Patience and abnegation of self,* and devotion

to others,*

This was the lesson a life of trial and sorrow
had taught her.

Other hope had she none, nor wish in life, but
to follow

Meekly, with reverent steps, the sacred feet of

our Saviour.

10 Thus many years she lived as a Sister of
Mercy; frequenting

Lonely and wretched roofs in the crowded
lanes of the city.

Night after night, when the world was asleep,

as the watchman repeated

Abnegation of self,
denying herself all
Devotion to others.
pleasure.
After years of fruitless

search for Gabriel,
her lover, Evangeline
settled among the
Quakers, and spent

her time in works of love and charity.

Loud, through the gusty* streets, that all was Gusty, windy, stormy

well in the city,

High at some lonely window he saw the light

of her taper.*

Taper, a small wax candle.

15 Then it came to pass that a pestilence* fell on Pestilence, a plague,

the city.

Thither, by night and by day, came the Sister

of Mercy.

Thus, on a Sabbath morn, through the streets
deserted and silent,

*

a catching, deadly sickness.

Wending her quiet way, she entered the door Wending, going.

of the almshouse.

And, with light in her looks, she entered the

chambers of sickness.

20 Many a languid * head, upraised as Evangeline Languid, weak, exentered,

*

Turned on its pillow of pain to gaze while she
passed, for her presence
Fell on their hearts like a ray of the sun on
the walls of a prison.

Suddenly, as if arrested by fear or a feeling

of wonder,

Still she stood, with her colourless lips apart,

while a shudder

25 Ran through her frame, and forgotten, the
flowerets dropped from her fingers,

And from her eyes and cheeks the light and
bloom of the morning.

Then there escaped from her lips a cry of such
terrible anguish,*

That the dying heard it, and started up from
their pillows.

*

On the pallet before her was stretched the
form of an old man.

hausted.

Her presence, &c., she cheered and com

forted the sick in

their greatest misery.

Arrested, stopped.

Terrible anguish,

dreadful pain of mind.

Pallet, a bed of straw.

H

Realms, kingdoms.

Multiplied reverbera

Long, and thin, and grey were the locks that 30 shaded his temples;

But, as he lay in the morning light, his face

for a moment

[earlier manhood ; Seemed to assume * once more the forms of its So are wont to be changed the faces of those that are dying.

*

Then through those realms* of shade, in multi-
plied reverberations,*

tions, echoes repeated Heard he that cry of pain, and through the 35

again and again.

hush that succeeded

Whispered a gentle voice, in accents tender

and saint-like,—
[into silence.
"Gabriel! O my beloved!" and died away
Then he beheld, in a dream, once more the
home of his childhood;

Green Acadian* meadows, with sylvan rivers
among them,

Village, and mountain, and woodlands; and, 40
walking under their shadow,

As

in the days of her youth, Evangeline rose

in his vision.

Tears came into his eyes; and as slowly he
lifted his eyelids,

Vanished the vision away, but Evangeline knelt
by his bedside.

Vainly he strove to whisper her name, for the
accents unuttered

Died on his lips, and their motion revealed 45
what his tongue would have spoken.
Vainly he strove to rise; and Evangeline,
kneeling beside him,

Kissed his dying lips, and laid his head on her
bosom.

Sweet was the light of his eyes; but it sud

denly sank into darkness,

As when a lamp is blown out by a gust of

wind at a casement.

All was ended now, the hope, and the fear, and 50

the sorrow,

All the aching of heart, the restless, unsatis

fied longing,

All the dull, deep pain, and constant anguish

of patience!

And, as she pressed once more the lifeless head

to her bosom,

Meekly she bowed her own, and murmured,
"Father, I thank Thee!"

5

THE ARMADA.*-Macaulay.

*

ATTEND, all ye who list to hear our noble List, desire, please.
England's praise;

I tell of the thrice famous deeds she wrought
in ancient days,*

When that great fleet invincible * against her
bore in vain,

The richest spoils of Mexico,* the stoutest
hearts of Spain.

It was about the lovely close of a warm
summer's day,

There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail
to Plymouth bay ;

*

Her crew had seen Castile's black fleet,* beyond
Aurigny's isle,

*

At earliest twilight, on the waves lie heaving
many a mile.

At sunrise she escaped their van,* by God's
especial grace;

10 And the tall Pinta,* till the noon, had held her

15

20

close in chase.

Forthwith a guard at every gun was placed
along the wall;

The beacon blazed upon the roof of Edg-
cumbe's lofty hall;

*

Many a light fishing bark put out, to pry
along the coast;

*

Ancient days, the times long past.

Invincible, not to be

conquered.

Mexico, a country of

North America, conquered by the Spaniards in 1579.

Plymouth, a great
naval seaport in

Devonshire.
Black fleet, the ships
were painted black.
Aurigny, Alderney,
one of the Channel

Islands.

Van foremost ships

of the fleet.

Pinta, one of the
Spanish ships.

Beacon, a fire lighted

to give the alarm. Edgcumbe's lofty hall,

a mansion overlooking Plymouth.

And with loose rein, and bloody spur, rode Pry, to watch nar

inland many a post.*

With his white hair unbonneted, the stout

old sheriff comes;

Behind him march the halberdiers;* before
him sound the drums;

His yeomen,* round the market cross, make
clear an ample space;

*

For there behoves him to set up the standard

of Her Grace.

And haughtily the trumpets peal, and gaily
dance the bells,

As slow upon the labouring wind the royal

blazon swells.

*The Armada, a great fleet sent by Philip II, of Spain to crush England, under Elizabeth, sailed from Lisbon, May 19th, 1588.

*

Lion of the sea, Eng- Look how the Lion of the sea lifts up his

land.

ancient crown,

And underneath his deadly paw treads the
gay lilies down.

So

*

stalked he when he turned to flight, on
that famed Picard field,*
Bohemia's plume, and Genoa's bow,* and
Cæsar's eagle shield.

So glared he when, at Agincourt,* in wrath he 25
turned to bay,

And crushed and torn beneath his claws the
princely hunters lay.

Ho! strike the flagstaff deep, Sir Knight!
ho! scatter flowers, fair maids!
gunners! fire a loud salute: ho! gallants,*
draw your blades:

Ho,

Thou sun, shine on her joyously! ye breezes,
waft her wide!

*

Our glorious SEMPER EADEM ! the banner of 30 our pride!

The freshening breeze of eve unfurled that

banner's massy fold

The parting gleam of sunshine kissed that

haughty scroll of gold:

[purple sea;

had been, nor

Night sunk upon the dusky beach, and on the
Such night in England ne'er
ne'er again shall be.

Eddystone, a reef of From Eddystone* to Berwick

rocks, now famous for the lighthouse there.

Berwick, a town in

the extreme north of England.

Lynn, a seaport in

Norfolk.

Milford Bay in Pembroke, Wales.

St. Michael's Mount, a granite rock in Mounts Bay, Coruwall.

Beachy Head, the highest point on the south coast.

Tamar, a river in

Devonshire.
Mendip Hills, in
Somerset, about
twenty-four miles in
length.

Beaulieu, near Lym-
ington in Hampshire.

*

Lynn to Milford Bay,*

bounds, from 35 [as the day;

That time of slumber was as bright and busy
For swift to east and swift to west the ghastly
war-flame spread—

High on St. Michael's Mount* it shone-it
shone on Beachy Head:

*

Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each
southern shire,

Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those 40
twinkling points of fire.

The fisher left his skiff to rock on Tamar's '

glittering waves,

*

The rugged miners poured to war from Men

*

dip's sunless caves;

O'er Longleat's towers, o'er Cranbourne's oaks,
the fiery herald flew,

He roused the shepherds of Stonehenge-the
rangers of Beaulieu.*

45 Right sharp and quick the bells rang out all
night from Bristol * town;

And ere the day three hundred horse had met
on Clifton Down.*

The sentinel on Whitehall* gate looked forth
into the night,

And saw o'erhanging Richmond Hill* the
streak of blood-red light :

Then bugle's note and cannon's roar the death-
like silence broke,

*

Bristol, a port on the
Avon.

Clifton Down, near
Bristol, Gloucester-

shire.

Whitehall, a palace in
Parliament Street, in
London.

Richmond Hill, near

London, in Surrey.

[city woke; Royal city, London.

50 And with one start, and with one cry, the royal
At once on all her stately gates arose the
answering fires;

At once the wild alarum clashed from all her
reeling spires;

From all the batteries* of the Tower* pealed Batteries, places

loud the voice of fear,

where cannon are mounted.

And all the thousand masts of Thames sent The Tower, the an

55 And from the furthest wards rush of hurrying feet,

*

cient fortress in London.

was heard the Louder cheer, the sea

And the broad streams of pikes and flags
dashed down each roaring street;
And broader still became the blaze, and louder
still the din,

As fast from every village round the horse
came spurring in ;

And eastward straight from wild Blackheath *

the warlike errand went;

*

men of the ships lying in the river Thames, close to the Tower. Wards, divisions of the city.

Blackheath, in Kent,

a suburb of London. At this time it was a

60 And roused in many an ancient hall the gallant wild moor.
squires of Kent:

Southward, from Surrey's pleasant hills flew
those bright couriers forth;

*

High on bleak Hampstead's swarthy moor,
they started for the north;

And on, and on, without a pause, untired they
bounded still;

All night from tower to tower they sprang;
they sprang from hill to hill:

65 Till the proud Peak* unfurled the flag o'er
Darwin's rocky dales ;*

[hills of Wales;

Till, like volcanoes, flared to heaven the stormy
Till twelve fair counties saw the blaze on Mal-

*

vern's lonely height;

Till streamed in crimson on the wind the
Wrekin's crest of light;

*