more of the joys and sorrows of our kings and queens, princes and princesses, than any other palace past or present. In St. George's Chapel are buried Henry VI., Henry VIII. and his best loved wife, Jane Seymour, Charles I. and George III. with his queen. John lived in the castle when the barons gathered on the neighbouring Runnymede, and made him grant the Charter. James I. of Scotland and John of France were confined within it. The palace stands on the edge of Windsor Great Park, which contains over 2000 acres, and forms part of Windsor Forest, once 120 miles round. A fine avenue, three miles long, running southward from the walls, ends in Snow Hill, crowned by a statue of George III., known in the country round as the Copper Horse. From the top of the Round Tower one sees, across the river, Eton College, which was founded by Henry VI.; a few miles further off Stoke Pogis, in whose country churchyard lies the poet Gray; and Burnham Beeches, a bit of ancient forest. A little way down the river are Runnymede and Magna Carta Island; and on a clear day Richmond Park and Hampstead Heath are visible. The Garter. The badge of the highest order of knighthood in England. Patron. A protector; often applied to a particular saint who has a person or country under his protection. Runnymede. In Surrey, on the Thames bank, near Egham, is the "Council Meadow," where the barons met, and, on June 15, 1215, extorted Magna Carta from King John. Facing it in midstream is the Charter Island. COMPOSITION.--Write a history of Windsor Castle. LESSON 24. WOLSEY'S FAREWELL TO CROMWELL. Cromwell; CROMWELL, I did not think to shed a tear In all my miseries; but thou hast forced me, Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman. Let's dry our eyes: and thus far hear me, 5 And, when I am forgotten, as I shall be, And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention Of me more must be heard of,—say, I taught thee: Say, Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour,— Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in, A sure and safe one, though thy master missed it. Mark but my fall, and that that ruined me: Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, 15 The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't? 10 Love thyself last cherish those hearts that hate thee; Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not. 20 Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, There take an inventory of all I have, 25 To the last penny; 'tis the king's: my robe I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell, I served my king, He would not in mine age 30 Have left me naked to mine enemies. From SHAKSPEARE's "King Henry VIII.," Act III., Scene 2. Thy honest truth. Shakspeare I am a poor fallen man, un- To be thy lord and master; and Cromwell as answering :"O my lord, Must I then leave you? must So good, so noble, and so true a master? When Wolsey was attacked in To play the woman. tomb. To cry. In a marble Mark but my fall. Wolsey is now going to show Cromwell the sure and safe way to rise. That that. That which, what. Ambition. A desire to rise above others. Fell the angels. "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan.' Rev. xii. 7-9. Satan's ambition to be equal to God, and the war caused thereby, form the subject of part of Milton's Paradise Lost. Inventory. A list of furniture and other property. Had I but served my God. Wolsey uttered these words, not at the time of his fall, but at the time of his death. COMPOSITION.-Give in your own words Wolsey's advice to Cromwell. LESSON 25. MERCY. THE quality of mercy is not strained; 5 Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; 10 It is enthroned in the hearts of kings; It is an attribute to God Himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice. From SHAKSPEARE'S "Merchant of Venice", The quality of mercy. Is not strained. Portia, hearing Tis mightiest, etc. Mercy is not a sign of weakness; it best becomes those who have most power. Shows. Is a sign of. The attribute to. It is a symbol of. Seasons. Tempers, qualifies. The COMPOSITION.-(1) Tell briefly the story of Antonio and Shylock. (2) Paraphrase the above lines. LESSON 26. THE DEFENCE OF RORKE'S DRIFT. 99 66 Henry Rider Haggard, a very popular novelist, was born in Norfolk in 1856. From 1875 to 1879 he was in the Government service in South Africa. It was during this period that he picked up the knowledge of the country which he has shown in such stories as “King Solomon's Mines,' She," "Allan Quatermain," and "Nada the Lily" The success of these stories and of others similar ("Cleopatra," Eric Brighteyes," and "Montezuma's Daughter") is due to their wealth of incidents-often improbable, often impossible incidents. Uncritical readers enjoy the excitement, and even critical readers are not unwilling to pass an idle hour in following the adventures of Allan Quatermain, Thomas Wingfield, or Sir Henry Curtis. SOME little distance from the banks of the Buffalo, and on the Natal side, near to a mountain called Tyana, stood two buildings erected by the Rev. Mr. Witt; Rorke's Drift, from which No. 3 column had advanced, being immediately in front of them. One of these buildings had been used as a storehouse and hospital, and in it were thirty-five sick men. The other was occupied by a company of the 24th regiment, under the command of the late Lieut. Bromhead. On the 22nd of January, the ponts at Rorke's Drift were left in charge of Lieut. Chard, R.E., with a few men. About a quarter past three on that day an officer of Lonsdale's regiment, Lieut. Adendorff, and a carbineer, were seen galloping wildly towards the ponts. On coming to the bank of the river, they shouted to Lieut. Chard to take them across; and so soon as he reached them, they communicated to him the terrifying news that the general's camp had been captured and destroyed by a Zulu impi. A few minutes later a message arrived from Lieut. Bromhead, who also had learned the tidings of disaster, requesting Lieut. Chard to join him at the commissariat store. Mounting his horse he rode thither, to find Lieut. Brorahead and the entire force at his command, amounting to about 130, inclusive of the sick and the chaplain, actively engaged in loopholing and barricading the house and hospital (both of which buildings were thatched), and in connecting them by means of a fortification of mealie bags and waggons. Having ridden round the position, Lieut. Chard returned to the Drift. Sergeant Milne and Mr. Daniells, who managed the ponts, offered to moor them in the middle of the stream, and with the assistance of a few men to defend them from their decks. This gallant suggestion being rejected as impracticable, Lieut. Chard withdrew to the buildings with the waggon and those under his command. They arrived there about 3.30, and shortly afterwards an officer of Durnford's native horse rode up, accompanied by about a hundred mounted men, and asked for orders. He was requested to send out outposts in the direction of the enemy, and, having checked their advance as much as possible, to fall back, when forced so to do, upon the buildings and assist in their defence, |