So the multitude goes, like the flower or weed,
That withers away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes, even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that has often been told.

For we are the same our fathers have been;
We see the same sights our fathers have seen;
We drink the same stream, we view the same sun,
And run the same course our fathers have run.

The thoughts we are thinking our fathers did think;
From the death we are shrinking our fathers did shrink;
To the life we are clinging our fathers did cling-
But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing.

They loved-but the story we cannot unfold;

They scorned-but the heart of the haughty is cold; They grieved-but no wail from their slumbers will

come;

They enjoyed-but the tongue of their gladness is dumb.

They died-ay! they died-we things that are now,
That walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
And make in their dwellings a transient abode,
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road.

Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain,
Are mingled together in sunshine and rain;
And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge,
Still follow each other like surge upon surge.

'Tis the wink of an eye; 'tis the draught of a breath,
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death;
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud—
Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

The Rose and the Ring

BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.

(Arranged as Scene.)

Characters:-KING VALOROSO XXIV., QUEEN, PRINCESS ANGELICA, PRINCE BULBO, CAPTAIN HEDZOFF, COUNTESS GRUFFANUFF, GLUMBOSO, JOHN, GUARDS, ETC. KING (stamping). Ho! my Captain of the Guards!

Enter CAPTAIN HEDZOFF.

Hedzoff (taking a death warrant out of his dressinggown pocket). Hedzoff, good Hedzoff, seize upon the Prince. Thou'lt find him in his chamber, two pair up. But now he dared, with sacrilegious hand, to strike the sacred nightcap of a King, Hedzoff; and floor me with a warming-pan! Away! no more demur, the villain dies! See it be done, or else h'm-ha!-h'm! mind thine own eyes. [Exit.

HEDZOFF. Poor, poor Giglio, my noble young Prince! Is it my hand must lead thee to death?

GRUFFANUFF. Lead him to fiddlestick, Hedzoff. The King said you were to hang the Prince. Well, hang the Prince.

HEDZOFF. I don't understand you, Countess.

GRUFFANUFF. Gaby! he didn't say which Prince.
HEDZOFF. No; he didn't say which, certainly.

GRUFFANUFF. Well, then, take Bulbo, and hang him! HEDZOFF. Obedience is a soldier's honor. Prince Bulbo's head will do capitally.

[HEDZOFF knocks at door. BULBO (entering). Who's there? Captain Hedzoff? My good Captain, I am delighted to see you; I have been expecting you.

HEDZOFF. Have you?

BULBO. Sleibootz, my Chamberlain, will act for me. HEDZOFF. I beg your Royal Highness' pardon, but you will have to act for yourself, and it's a pity to wake Baron Sleibootz.

BULBO. Of course, Captain, you are come about that affair with Prince Giglio?

HEDZOFF. Precisely, that affair with Prince Giglio.

BULBO. Is it to be pistols or swords, Captain? I'm a pretty good hand with both, and I'll do for Prince Giglio as sure as my name is Royal Highness Prince Bulbo.

HEDZOFF. There's some mistake, my lord. The business is done with ares among us.

BULBO. Axes? That's sharp work. Call my Chamberlain he'll be my second, and in ten minutes I flatter myself you'll see Master Giglio's head off his impertinent shoulders. I'm hungry for his blood. Hoo-oo, aw!

HEDZOFF. I beg your pardon, sir, but by this warrant I am to take you prisoner, and hand you over to-to the executioner.

BULBO. Pooh, pooh, my good man! (Enter GUARDS and seize BULBO.) Stop! I say-ho!-hulloa!

[Shows warrant "At sight, cut off the bearer's head. Signed VALOROSO XXIV."

BULBO. It's a mistake. It's a mistake.

HEDZOFF. POO-poo-Pooh! Away with him, and summon Jack Ketch instantly. Away with him!

[GUARDS lead BULBO off struggling. Exit HEDZOFF. Enter KING and QUEEN and ANGELICA:

QUEEN. And now let us think about breakfast. ANGELICA. What dress shall I put on, mamma? the pink or the pea-green?

KING. Any one but the blue velvet. Your everlasting blue velvet quite tires me.

QUEEN. Then put on the pea-green, my love.

[Exit ANGELICA. KING. Mrs. V., let us have sausages for breakfast. Remember we have Prince Bulbo staying with us.

[SERVANTS enter bearing urn, plates piled up with muffins, pots of jam, etc., etc., etc. KING. Where is Bulbo? John! where is his Royal Highness?

JOHN. Your Majesty, I took up his Roiliness' shaving-water, and his clothes and things, and he wasn't in his room, which I s'pose his Roiliness have just stepped

out.

KING. Stepped out before breakfast in the snow! Impossible. (Sticking fork into a sausage.) My dear, take one. Love, you look most charming-have a saveloy. [ANGELICA enters and sits at table.

Enter GLUMBOSO and CAPTAIN HEDZOFF.

GLUMBOSO. I am afraid, your Majesty

KING. No business before breakfast, Glum.! Breakfast first, business next. Mrs. V., some more sugar.

GLUM BOSO. Sire, I am afraid, if we wait till after breakfast, it will be too late. He-he-he'll be hanged at half-past nine.

ANGELICA. Don't talk about hanging. breakfast, you unkind, vulgar man you. mustard. Pray who is to be hanged? GLUMBOSO (whispering in KING's ear).

Prince.

It spoils my

John, some

Sire, it is the

KING. Talk about business after breakfast, I tell you. GLUMBOSO. We shall have a war, sire, depend on it. His father, King Padella

KING. His father King Who? King Padella is not Giglio's father. My brother, King Savio, was Giglio's father.

GLUMBOSO. It's Prince Bulbo they are hanging, sire, not Prince Giglio.

HEDZOFF. You told me to hang the Prince, and I took the ugly one. I didn't, of course, think your Majesty intended to murder your own flesh and blood.

[KING flings the bread at HEDZOFF's head. ANGELICA has hysterics.

ANGELICA. Hee-Karee! karee! KING. Turn the urn upon her Royal Highness, the boiling water will revive her. (He looks at his watch, compares it with the clock in the parlor, then by that of the church in the square opposite, then winds it up, then looks at it again.) The great question is, am I fast or am I slow? If I'm slow we may as well go on with breakfast! if I'm fast, why, there is just the possibility of saving Prince Bulbo. It's a doosid awkward mistake, and upon my word, Hedzoff, I have the greatest mind to have, you hanged too.

HEDZOFF. Sire, I did but do my duty; a soldier has but his orders. I didn't expect, after forty-seven years of faithful service, that my sovereign would think of putting me to a felon's death.

ANGELICA. A hundred thousand plagues upon you! Can't you see that while you are talking my Bulbo is being hanged?

KING. By Jove! she's always right, that girl, and I'm so absent. (Looks at his watch again.) Ha! Hark, there go the drums! What a doosid awkward thing, though!

ANGELICA. Oh, papa-you goose! write the reprieve, and let me run with it.

[JOHN brings ink, pen and paper.

KING. Confound it! where are my spectacles? Angelica, go up into my bedroom, look under my pillow, not your mamma's, there you'll see my keys. Bring them down to me, and-(Exit ANGELICA.) Well, well! what impetuous things these girls are!

Re-enter ANGELICA with keys.

Now, love, you must go all the way back for my desk, in which my spectacles are. If you would but have heard me out Be hanged to her! there she is off again. Angelica! Angelica! My dear, when you go out of a room-how often have I told you!-shut the door. That's a darling. That's all.

[ANGELICA brings spectacles.

KING writes reprieve. [Exit ANGELICA.

You'd better stay, my love, and finish the muffins. There's no use going. Be sure it's too late. Hand me over that raspberry jam, please. [Clock strikes.] There goes the half-hour. I knew it was.

ANGELICA re-enters leading in PRINCE BULBO. ANGELICA. He's safe! He's safe! My Bulbo's safe! O my Prince! my lord! my love! my Bulbo! Had aught befallen thee Angelica too had died, and welcomed death that joined her to her Bulbo!

BULBO. H'm-there' no accounting for tastes.
ANGELICA. Why art thou so sad, dear one?

BULBO. I tell you what it is, Angelica: since I came here yesterday, there has been such a row and disturbance and quarrelling and fighting, and chopping of heads off, and the deuce to pay, that I am inclined to go back to Crim Tartary.

ANGELICA. But with me as thy bride, Bulbo! Though wherever thou art is Crim Tartary to me, my bold, my beautiful, my Bulbo!

BULBO. Well, well! I suppose we must be married. KING. There, then, my children, my blessing on you; and now in the name of Peace and Quietness let's finish breakfast.