As that of some vain carpet-knight,1
Who ill deserved my courteous care,
And whose best boast is but to wear
A braid of his fair lady's hair."
"I thank thee, Roderick, for the word!
It nerves my heart, it steels my sword;
For I have sworn this braid to stain
In the best blood that warms thy vein.
Now, truce, farewell! and, ruth, begone!
Yet think not that by thee alone,
Proud chief! can courtesy be shown.
Though not from copse or heath or cairn2
Start at my whistle clansmen stern,

Of this small horn one feeble blast

Would fearful odds against thee cast. But fear not, -doubt not-which thou wilt, --We try this quarrel hilt to hilt." Then each at once his falchion drew, Each on the ground his scabbard threw, Each looked to sun and stream and plain As what they ne'er might see again; Then foot and point and eye opposed, In dubious strife they darkly closed.

3

4

Ill fared it then with Roderick Dhu,
That on the field his targe he threw,
Whose brazen studs and tough bull-hide
Had death so often dashed aside;

1 carpet-knight, a knight who enjoys ease and security, and has not known the hardships of the battle-field.

2 cairn. See Webster.

8 dubious. Give a synonym. 4 Ill fared it then: that is, it then went ill.

For, trained abroad his arms to wield,
Fitz-James's blade was sword and shield.1
He practiced every pass and ward,

To thrust, to strike, to feint, to guard;
While less expert, though stronger far,
The Gael maintained unequal war.
Three times in closing strife they stood,
And thrice the Saxon blade drank blood;2
No stinted draught, no scanty tide,

The gushing flood the tartans dyed.3
Fierce Roderick felt the fatal drain,
And showered his blows like wintry rain;4
And as firm rock or castle-roof

Against the winter shower is proof,

The foe, invulnerable still,

Foiled his wild rage by steady skill;
Till, at advantage ta'en, his brand
Forced Roderick's weapon from his hand,
And, backward borne upon the lea,
Brought the proud chieftain to his knee.

Now yield thee, or by Him who made

The world, thy heart's blood dyes my blade!")
"Thy threats, thy mercy, I defy!

Let recreant yield who fears to die."
-Like adder darting from his coil,
Like wolf that dashes through the toil,

1 was sword and shield: that is, served both as sword and shield. The "blade" was probably a rapier. 2 blade drank blood. Change to plain language.

3 The gushing... dyed. Change to the prose order.

4 like wintry rain. What is the figure of speech?

5 Like adder. What figure?

Like mountain-cat who guards her young,
Full at Fitz-James's throat he sprung;
Received, but recked not of a wound,
And locked his arms his foeman round.
Now, gallant Saxon, hold thine own!
No maiden's hand is round thee thrown!
That desperate grasp thy frame might feel,
Through bars of brass and triple steel!
They tug, they strain! down, down they go,
The Gael above, Fitz-James below.
The chieftain's grip his throat compressed,
His knee was planted in his breast;
His clotted locks he backward threw,
Across his brow his hand he drew,
From blood and mist to clear his sight,
Then gleamed aloft his dagger bright!
-But hate and fury ill2 supplied
The stream of life's exhausted tide,
And all too late the advantage came,
To turn the odds of deadly game; 3
For, while the dagger gleamed on high,
Reeled soul and sense, reeled brain and eye.
Down came the blow! but in the heath
The erring blade found bloodless sheath.
The struggling foe may now unclasp 5
The fainting chief's relaxing grasp;
Unwounded from the dreadful close,
But breathless all, Fitz-James arose.

1 clotted locks. Explain.

2 ill. Part of speech?

3 deadly game. Unequal combat.

4 erring blade. Explain.
5 unclasp. What is the prefix?
6 close, grapple.

VIII. — DANIEL WEBSTER.

LIFE AND WORKS.

WEBSTER holds a high place in the literature of our country; for while a great lawyer, a great statesman, and a great orator, he was also a great writer. It is as a writer only that we have here to regard him, and as such he stands among the very foremost of his class. "In the sphere of literature," says Evarts, "Webster has a clear title to be held as one of the greatest authors and writers of our mother tongue that America has produced. I propose to the most competent critics of the nation, that they can find nowhere six octavo volumes of printed literary production of an American that contains as much noble and as much beautiful imagery, as much warmth of rhetoric, and of magnetic impression upon the reader, as are to be found in the collected writings and speeches of Daniel Webster."

As a

Daniel (born in the town of Salisbury, N. H., Jan. 18, 1782) was one of the ten children of Ebenezer Webster, a frontiersman of the New Hampshire wilderness, at a time when there was nothing between his own log-cabin and the settlements of Canada. young man, Ebenezer Webster was one of the boldest Indian-fighters in the French and Indian war; and during the Revolution he commanded a company of militia, and was trusted and esteemed by Washington. Without a day's schooling, the elder Webster was obliged to pick up learning as best he might; but his innate common-sense and his strong character made

him a leader among his neighbors, and in the latter part of his life he was made a judge of the local court.

At a very early age Daniel began to go to school; sometimes in his native town, sometimes in another, as the district school moved from place to place. He thus describes his boyhood: "I read what I could get to read, went to school when I could, and when not at school was a farmer's youngest boy, not good for much for want of health and strength, but expected to do something."

That "something" consisted generally in tending his father's saw-mill, but the reading went on even there. He would set a log, and while it was going through would devour a book. There was a small circulating library in the village; and young Webster read every thing it contained, committing most of the contents of the volumes to memory, for books were so scarce that he believed this to be their chief purpose.

The elder Webster, though in straitened circumstances, had it greatly at heart that his son should enjoy the advantages of that education he had himself missed. Accordingly, after rather hasty preparation, Daniel contrived in 1797 to enter Dartmouth College, where he pursued his studies till he took his degree in 1801. Though not a fine scholar in the technical sense of the term, he was recognized both by the professors and by his fellow-students as the foremost man in the college. All were conscious of something in him indefinable, but conveying a sense of greatness.

The four years following Webster's leaving college were passed in the study of law, varied by some ex