all out again. Now, there is nothing that grandmamma loves better than sweetbread and asparagus, so she was rather disappointed; but we agreed we would not speak of it to anybody, for fear of its getting round to dear Miss Woodhouse, who would be so very much concerned!

11. "Well, this is brilliant! I am all amazement! Could not have supposed anything-! Such elegance and profusion! I have seen nothing like it since Well, where shall we sit, where shall we sit? Anywhere, so that Jane is not in a draught. Where I sit is of no consequence. Oh, do you recommend this side? Well, I am sure, Mr. Churchill-only it seems too good; but just as you please. What you direct in this house cannot be wrong. Dear Jane, how shall we ever recollect. half the dishes for grandmamma? Soup too! Bless me! I should not be helped so soon, but it smells most excellent, and I cannot help beginning."

JANE AUSTEN.

LESSON LXVIII.

GINEVRA.

1. IF thou shouldst ever come to Modena,
Stop at the palace near the Reggio Gate,
Dwelt in of old by one of the Orsini.
Its noble gardens, terrace above terrace,
And numerous fountains, statues, cypresses
Will long detain thee; but before thou go,
Enter the house-prithee, forget it not-
And look awhile upon a picture there.

2. 'Tis of a lady in her earliest youth: She sits inclining forward as to speak, Her lips half open and her finger up,

As though she said, "Beware!"-her vest of gold Broidered with flowers, and clasped from head to foot,

An emerald stone in every golden clasp,
And on her brow, fairer than alabaster,
A coronet of pearls. But then her face,
So lovely, yet so arch, so full of mirth,
The overflowings of an innocent heart—
It haunts me still, though many a year has fled,
Like some wild melody! Alone it hangs
Over a mouldering heirloom, its companion,
An oaken chest half-eaten by the worm.

3. She was an only child; from infancy
The joy, the pride, of an indulgent sire.
Her mother dying of the gift she gave,
That precious gift, what else remained to him?
The young Ginevra was his all in life;
Still as she grew, for ever in his sight,
She was all gentleness, all gayety,

Her pranks the favorite theme of every tongue;
But now the day was come-the day, the hour-
And in the lustre of her youth she gave
Her hand, with her heart in it, to Francesco.

4. Great was the joy; but at the bridal feast, When all sat down, the bride was wanting there; Nor was she to be found! Her father cried, ""Tis but to make a trial of our love!"

And filled his glass to all; but his hand shook, And soon from guest to guest the panic spread.

'Twas but an instant she had left Francesco,
Laughing and looking back, and flying still,
Her ivory tooth imprinted on his finger.
But now, alas! she was not to be found,

Nor from that hour could anything be guessed,
But that she was not!

5.

Weary of his life,

Francesco flew to Venice, and forthwith
Flung it away in battle with the Turk;

Orsini lived, and long might'st thou have seen
An old man wandering as in quest of something,
Something he could not find-he knew not what;
When he was gone, the house remained awhile
Silent and tenantless, then went to strangers.

6. Full fifty years were past and all forgot,
When on an idle day-a day of search

'Mid the old lumber in the gallery—

That mouldering chest was noticed; and 'twas said By one as young, as thoughtless, as Ginevra,

66

Why not remove it from its lurking-place?" 'Twas done as soon as said, but on the way It burst-it fell, and, lo! a skeleton ! And here and there a pearl, an emerald stone, A golden clasp, clasping a shred of gold! All else had perished, save a nuptial ring, And a small seal, her mother's legacy, Engraven with a name-the name of both : "Ginevra." There, then, had she found a grave! Within that chest had she concealed herself, Fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy; When a spring-lock, that lay in ambush there, Fastened her down forever!

ROGERS,

LESSON LXIX.

THE RELIEF OF VIENNA.

1. TOWARDS the close of the seventeenth century, the followers of Mahomet, undaunted by centuries of repulse, made their final assault on Christian Europe. Christendom no longer existed. Protestantism had split it up into two hostile camps. The breaches made by the Reformation in the national ranks had destroyed that Christian unity that in other days enabled men to present a more or less united front to the common foe, and the Turks were not slow to profit by their opportunity.

2. Just at this time Hungary revolted from the Austrian yoke, and to strengthen the revolt, Emerick Tekeli threw open to the infidel the kingdom whose investiture he had basely accepted at their hands. Through the road thus opened before him by the hand of a renegade, Kara Mustapha, the Vizier, marched at the head of four hundred thousand men to invade the Austrian Empire. And such unprecedented speed did he make that within a week after crossing the Hungarian border he sat down before the walls of Vienna.

3. That city was in a sad state to sustain a siege of any kind. A week before the arrival of the Turks the Emperor Leopold had fled his capital, and no less than sixty thousand persons of every rank and state had followed his example. There were left to guard the walls just a single regiment of regular troops, and not two thousand citizens capable of bearing arms. Fortunately, on the eve of the arrival of the main body of the enemy,

thirteen thousand regular troops from the army of Lorraine entered the city, and thus strengthened, the brave governor, Count Stahremberg, prepared for a vigorous defence, aided by the heroic Leopold Von Kollonitsch, Bishop of Neustadt, who in his youth had been a Knight of Malta.

4. Meanwhile Leopold, who knew how hopeless such a defence against such an armament could not fail to be, looked for succor to Poland, at this time ruled by one of the greatest men the world had ever seen. John Sobieski, the elected king, was, as a Christian warrior and ruler, a worthy compeer of Charlemagne, since whose death Europe had not known his like. His very name was a standing terror to the Turks, for, as Pope Innocent XI. said of "the lieutenant of God," as he called him in council, "for thirty years he had been the bulwark of the Christian republic-the wall of brass against which all the efforts of the barbarians had been broken in pieces.

5. Such was the man to whom his old enemy, Leopold of Austria, now appealed piteously for help. The appeal came at an unfortunate moment, for Poland was only just beginning to enter upon a much-needed term of happiness and peace, which the genius of its king had won for it by dint of hard and constant fighting against foreign invasion and domestic strife. Happily, however, for Leopold, happily for Austria, happily indeed for all Europe, the united appeal of Pope and Kaiser fell on the ear of a true soldier of Christ. To the most alluring promises of the Emperor he made the simple and characteristic reply, "I desire no other reward than the glory of doing right before God