LESSON CXXIII. WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING. EQUITY, justice; right. PRE VAR I CA TING, quibbling. STAT UE, carved image. Noc' TUR NAL, nightly. AS SAS SINS, secret murderers. IN DIG NATION, strong disappro- IM PLA' CA BLE, inexorable. TRIBUNES, magistrates chosen by the people. LOUIS ANTOINE HENRI DE Bourbon, Duke of Enghien, was born at Chantilly, a small town of France, twenty-three miles north of Paris, in 1772. After serving with credit in the armies opposed to the French republic, he went to Baden, a Grand-Duchy of Germany, extending along the right bank of the Rhine, and lived there as a private citizen. He was, however, regarded with a jealous eye, as one who might become dangerous to the ambitious designs of Bonaparte, who was then First Consul. An order was accordingly given to arrest him. He was accused of having taken part in conspiracies against the life of the First Consul; and though nothing was proved against him, he was sentenced to death, and executed at the dead of night. REFLECTIONS ON NAPOLEON AND THE MURDER OF THE DUKE D'ENGHIEN. LAMARTINE. But con 1. The First Consul had said ""Tis well!" science, equity, and humanity protest alike against this satisfaction of a murderer who applauds himself. He claimed this crime to himself alone, in his revelations at St. Helena. Let him then keep it all to himself! He has mowed down millions of men by the hand of war; and mad Lumanity, partial against itself for what it calls glory, has pardoned him. 2. He has slain one alone cruelly, like a coward, in the dark, by the consciences of prevaricating judges, and by the balls of mercenary executioners, without risking hi own breast, not as a warrior, but even as a murderer. Neither mankind nor history will ever pardon him the spilling of blood. 3. A tomb has been raised to him under the dome built by Louis XIV. at the palace of the Invalids, where the statues of twelve victories hewn out from one single block of granite, harmonizing with the massy pillars which support the lofty edifice, seem to stand the sentinels of ages around the urn of porphyry, which contains his bones. 4. But there is the shade, and seated on his sepulcher, an invisible statue, which blights and tarnishes all the others,the statue of a young man, torn by hired nocturnal assassins, from the arms of her he loved, from the inviolable asylum, in which he confided, and slaughtered by the light of a lantern at the foot of the palace of his sires! 5. People go to visit, with a cold curiosity, the battlefields of Marengo, of Austerlitz, of Wagram, of Leipsic, and of Waterloo; they walk over them with dry eyes; then they are shown, at the angle of a wall, round the foundations of Vincennes, at the bottom of a trench, a place covered with nettles and marsh-mallows, and they exclaim: "It is there!" With a cry of indignation they carry from the spot an eternal pity for the victim, and an implacable resentment against the assassin! 6. This resentment is a vengeance for the past, but it is, also, a lesson for the future. Let the ambitious, whether soldiers, tribunes, or kings, reflect, that, if there are mercenary soldiers to serve them, and flatterers to excuse them while they reign, there is the conscience of humanity afterwards to judge them, and pity to detest them. The murderer has but this hour, the victim has all eternity! QUESTIONS.-1. What had the First Consul, (Napoleon,) said? 2. What protest against this declaration? 3. Who had slain cruelly? 4. What is said of the tomb raised to him at the palace of the Invalids? 5. What is represented as being seated on his sepulcher? 6. How do people walk over Napoleon's battle-fields? 7. With what feelings do they survey the spot where the young duke was murdered? 8. On what does the author entreat the ambitious to reflect? Where is the Island of St. Helena? Where are Marengo, Austerlitz, Wagram, Leipsic, and Waterloo? Where is Vincennes ? LESSON CXXIV. WORDS FOR SPELLING AND DEFINING. SCOURG ED, chastised; lashed. FIERCER, more furious. GLAZED, glossy; shiny. BEAGLE, small hunting dog. DEATH OF NAPOLEON. ISAAC M'LELLAN. The 5th of May came amid wind and rain. Napoleon's passing spirit was deliriously engaged in a strife more terrible than the ele ments around. The words" tête d'armeé," (head of the army,) the last which escaped from his lips, intimated that his thoughts were watching the current of a heavy fight. About eleven minutes before six in the evening, Napoleon expired.-Scott's Life of Napoleon. 1. () Wild was the night,-yet a wilder night In his bosom there waged a fiercer fight 2. (pl.) A few fond mourners were kneeling by, 3. They knew, by his awful and kingly look, That he dreamed of days when the nations shook, 4. He dreamed that the Frenchman's sword still slew, 5. The bearded Russian he scourged again, 6 Over Egypt's sands, over Alpine snows, 7. On the snowy cliffs, where mountain-streams 8. Again Marengo's field was won, Made pale at his cannon's rattle. 9. () He died at the close of that darksome day, In the rocky land they placed his clay, QUESTIONS.-1. When and how did Napoleon die? (See note p. 268.) 2. Who were present? 3. What place is intended by the phrase, "the rocky land"? With what modulations should this piece be read? Who is the author of the quotation, last line? 2. "Young stranger, whither wanderest thou ?” Began the reverend sage; "Does thirst of wealth thy step constrain, Or, haply, pressed with cares and woes, To wander forth, with me, to mourn 3. "The sun that overhangs yon moors, 4. "O man! while in thy early years, Which tenfold force gives Nature's law, 5. "Look not alone on youthful prime, Man then is useful to his kind, But see him on the edge of life, With cares and sorrows worn, 6 "A few seem favorites of fate, |