in No. 22. This waiting girl is placed in an atmosphere of foreboding;- the Beacon Light, the rain, the screeching of the seabirds, the moaning of the breakers, the sobbing and grieving of the wind, the sorrowful bending of the willow (the poetical symbol, among the trees, of grief), all prepare us to meet with sympathy the timid little girl with face against the pane.

STANZA 2. But a cheerful contrasting picture, nevertheless, is present. It is in the warm cabin, the spread table, the steeping tea which the little maiden should prepare; and half chidingly, but wholly lovingly, we urge the little duties, and remind her of the experience of one and the bravery of both of those for whom she waits. But of little avail. The cheery words are far outweighed by the awful fear in her heart of the terrible storm without. Her father may know the perilous reef, and both may be brave, but she knows the sea, and she fears the sea, and in her fear she forgets to cover her eyes from the flashing light, or to stop her ears against the rolling thunder. With face against the pane, she looks out across the night at the Beacon in the rain. STANZA 3. Line 1. Can you see it?

Line 2. Can you hear it? Can you imagine a storm so hard that the wind could move a church-bell? — Not to swing it back and forth joyfully, but enough to make the sides strike the clapper now and then. How ghostly it would sound in the lulls of a storm on a dark and awful night! How suggestive of the deaths so probable on that wild and hungry sea! God pity them! We are only human to let the cry escape us as we sense their danger. God pity wives and sweethearts. Humanity is full of sympathy: God meant

And pity little Mabel.

us to be so. particular friend.

She is our own

STANZA 4. The danger grows greater: the lighthouse gun is fired. That is to warn the homebound ships that might lose their bearings in the blackness of the night. In so great a storm, even the gun is not considered sufficient and the rockets are brought into use, cleaving the sky far, far upward, and leaving golden furrows, whose beauty is almost forgotten in the horror of the condition that required their use.

Unnoted was the beauty by Mabel. What she saw we can only guess. What she may have seen we afterwards learn. Courage and experience had meant nothing. How or why it happened, we do not know, but we do know that all watching thereafter was in vain; and we know, from the closing stanza, that the timid heart could not and did not bear the sight.

STANZA 6. Again we have a contrast. The storm is over; the ruin is wrought. Nature comes forth smiling but cold. The poet could not introduce too much of brightness, lest it mar the tragedy of the final scenes. Even the angel on the village spire is suggestive when we stop to think, for the warmth of the angel's brightness is cooled.

Why do you think the poet chose old men to bear the bodies, and what do you think of the effectiveness of his manner of telling us that the father and the little fisher-lover are dead? Does he say so? Why do we know it? How do we know that the child, also, is dead (stanza 7) ?

Ancient, of persons, venerable; hoary.

What Beacon Light is referred to in the last stanza?

IO

27. THE VICTOR OF MARENGO

Napoleon was sitting in his tent; before him lay a map of Italy. He took four pins and stuck them up; measured, moved the pins, and measured again. "Now," said he, "that is right; I will capture him s there!

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Who, sir? said an officer.

Melas, the old fox of Austria. He will retire from Genoa, pass Turin, and fall back on Alexandria. I shall cross the Po, meet him on the plains of Laconia, and conquer him there," and the finger of the child of destiny pointed to Marengo.

Two months later the memorable campaign of 1800 began. The 20th of May saw Napoleon on the heights of St. Bernard. The 22d, Lannes, with the army of 15 Genoa, held Padua. So far, all had been well with Napoleon. He had compelled the Austrians to take the position he desired; reduced the army from one hundred and twenty thousand to forty thousand men ; dispatched Murat to the right, and June 14th moved 20 forward to consummate his masterly plan.

But God threatened to overthrow his scheme ! A little rain had fallen in the Alps, and the Po could not be crossed in time. The battle was begun. Melas, pushed to the wall, resolved to cut his way out; and 25 Napoleon reached the field to see Lannes beaten, Champeaux dead, Desaix still charging old Melas, with his Austrian phalanx at Marengo, till the consular guard gave way, and the well-planned victory was a terrible defeat.

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Just as the day was lost, Desaix, the boy General, sweeping across the field at the head of his cavalry, halted on the eminence where stood Napoleon. There was in the corps a drummer-boy, a gamin whom Desaix had picked up in the streets of Paris. He had 35 followed the victorious eagle of France in the campaigns of Egypt and Germany. As the columns

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halted, Napoleon shouted to him: "Beat a retreat!" The boy did not stir.

"Gamin, beat a retreat!

The boy stopped, grasped his drumsticks, and said: "Sir, I do not know how to beat a retreat; Desaix never taught me that; but I can beat a charge,—oh ! I can beat a charge that will make the dead fall into line. I beat that charge at the Pyramids; I beat that 45 charge at Mount Tabor; I beat it again at the bridge of Lodi. May I beat it here?"

Napoleon turned to Desaix, and said: "We are beaten; what shall we do?"

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Do? Beat them! It is only three o'clock, and 50 there is time to win a victory yet. Up! the charge! beat the old charge of Mount Tabor and Lodi!"

A moment later the corps, following the sword-gleam of Desaix, and keeping step with the furious roll of the gamin's drum, swept down on the host of Austrians. 55 They drove the first line back on the second

both

on the third, and there they died. Desaix fell at the first volley, but the line never faltered, and as the smoke cleared away, the gamin was seen in front of his line marching right on, and still beating the furious 60 charge. Over the dead and wounded, over breastworks and fallen foe, over cannon belching forth their fire of death, he led the way to victory, and the fifteen days in Italy were ended.

To-day men point to Marengo in wonder. They 65 admire the power and foresight that so skillfully handled the battle, but they forget that a general only thirty years of age made a victory of a defeat. They forget that a gamin of Paris put to shame" the child of destiny."

27. The timely arrival of Desaix at the battle of Marengo is one of the most dramatic events in history.

Marengo, the scene of the battle between the French, under Napoleon, and the Austrians, under Melas, in 1800.

Lines 1-6. Observe Napoleon's movements. His deliberate exactness is shown in measured, moved the pins, and measured again: make the picture very clear for your hearers.

The query of the officer shows that Napoleon had been working quietly by himself.

Lines 7-11. The moving of large armies long distances takes time. Napoleon realized this as he traced the movements of his enemies and then balanced them with his own plans. Keep the plans clear for your hearers.

There (line 10).-How do you like the author's method of introducing the name of the great decisive battle? Melas crossed the short distance from Alexandria (Alessandria) to Marengo, March 14.

The child of destiny. - A term applied to Napoleon. — Why? Meaning of destiny?