WOUNDED. By heaven! the foeman may track me in blood, "Well! well! I am rough, 'tis a very rough life-- When they came down the hill over sloughing and sand? Our men sprang upon them determined to die? God help the poor wretches who fell in the fight; 331 They fell by the score, in the crush, hand to hand, "Good heavens! this bullet-hole gapes like a grave! A curse on the aim of the traitorous knave! Is there never a one of you knows how to pray? Pray! Pray! "Our Father! our Father! why don't you proceed? "Our Father in Heaven-boys, tell me the rest, While I stanch the hot blood from this hole in my breast. "Here, Morris, old fellow, get hold of my hand, "Christ-God, who died for sinners all, Unheeded by thy gracious eye; Throw wide the gates to let him in, And take him pleading to thine arms; *And quiet all his fierce alarms." "God bless you, my comrade, for singing that hymn, I DARKNESS.-BYRON. HAD a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars Did wander, darkling, in the eternal space, Rayless and pathless, and the icy earth. Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air. Morn came and went-and came, and brought no day, And men forgot their passions, in the dread Of this their desolation; and all hearts Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light. And they did live by watch-fires; and the thrones, DARKNESS. The habitations of all things which dwell, Were burnt for beacons: cities were consumed, And men were gathered round their blazing homes, Happy were those who dwelt within the eye A fearful hope was all the world contained: The flashes fell upon them. Some lay down, Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up, With mad disquietude, on the dull sky, The pall of a past world; and then again, With curses, cast them down upon the dust, 333 And gnashed their teeth, and howled. The wild birds shrieked, And flap their useless wings: the wildest brutes And War, which for a moment was no more, Of famine fed upon all entrails. Men Died; and their bones were tombless as their flesh. Even dogs assailed their masters,-all save one, And he was faithful to a corse, and kept 334 DARKNESS. The birds, and beasts, and famished men at bay, And a quick, desolate cry, licking the hand The crowd was famished by degrees. But two And they were enemies. They met beside Where had been heaped a mass of holy things For an unholy usage. They raked up, And, shivering, scraped with their cold, skeleton hands, The feeble ashes; and their feeble breath Blew for a little life, and made a flame Each other's aspects--saw, and shrieked, and died; The world was void: The populous and the powerful was a lump, And nothing stirred within their silent depths. Ships, sailorless, lay rotting on the sea, And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropped They slept on the abyss, without a surge,—— The waves were dead: the tides were in their grave: Of aid from them-she was the universe. THE GLADIATOR. 335 STILLNES THE GLADIATOR.--CROLY. TILLNESS reigned in the vast amphitheatre, and from the countless thousands that thronged the spacious inclosure, not a breath was heard. Every tongue was mute with suspense, and every eye strained with anxiety toward the gloomy portal, where the gladiator was momentarily expected to enter. At length the trumpet sounded, and they led him forth into the broad arena. There was no mark of fear upon his manly countenance, as, with majestic step and fearless eye, he entered. He stood there, like another Apollo, firm and unbending as the rigid oak. His fine proportioned form was matchless, and his turgid muscles spoke his giant strength. "I am here," he cried, as his proud lip curled in scorn, " to glut the savage eyes of Rome's proud populace. Aye, like a dog you throw me to a beast; and what is my offence? Why, forsooth, I am a Christian. But know, ye cannot fright my soul, for it is based upon a foundation stronger than the adamantine rock. Know ye, whose hearts are harder than the flinty stone, my heart quakes not with fear; and here I aver, I would not change conditions with the blood-stained Nero, crowned though he be, not for the wealth of Rome. Blow ye your trumpet-I am ready." The trumpet sounded, and a long, low growl was heard to proceed from the cage of a half-famished Numidian lion, situated at the farthest end of the arena. The growl deepened into a roar of tremendous volume, which shook the enormous edifice to its very centre. At that moment the door was thrown open, and the huge monster of the forest sprung from his den, with one mighty bound, to the opposite side of the arena. His eyes blazed with the brilliancy of fire, as he slowly drew his length along the sand, and prepared to make a spring upon his formidable antagonist. The gladiator's eye quailed not: his lip paled not; but he stood, immovable as a statue, waiting the approach of his wary foe. At length, the lion crouched himself into an attitude for springing, and with the quickness of lightning, leaped full at the throat of the gladiator. But he was prepared for him, and bounding lightly on one side, his falchion flashed for a moment over his head, and in the next it was deeply dyed in the purple blood of |