'Other Romans shall arise,

Heedless of a soldier's name;

Sounds, not arms, shall win the prize,
Harmony the path to fame.'

'Then the progeny that springs

From the forests of our land,
Armed with thunder, clad with wings,
Shall a wider world command.2

'Regions Cæsar never knew

Thy posterity shall sway;
Where his eagles never flew,
None invincible as they.' '3

Such the bard's prophetic words,
Pregnant with celestial fire,
Bending as he swept the chords
Of his sweet but awful lyre.

She with all a monarch's pride
Felt them in her bosom glow;
Rushed to battle, fought and died,
Dying, hurled them at the foe.

'Ruffians, pitiless as proud,

Heaven awards the vengeance due;

Empire is on us bestowed.

Shame and ruin wait on you.'

Europe, who are here referred to as Gauls, this great empire was broken up and the city of Rome plundered, A.D. 409.

1 In reference to the modern Italians, who are famous as musicians. 2 Meaning that the descendants of the ancient Britons would possess ships armed with guns and clad with sails.

In parts of the world

3 The eagle was the ensign of the Romans. where the Romans had never been known, the descendants of the ancient Britons would rule supreme.

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. (Punch.)

THE Polar clouds uplift

A moment and no more-
And through the snowy drift
We see them on the shore;
A band of gallant hearts,

Well-ordered, calm, and brave,
Braced for their closing parts-
Their long march to the grave.

1 By permission.

Through the snow's dazzling blink
Into the dark they've gone;

No pause; the weaker sink,
The strong can but move on,
Till all the dreary way

Is dotted with their dead,
And the shy foxes play

About each sleeping head.

Unharmed the wild deer run
To graze along the strand,
Nor dread the loaded gun
Beside each sleeping hand.
The remnant that survive
Onward like drunkards reel,
Scarce wotting1 if alive,
But for the pangs they feel.

The river of their hope 2

At length is drawing nigh-
Their snow-blind way they grope,
And reach its banks-to die!
Thank God, brave Franklin's3 place
Was empty in that band!

1 Wotting, knowing (Old Eng, witan, to know).

2 The Great Fish River.

3 Sir John Franklin, the famous Arctic explorer, sailed on his last expedition to the Northern seas in May 1845. His ships-the 'Erebus' and Terror'-were seen the following July; but from that time, although numerous search-expeditions were sent out, nothing was heard of them till 1857, when Capt. McClintock discovered relics and records showing that the ships had been frozen up, that Sir John had died, warm aboard his ship,' on June 11, 1847, and that the ships had been abandoned by their crews-105 in number-the following spring. In attempting to reach the American coast they all perished,' all the dreary way' being 'dotted with their dead.'

THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB.

(BYRON.)

Lord Byron was born in London in 1788. When he was two years of age his mother retired to her native city of Aberdeen, and he attended school there till 1798, when his grand-uncle died and he succeeded to the title and estates. He was then sent to Harrow, and in due time proceeded to Cambridge University. Soon after leaving Cambridge he published his first volume of poems- Hours of Idleness.' This was severely criticised by the Edinburgh Review,' to which he replied with English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. A two-years' tour on the Continent followed, during which time he wrote the first two parts of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and a series of Eastern tales The Giaour,' · Lara,' The Bride of Abydos,'The Corsair,' &c. He married in 1815, but the marriage was an unhappy one; and he again left England never to return. During this period of his wanderings in the south of Europe he wrote the third and fourth parts of 'Childe Harold,''The Prisoner of Chillon,' Manfred.' 'Mazeppa,' &c. In 1823 he joined the Greeks in their War of Independence, and died of fever the following year at Missolonghi. He was a man of great ability and fine poetic taste.

THE Assyrian1 came down like a wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts 2 were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen;
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strewn.

For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed on the face of the foe as he passed;

6

1 The Assyrian. Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand ; and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses' (Isaiah xxvii. 36, and 2 Kings xix. 35).

2 Cohorts, bodies of foot soldiers.