We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,

That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,
And we far away on the billow!

Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him;
But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on,
In the grave where a Briton has laid him!

But half of our heavy task was done,

When the clock tolled the hour for retiring; And we heard the distant and random gun That the foe was sullenly firing.

Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory!
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,
But we left him alone in his glory.

SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES

1. Why does not the poet praise the hero?

2. Why was the hero denied the honor of a soldier's burial?

3. Explain "useless coffin."

4. Why were the prayers "few and short"?

5. Why did the soldiers speak "not a word of sorrow"?

6. Why "bitterly thought of the morrow"?

7. Why think of the foe and stranger treading o'er his head?

8. Then why not bury him at sea?

9. Explain the two lines beginning, "But little he'll reck."

10. Why "heavy task"?

11. Why "carved not a line" nor raised a stone?

12. In what sense did they leave him alone in his glory?

13. Re-read the poem and select those expressions that indicate a hasty burial.

14. What touches reveal the intense loyalty of his soldiers? 15. In what respect does this poem contain a greater tribute than a costly marble memorial?

REFERENCES

The historical introduction is given here because the histories containing the story are not easily accessible to the average pupil. The complete record of this feature of the Peninsular Campaign is given in the following references:

KNIGHT: Crown History of England.

NAPIER: History of the War in the Peninsula.

FoY: History of the War in the Peninsula.

GLEIG: Eminent British Military Commanders. General Sir John Moore.

JOMINI: Life of Napoleon. Ch. 13.

BURNS: Bannockburn.

GILDER: Burial of Grant.

ALEXANDER: Burial of Moses.

ALBEE: A Soldier's Grave.

BOKER: Dirge for a Soldier.

CAMPBELL: A Soldier's Dream.

RILEY: The Silent Victors. The Old Man and Jim.

O'HARA: The Bivouac of the Dead.

FINCH: The Blue and the Gray.

WHITMAN: O Captain! My Captain!

TENNYSON: Ode to the Duke of Wellington. Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead.

HART: John Burns of Gettysburg.

BRYANT: The Battlefield.

PRAYER

More things are wrought by prayer

Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day.

For what are men better than sheep and goats

That nourish a blind life within the brain,

If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer

Both for themselves and those who call them friend? For so the whole round earth is every way

Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.

-Alfred Tennyson.

THE

THE RETURN OF REGULUS

ELIJAH KELLOGG

HE story of Regulus, as told by the Roman poets, is familiar to all who have read the history of the long, fierce struggles between the ancient cities of Rome and Carthage. Regulus and Manlius, the Roman consuls, were sent with a large fleet and a land army of a hundred forty thousand men against the hated Carthaginians. For nine years a bitter war had been waged between these two great rivals. The new Roman fleet was at once victorious against a larger fleet of the enemy. Under Regulus, the land forces gained many victories and captured many towns. Finally Xanthippus, a Spartan general, taught the Carthaginians to fight with elephants and bands of cavalry in the open plain. The result was, the Roman army was destroyed and Regulus was taken prisoner. After five years, when a decided Roman victory forced Carthage to sue for peace, the Carthaginians sent Regulus with their envoys to arrange the terms of peace. Regulus at first refused to enter Rome, since he was no longer a citizen. After this conscientious scruple was overcome, he refused to give his opinion in the senate until commanded to do so. Professor Botsford, in his History of the Ancient World, says:

"When finally he was persuaded to address the senate, he advised that body not to make peace or to

ransom the captives, but to let them die in the land where they had disgraced themselves by surrender. Thus they would serve as an example to others; he would himself return and share their fate. In vain the senators remonstrated against this decision. While departing from Rome he kept his eyes fixed on the ground that he might not see his wife and children. Then, returning to Carthage in accordance with his oath, he is said to have suffered death by torture."

The common story is that he was put into a cask pierced with nails, whose points projected inward, and that he was rolled about in this cask until he expired.

The following story gives a fine interpretation of the sentiments which inspired the heart of the ancient patriot. In speaking of the story of Regulus, Professor Botsford concludes:

"It is a picture of a man who was absolutely faithful to his plighted word, of a stern patriot ready to sacrifice himself and his fellow-captives for what he believed to be his country's good, of a strongwilled man who knew his fate and walked resolutely to meet it."

THE RETURN OF REGULUS

The beams of the rising sun had gilded the lofty domes of Carthage, and given, with its rich and mellow light, a tinge of beauty even to the frowning ramparts of the outer harbor. Sheltered by the verdant shores, a hundred triremes were riding proudly at their anchors, their brazen

beaks glittering in the sun, their streamers dancing in the morning breeze, while many a shattered plank and timber gave evidence of desperate conflict with the fleets of Rome.

No murmur of business or of revelry arose from the city. The artisan had forsaken his shop, the judge his tribunal, the priest the sanctuary, and even the stern stoic had come forth from his retirement to mingle with the crowd that, anxious and agitated, were rushing toward the senate-house, startled by the report that Regulus had returned to Carthage.

Onward, still onward, trampling each other under foot, they rushed, furious with anger, and eager for revenge. Fathers were there, whose sons were groaning in fetters; maidens, whose lovers, weak and wounded, were dying in the dungeons of Rome, and gray-haired men and matrons, whom the Roman sword had left childless.

But when the stern features of Regulus were seen, and his colossal form towering above the ambassadors who had returned with him from Rome; when the news passed from lip to lip that the dreaded warrior, so far from advising the Roman senate to consent to an exchange of prisoners, had urged them to pursue, with exterminating vengeance, Carthage and Carthaginians,- the multitude swayed to and fro like a forest beneath a tempest, and the rage and hate of that tumultuous throng vented itself in groans, and curses, and yells of vengeance.

But calm, cold, and immovable as the marble walls around him, stood the Roman; and he stretched out his hand over that frenzied crowd, with gesture as proudly commanding as though he still stood at the head of the gleaming cohorts of Rome. The tumult ceased; the curse, half muttered, died upon the lip; and so intense was the silence, that the clanking of the brazen manacles upon the wrists of the captive fell sharp and full upon every ear in that vast assembly, as he thus addressed them:

"Ye doubtless thought-for ye judge of Roman virtue by your own that I would break my plighted oath, rather than, returning, brook your vengeance. I might give reasons for this, in Punic comprehension, most foolish