I soon from life shall steal away To sleep with my forefathers here.

Ye Muses, that have nourished me In this delightful spot of earth; Beautiful trees, that saw my birth, Erelong ye too my death shall see!

Meanwhile let me in patience wait Beneath thy shadowy woods, nor grieve That I so soon their shade must leave For that dark manor desolate,

Whither not one shall follow me
Of all these trees that my own hand
Hath planted, and for pastime planned,
Saving alone the cypress-tree !

PRAY FOR ME

BY CHARLES-HUBERT MILLEVOYE

In the hamlet desolate,

Brooding o'er his woes in vain,
Lay a young man, doomed by fate,
Wasted by disease and pain.
"People of the chaumière,"

Said he, "'t is the hour of prayer;
Ringing are the bells! all ye
Who are praying, pray for me!

"When you see the waterfall
Covered with dark boughs in spring,
You will say, He's free from all,
All his pain and suffering.
Then returning to this shore
Sing your simple plaint once more,
And when ring the bells, all ye
Who are praying, pray for me.
"Falsehood I could not endure,
Was the enemy of hate;
Of an honest life and pure
The end approaches, and I wait.
Short my pilgrimage appears;
In the springtime of my years
I am dying; and all ye
Who are praying, pray for me.

"Best of friends and only friend,
Worthy of all love and praise,
Thine my life was to the end;
Ah, 't was but a life of days.
People of the chaumière,
Pity, at the hour of prayer,
Her who comes with bended knee,
Saying also, Pray for me!"

VIRE

BY GUSTAVE LE VAVASSEUR

Ir is good to rhyming go

From the valleys of Vire to the valleys of Buraj

For a poet of Normandy the Low

It is good to rhyming go!

One is inspired and all aglow

With the old singers of voice so pure.

It is good to rhyming go

From the valleys of Vire to the valleys of Bures

Do you know one Thomas Sonnet?
He was a medical man of Vire;
And turned very well a roundelay,
Do you know this Thomas Sonnet?

To the sick he used to say, "Never drink bad wine, my dear!" Do you know this Thomas Sonnet? He was a medical man of Vire.

Do you know one Master Le Houx?
He was an advocate of Vire;
The taste of dry and sweet he knew;
Do you know this Master Le Houx?
From the holly boughs his name he drew
Which as tavern-signs one sees appear.
Do you know this Master Le Houx ?
He was an advocate of Vire.

Do you know one Master Olivier ?
He was an ancient fuller of Vire;
He only fulled his tub, they say;
Do you know this Master Olivier ?
As to his trade, it was only play;

He knew how to sing and drink and leer;
Do you know this Master Olivier?
He was an ancient fuller of Vire.

Olivier, Le Houx, Le Sonnet
Are Peace, and Tavern, and Poesy;
Every good rhymer knows to-day
Olivier, Le Houx, Le Sonnet.

Dame Reason throws her cap away
If the rhyme well chosen be;
Olivier, Le Houx, Le Sonnet

Are Peace, and Tavern, and Poesy.

Vire is a delicious place,
Vire is a little Norman town.

"T is not the home of a godlike race, Vire is a delicious place;

But what gives it its crowning grace
Is the peace that there comes down.
Vire is a delicious place,
Vire is a little Norman town.

For I have heard that lovers prove deceivers, When once they find that maidens are believers.

Yet should I find one that in truth could please me,
One whom I thought my charms had power to move,
Why then, I do confess, the whim might seize me
To taste for once the porringer of love.

Alas! there is one pair of eyes that tease me ;
And then that mouth!- he seems a star above,

He is so good, so gentle, and so kind,
And so unlike the sullen, clownish hind.

What love may be, indeed I cannot tell,
Nor if I e'er have known his cunning arts;
But true it is, there's one I like so well,
That when he looks at me my bosom starts.
And, if we meet, my heart begins to swell;
And the green fields around, when he departs,
Seem like a nest from which the bird has flown;

Can this be love?-say-ye who love have known!

A NEAPOLITAN CANZONET

ONE morning, on the sea-shore as I strayed,
My heart dropped in the sand beside the sea;
I asked of yonder mariners, who said
They saw it in thy bosom, worn by thee.
And I am come to seek that heart of mine,
For I have none, and thou, alas, hast two;
If this be so, dost know what thou shalt do?
Still keep my heart, and give me, give me thine.

CHRISTMAS CAROL

One of the Neapolitan Pastorali de' Zampognari.

WHEN Christ was born in Bethlehem,

"T was night, but seemed the noon of day; The stars, whose light

Was pure and bright,

Shone with unwavering ray;

But one, one glorious star

Guided the Eastern Magi from afar.

Then peace was spread throughout the land; The lion fed beside the tender lamb;

And with the kid,

To pasture led,

The spotted leopard fed;

In peace, the calf and bear,

The wolf and lamb reposed together there.

As shepherds watched their flocks by night, An angel, brighter than the sun's own light, Appeared in air,

And gently said,

Fear not, be not afraid,

For lo! beneath your eyes,

Earth has become a smiling paradise.

A SOLDIER'S SONG

Paraphrase of a Neapolitan popular song.

"WHO knocks, — who knocks at my door, Who knocks, and who can it be?" "Thy own true lover, betrothed forever, So open the door to me."

"My mother is not at home,

So I cannot open to thee."

"Why make me wait so long at the gate, For mercy's sake open to me."

Thou seekest honey?—if it be so,
Fold up thy wings, no farther go;
I'll show thee a safe and sacred spot,
Where all the year round 't will fail thee not.
Knowest thou the maid for whom I sigh, –
Her of the bright and beaming eye?
Endless sweetness shalt thou sip,
Honied stores upon her lip.
On those lips of brightest red,
Lips of the beloved maid,
Sweetest honey lies for thee;-
Sip it,-sip it; - this is she.

THEY were three hundred, they were young and strong,
And they are dead!

One morning as I went to glean the grain,
I saw a bark in middle of the main;
It was a bark came steaming to the shore,
And hoisted for its flag the tricolor.
At Ponza's isle it stopped beneath the lea,
It stayed awhile, and then put out to sea,
Put out to sea, and came unto our strand;
Landed with arms, but not as foemen land.
They were three hundred, they were young and strong
And they are dead!

Landed with arms, but not as foemen land,
For they stooped down and kissed the very sand.
And one by one I looked them in the face;

A tear and smile in each one I could trace !

"Thieves from their dens are these," some people said, And yet they took not even a loaf of bread!

I heard them utter but a single cry:

"We for our native land have come to die!"

They were three hundred, they were young and streng, And they are dead!

With eyes of azure, and with hair of gold,

A young man marched in front of them; and bold

I made myself, and having seized his hand,

Asked him," Where goest, fair captain of the band?"

He looked at me and answered, “Sister mine,

I go to die for this fair land of thine ! "

I felt my heart was trembling through and through,
Nor could I say to him, "God comfort you!"
They were three hundred, they were young and streng
And they are dead!

That morning I forgot to glean the grain,

And set myself to follow in their train.
Twice over they encountered the gens-d'armes,
Twice over they despoiled them of their arms;
But when we came before Certosa's wall
We heard the drums beat and the trumpets call,
And 'mid the smoke, the firing, and the glare,
More than a thousand fell upon them there.
They were three hundred, they were young and strong,
And they are dead!

They were three hundred, and they would not fy;
They seemed three thousand, and they wished to die,
But wished to die with weapons in their hands;
Before them ran with blood the meadow lands
I prayed for them, but ere the fight was o'er,
Swooned suddenly away, and looked no more;
For in their midst I could no more behold
Those eyes of azure and that hair of gold!
They were three hundred, they were young and streng,
And they are dead!

III. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Page 9. Hymn of the Moravian Nuns Bethlehem.

[This poem was suggested by the following sentence in an article upon Pulaski in the North American Review, for April, 185: "The standard of his legion was formed of a piece of crimson silk embroidered by the Mravian Nuns of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania." The historic facts in regard to the banner ap pear to be that Pulaski ordered it of the Moravian sisters at Bethlehem, who helped to support their house by needlework. This bar ner is preserved in the cabinet of the Maryland Historical Society at Baltimore; it is twenty

inches square and made to be carried on a lance. It is of double silk, now so much faded and discolored by time as to make it impossible to determine its original color. On both sides designs are embroidered with what was yellow silk, shaded with green, and deep silk fringe bordering. On one side are the letters "U. S.," and in a circle around them the words, " Unitas Virtus Fortior"; on the other side, in the centre, is embroidered an all-seeing eye and the words "Non Alius Regit." Pulaski received a mortal wound at the siege of Savannah, and dying on one of the vessels of the fleet when he was on his way north, was buried at sea. It is said that Lafayette lay sick at Bethlehem, and that it was on a visit to his brother officer that Pulaski ordered the flag. Its size, in any event, would have precluded its use as a shroud.]

Page 11. The Skeleton in Armor.

[The historic groundwork upon which Mr. Longfellow built his legend is in two parts, the Newport tower and the Fall River skeleton. The passage from Rafn, to which Mr. Longfellow refers as affording a poet sufficient basis upon which to build, is as follows: -

"There is no mistaking in this instance the style in which the more ancient stone edifices of the North were constructed, the style which belongs to the Roman or Ante-Gothic architecture, and which, especially after the time of Charlemagne, diffused itself from Italy over the whole of the West and North of Europe, where it continued to predominate until the close of the twelfth century, that style which some authors have, from one of its most striking characteristics, called the round arch style, the same which in England is denominated Saxon and sometimes Norman archi

tecture.

"On the ancient structure in Newport there are no ornaments remaining which might possibly have served to guide us in assigning the probable date of its erection. That no vestige whatever is found of the pointed arch, nor any approximation to it, is indicative of an earlier rather than of a later period. From such characteristics as remain, however, we can scarcely form any other inference than one, in which I am persuaded that all who are familiar with Old-Northern architecture will concur, THAT THIS BUILDING WAS ERECTED AT A PERIOD DECIDEDLY NOT LATER THAN THE TWELFTH

CENTURY. This remark applies, of course, to the original building only, and not to the alterations that it subsequently received; for there are several such alterations in the upper part of the building which cannot be mistaken, and which were most likely occasioned by its being adapted in modern times to various uses; for example, as the substructure of a windmill, and latterly as a hay magazine. To the same times may be referred the windows, the fireplace, and the apertures made above the columns. That this building could not have been erected for a windmill, is what an architect will easily discern."

Dr. Palfrey, in his History of New England, so cogently presented the reasons for believing this tower to have been constructed by Governor Arnold, that most students have since been disposed to accept this explanation; but there have not been wanting those who maintained other views, as witness an article by R. G. Hatfield in Scribner's Monthly for March, 1879, in which the author maintains that the old mill at Newport ought to be called the Vinland Baptistery; and also an article by Mr. S. Edward Forbes who maintains that the structure had nothing in common with the Chesterton mill in Warwickshire, with which it is commonly compared.

With regard to the Fall River skeleton, which with its appurtenances was unfortunately burned before it could be satisfactorily examined by experts, the following description taken from The American Monthly Magazine for January, 1836, will give the reader as full an account as is now possible:

"In digging down a hill near the village, a large mass of earth slid off, leaving in the bank and partially uncovered a human skull, which on examination was found to belong to a body buried in a sitting posture; the head being about one foot below what had been for many years the surface of the ground. The surrounding earth was carefully removed, and the body found to be enveloped in a covering of coarse bark of a dark color. Within this envelope were found the remains of another of coarse cloth, made of fine bark, and about the texture of a Manilla coffee bag. On the breast was a plate of brass, thirteen inches long, six broad at the upper end, and five in the lower. This plate appears to have been cast, and is from one eighth to three thirty-seconds of an inch in thickness. It is so much corroded that whether or not anything was engraved upon it has not yet been ascertained. It is oval in form, the edges being irregular, apparently made so by corrosion. Below the breastplate, and entirely encircling the body, was a belt composed of brass tubes, each four and a half inches in length, and three sixteenths of an inch in diameter, arranged longitudinally and close together, the length of the tube being the width of the belt. The tubes are of thin brass, cast upon hollow reeds, and were fastened together by pieces of sinew. Near the right knee was a quiver of arrows. The arrows are of brass, thin, flat, and triangular in shape, with a round hole cut through near the base. The shaft was fastened to the head by inserting the latter in an opening at the end of the wood and then tying with a sinew through the round hole, a mode of constructing the weapon never practised by the Indians, not even with their arrows of thin shell. Parts of the shaft still remain on some of them. When first discovered, the arrows were in a sort of quiver of bark, which fell to pieces when exposed to the air."

The more generally received opinion amongst archæologists makes the skeleton to be that of an Indian.]