road some miles longer. At eleven o'clock they arrived in order of battle. The imperial eagles saluted the appearance of these squadrons in their gilt cuirasses, and from end to end of the Christian lines ran one cry, Long live King John Sobieski ! John and the generals dismounted to dine under a tree; the soldiers, with their arms in their hands, ate what each one had brought with him. At midday, notwithstanding the overpowering heat, a movement was made, a semicircle was formed round this vast amphitheatre, which now discovered to the surprised eye of the barbarians the allies in full order and pomp of war; then this skilful and terrible march was resumed. John flew from regiment to regiment, encouraging the troops, speaking to each in the tongue of his own country, German to the Germans, Italian to the Italians, French especially to the numerous Frenchmen, who in spite of the wishes of Louis XIV. were found in the ranks. The Turks had profited by this halt to take up positions, to form, to receive large reinforcements. A fresh battle, and a more severe one, was now to be fought. By help of ravines, of strong hillocks, of thick vineyards, the village of Nussdorf at the extreme left, then another post, were disputed with great vigour. The Cross was successful. Resistance was offered, in turn, by Heliginstadt, a large village; the Polish hussars, entering it, flung themselves with lowered lances on the Turkish squadrons, and put them to flight. But, hurried on in the heat of victory as far as the main body of the Mussulman army, they were for a time in danger. Young Potocki son of the Castellan of Cracow, Modrzewski, the royal treasurer, Colonel Assuérus, met their death in this conflict. John brought the Prince of Waldeck and the Bavarians to the rescue of his soldiers. Before long he appeared himself at the head of the second line and of the Imperial dragoons; the shock was terrific. The Mussulmans wavered; they tried to defend themselves on the heights to the rear; they were driven back; and the same movement being accomplished simultaneously throughout the whole of the vast semicircle formed by the Christian army, almost at the same time all along the line, it arrived in sight of the camp. This was the place where the conflict would be decided. This camp, the magnificence of which inflamed the warlike ardour of the soldiers, was defended at all its approaches by a deep ravine; and in front of this ravine the entire Mussulman army presented itself, assembled in good order round the standard of the grand vizier. Kara Mustapha manded the main body in person. That wing which faced the Imperialists and stretched to the Danube had at its head the brave and skilful Kara-MahometPacha, distinguished by his campaigns in the Ukraine. The other was led by the old Ibrahim; it com covered the army to the south on the road to Schoenbrun. The Transylvanians, the Wallachians, the Arabs, the Tartars, and part of the Janissaries, were posted on a line of hillocks where fortifications had been rapidly thrown up. Their front bristled with formidable artillery; and as in the centre the Poles threatened these serried ranks, the lines were seen to be deepest in this part; it was here that Kara-Mustapha was to fight. Thither the king betook himself, while Jablonowski, with some thousands of horse covering the right, for a moment menaced by Selim Giéray, swept his clouds of Tartars into the plain; and Prince Charles of Lorraine, still resting on the branch of the Danube, held himself ready to follow up success or to repair misfortune. It was now nearly five o'clock in the evening. John expected to rest on the field, and to defer till next day the closing scene of this solemn drama. It seemed that what remained to be done must be more than the work of a few hours or of tired troops. But the allies, in spite of the day's exertions, were animated rather than fatigued, after their victorious march. Consternation, on the other hand, was seen to reign | among the Ottoman soldiers. Afar off, long files of camels might be descried, hurrying along the roads to Hungary. Their track was marked by a long furrow of dust rising in the air, and reaching away to the horizon. The grand vizier, opposing his own indomi table spirit to the general fear, actually increased the disorder of his troops by this very confidence which exasperated their minds. He had come to arrange the battle as if hastening to a triumph. He expected to see the Christian army shattered as it were, without striking a blow, at the foot of his entrenchments. His battlehorse, all covered with gold, and scarcely able to support the burden, was fit neither to fight nor to fly. Sheltered from the heat of the setting sun by a crimson tent, he was seen calmly taking coffee with his two sons, while the eye of the King of Poland examined his lines. At the sight of this splendid tent the king was carried away by his ardour. His infantry had not come up. The artillery which he had with him, valiantly directed by the Chevalier Lemasson, chamberlain to Prince James, had not yet been able to get into position. He pointed against the vizier two or three pieces which, by Kontski's orders, had been rolled up with the help of handspikes; these were all he could bring to bear. Fifty crowns were the reward of every volley. But there were no ammunition - waggons; and the few charges brought in men's arms were soon exhausted. A French officer, for want of anything better, rammed down one gun with his gloves, his wig, and a packet of French newspapers that he had with him. At last the foot appeared. The king ordered them to seize a height which overlooked And now Prince Alexander's hussars, which were at the head of the columns, rushed forward to the national cry of "God bless Poland!" The rest of the squadrons followed, led by all these palatins and senators, illustrious by nobility, by magnificence, by valour. At full speed they clear the ravine, where the infantry had hesitated, gallop up it, enter sword in hand the ranks of the foe, cutting the main body in two, and justifying the famous boast of that proud nobility to one of its kings: that with it there was no disaster possible, for if the sky were to fall, the hussars would hold it up on the points of their lances. the quarters of Kara-Mustapha. | constantly repeating. Then took The Count De Maligny, their place an eclipse of the moon ; commander, executed the order both armies saw the crescent pale with true French valour, and driv- in the sky. Heaven seemed to be ing in the advanced posts, was the taking part in this grand struggle. first to arrive on the redoubt. At this unexpected attack, hesitation showed itself among the hostile ranks. Kara-Mustapha brings in all the infantry of his right wing, and leaves his flanks uncovered; this movement agitates the whole line. The king exclaims that they are lost men. He sends to the Duke of Lorraine an order to attack briskly, bearing on the centre, now open and weakened, while he himself goes to fall upon the already disordered masses. Scarcely has he spoken before he is pushing right for that red tent, which stirred him up like a bull in the arena. Surrounded by his squadrons, recognisable by his brilliant plume, by his gold bow The shock was so severe, that in and quiver, by his royal spear, by it almost all those terrible lances the Homeric buckler which the were shivered. The Pachas of faithful Matczynski bears before Aleppo and Silistria perished in him, above all, by the enthusiasm this fray. At the extreme right, which the presence of their four other pachas fell under the glorious chief excites among this swords of Jablonowski. At the brave soldiery, he brandishes his same time Charles of Lorraine and framée in the first rank, repeating the Prince of Waldeck passing loudly this verse of the Prophet-through all those Christian troops king: Non nobis, non nobis, of the Principalities, the policy of Domine exercituum, sed nomini tuo da gloriam! The Tartars and the Spahis beheld him and recoiled; the name of the King of Poland was heard along the Otto man lines. For the first time they were convinced that he was present. "By Allah! the king is with them," Selim- Giéray kept whose hospodars was as changeable and fluctuating as the fidelity of their soldiers, turned the flank of the infidels, and threatened the camp close at hand. The grand interpreter, Mauro-Cordato, took to flight from the very tent of Kara-Mustapha. Fallen all at once from the height of his lofty confidence, the vizier could do nothing but burst into tears. "And thou," he said to the Khan of the Crimea, who came, carried away among the fugitives, "canst thou not help me?"—"I know well the King of Poland,” replied Selim-Giéray; "I told you that with him our only hope is in flight. Look up at the firmament," he added, "behold if God be not against us!" Kara-Mustapha, however, made an attempt to rally his troops, to bring them back into the camp, to put new spirit into them-but no! all was flight. He fled in his turn, after tearfully embracing his son. Defeated, panic-struck, scarcely daring to look up to the heaven which terrified it, the Mussulman host no longer existed. It was scattering in all directions. The cause of Europe, of Christianity, of civilisation, had triumphed. The wave of Ottoman power was rolling back in dread; it was rolling back for ever. THE BATTLE OF SEDGEMOOR. (Macaulay's History of England.) A.D. 1685. THE steeple of the parish church of Bridgewater is said to be the loftiest in Somersetshire, and commands a wide view over the surrounding country. Monmouth, accompanied by some of his officers, went up to the top of the square tower from which the spire ascends, and observed through a telescope the position of the enemy, Beneath him lay a flat expanse, now rich with cornfields and apple-trees, but then, as its name imports, for the most part a dreary morass. When the rains were heavy, and the Parret and its tributary streams rose above their banks, this tract was often flooded. It was indeed anciently a part of that great swamp which is renowned in our early chronicles as having arrested the progress of two successive races of invaders, which long protected the Celts against the aggressions of the King of Wessex, and which sheltered Alfred from the pursuit of the Danes. * * * On the open moor, not far from Chedzoy, were encamped several battalions * then of regular infantry. Monmouth looked gloomily on them. He could not but remember how, a few years before, he had, at the head of a column composed of some of those very men, driven before him in confusion the fierce enthusiasts who defended Bothwell Bridge. He could distinguish among the hostile ranks that gallant band which was called, from the name of its colonel, Dumbarton's regiment, but which has long been known as the first of the line, and which, in all the four quarters of the world, has nobly supported its early reputation. "I know those men," said Monmouth; "they will fight. If I had but them, all would go well!" Yet the aspect of the enemy was not altogether discouraging. The three divisions of the royal army lay far apart from one another. There was an appearance of negligence and of relaxed discipline in all their movements. It was reported that they were drinking themselves drunk with |