convulsed, in his quivering limbs,
And his blood-streaming nostril in agony swims.
Accursed be the faggots that blaze at his feet,
Where his heart shall be thrown, ere it ceases to beat,
With the smoke of its ashes to poison the gale—

Lochiel. Down, soothless insulter! I trust not the tale : For never shall Albin a destiny meet,

So black with dishonour, so foul with retreat.

Though my perishing ranks shall be strewed in their gore Like ocean-weeds heap'd on the surf-beaten shore,

Lochiel, untainted by flight or by chains,

While the kindling of life in his bosom remains,

Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low,

With his back to the field, and his feet to the foe!
And, leaving in battle no blot on his name,

Look proudly to heaven from the death-bed of fame.

LESSON LXIX.

Scene from the Tragedy of Catiline.-REV. G. CROLY

The Senate in Session, Lictors Present, a Consul in the Chair, Cicero on the Floor, concluding his Speech.

Cic. Our long dispute must close. Take one proof more Of this rebellion.-Lucius Catiline

Has been commanded to attend the senate.

He dares not come.

I now demand your votes !

Is he condemned to exile?

CATILINE comes in hastily, and flings himself on the bench; all the senators go over to the other side.

Cic. (Turning to CATILINE.) Here I repeat the charge, to gods and men,

Of treasons manifold;—that, but this day,
He has received despatches from the rebels;
That he has leagued with deputies from Gaul
To seize the province; nay, has levied troops,

And raised his rebel standard :—that but now
A meeting of conspirators was held

Under his roof, with mystic rites, and oaths,
Pledged round the body of a murder'd slave.
To these he has no answer.

Cut. (Rising calmly.) Conscript fathers!
I do not rise to waste the night in words;
Let that plebeian talk: 'tis not my trade;
But here I stand for right-let him show proofs-
For Roman right; though none, it seems, dare stand
To take their share with me. Ay, cluster there,
Cling to your master; judges, Romans-slaves!
His charge is false;-I dare him to his proofs.
You have my answer.

Let my actions speak!

Cic. (Interrupting him) Deeds shall convince you! Has the traitor done?

Cat. But this I will avow, that I have scorn'd,

And still do scorn, to hide my sense of wrong;
Who brands me on the forehead, breaks iny sword,
Or lays the bloody scourge upon my back,

Wrongs me not half so much as he who shuts

Wi

The gates of honour on me,-turning out

The Roman from his birthright; and for what! (Look ing round him)

To fling your offices to every slave;

Vipers that creep where man disdains to climb;

And having wound their loathsome track to the top

Of this huge mouldering monument of Rome,

Hang hissing at the nobler man below.

Cic. This is his answer! Must I bring more proofs?

Fathers, you know there lives not one of us,

But lives in peril of his midnight sword.

Lists of proscription have been handed round, .
In which your general properties are made
Your murderer's hire.

[A cry is heard without, "More prisoners!" An offi
cer enters with letters for CICERO; who, after glan
cing at them, sends them round the Senate. CATA
LINE is strongly perturbed.]

Cic. Fathers of Rome! If man can be convinced By proof, as clear as day-light, here it is!

The time

Look on these letters! Here's a deep-laid plot
To wreck the provinces: a solemn league,
Made with all form and circumstance.
Is desperate, all the slaves are up;-Rome shakes!—
The heavens alone can tell how near our graves
We stand ev'n here!-The name of Cataline
Is foremost in the league. He was their king.
Tried and convicted traitor!

Cat. (Haughtily rising.) from your thrones:

Go from Rome!
Come, consecrated lictors,

[To the Senate.

Fling down your sceptres:-take the rod and axe,
And make the murder as you make the law.

Cic. (Interrupting him.) Give up the record of his ban[To an officer.

ishment.

[The OFFICER gives it to the CONSUL in the chair.

Cat. (Indignantly.) Banish'd from Rome! What's banish'd, but set free

From daily contact of the things I loathe?

"Tried and convicted traitor!" Who says this?
Who'll prove it, at his peril, on my head?

Banish'd—I thank you for 't. It breaks my chain !
I held some slack allegiance till this hour-
But now my sword's my own.

Smile on, my lords!
I scorn to count what feelings, wither'd hopes,
Strong provocations, bitter, burning wrongs,
I have within my heart's hot cells shut up,
To leave you in your lazy dignities.
But here I stand and scoff you; here, I fling
Hatred and full defiance in your face.

Your Consul's merciful.-For this, all thanks.
He dares not touch a hair of Cataline.

(The CONSUL reads:) "Lucius Sergius Cataline: by
the decree of the Senate, you are declared an ene-
my and alien to the state, and banished from the
territory of the Commonwealth."

The Consul. Lictors, drive the traitor from the temple! Cat. (Furious.) "Traitor!" I go-but I return. This

-trial!

I've had wrongs

Here I devote your Senate !
To stir a fever in the blood of age,

Or make the infant's sinews strong as steel.

This day's the birth of sorrows!-this hour's work
Will breed proscriptions:-look to your hearths, my lorde i
For there, henceforth shall sit, for household gods,
Shapes hot from Tartarus !—all shames and crimes!
Wan treachery, with his thirsty dagger drawn;
Suspicion, poisoning his brother's cup;
Naked Rebellion, with the torch and axe,
Making his wild sport of your blazing thrones;
Till Anarchy comes down on you like Night,
And Massacre seals Rome's eternal grave!

The SENATORS rise in tumult and cry out,
Go, enemy and parricide, from Rome!
Cic. Expel him, lictors!

Clear the Senate house!

[They surround him. Cat. (Struggling through them.) I go, but not to leap

the gulf alone.

I go-but when I come, 'twill be the burst

Of ocean in the earthquake-rolling back

In swift and mountainous ruin. Fare you well!

You build my funeral-pile, but your best blood

Shall quench its flame. Back slaves! (To the lictors)—I will return!

[He rushes through the portal; the scene closes.

LESSON LXX.

Commemorative of the First Settlement of New England.D. WEBSTER.

LET us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and laboured in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary. Let us cherish these sentiments, and extend this influence still more widely; in the full conviction, that that is the happiest society, which partakes in the highest degree of the mild and peaceable spirit of Christianity.

The hours of this day are rapidly flying, and this occa

sion will soon be passed. Neither we nor our children can expect to behold its return. They are in the distant regions of futurity, they exist only in the all-creating power of God, who shall stand here, a hundred years hence, to trace, through us, their descent from the Pilgrims, and to survey, as we have now surveyed, the progress of their country, during the lapse of a century. We would anticipate their concurrence with us in our sentiments of deep regard for our common ancestors. We would anticipate and partake the pleasure with which they will then recount the steps of New England's advancement. On the morning of that day, although it will not disturb us in our repose, the voice of acclamation and gratitude, commencing on the Rock of Plymouth, shall be transmitted through millions of the sons of the Pilgrims, till it lose itself in the murmurs of the Pacific seas.

We would leave for the consideration of those who shall then occupy our places, some proof that we hold the blessings transmitted from our fathers in just estimation; some proof of our attachment to the cause of good government, and of civil and religious liberty; some proof of a sincere and ardent desire to promote everything which may enlarge the understandings and improve the hearts of men. And when, from the long distance of an hundred years, they shall look back upon us, they shall know, at least, that we possessed affections, which, running backward, and warming with gratitude for what our ancestors have done for our happiness, run forward also to our posterity, and meet them with cordial salutation, ere yet they have arrived on the shore of being.

Advance, then, ye future generations! We would hail you, as you rise in your long succession, to fill the places which we now fill, and to taste the blessings of existence, where we are passing, and soon shall have passed, our own human duration. We bid you welcome to this pleasant land of the fathers. We bid you welcome to the healthful skies and the verdant fields of New England. We greet your accession to the great inheritance which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the blessings of good government, and religious liberty. We welcome you to the treasures of science, and the delights of learning. We wel come you to the transcendent sweets of domestic life, to

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