ASSYRIAN BATTLE SCENE.

O'ER all the plain th' Assyrian camp-fires now
Blaze high; and with the darkness a drear red
Strangely commingle. Like a burning gulf,
Sleeping till stirr'd by winds; the heaving mass
Of warriors at the mountain's foot appears;
Breast-plates, and shields, and helms, and gonfalons,
Glow blood-red here and there; but doubly dark
Elsewhere the night. Now, toward the hills all haste;
If Medes alone, or with Assyrians mixed,

I cannot know; but rapid is the speed.
The light increases up the mountain's side,
In the red darkness faintly I discern

The slumbering myriads; and towards its foot
Onward they come; like billows of dark fire.
But farther off, in one bright blaze, the camp
Shines out a countless multitude I see,
In flaming armor pouring o'er the plain.
Like ocean glittering 'neath the ruddy sun,
The wide field flashes; like the ocean's roar
Their clamors rise.

Among the trees a crash
-a heaving of the branches. Lights
Are thickening near the hill. Ha! now I see

I hear,

They rend the boughs for torches. In his hand
Each soldier bears a branch of blazing pine.

They speed toward the heights: they shake the torch:
They wave the sword; like running flame they seem.
Now up the steep they urge. A cloud of darts
And arrows from the Medes upon them pours,—
A fiery cloud; and stones are hurled-and spears ;-
Yet upward still they come.
The watch-fires now

Are flaming on the hills: distinctly gleams
The battle forth. Their torches they cast down;
Not needed now. Ha! by his star-like helm,
Assyria's king appears. He shouts he flies:
He points towards the rocks ;-he waves them on.
A warrior meets him: sword with sword they fight-
Arabia's monarch, sure.-But both are lost,-
The waves of fight roll o'er them-

Meantime, along the sapphire bridge of heaven,
Far, far beyond the canopy of cloud

That mantled earth, the day-god's lightning steeds
Through the pure ether rapt his chariot-wheels,
Sounding harmonious thunder. To the height
They had ascended; and the steep decline
Half-way had measured; yet the hard-fought field

12

THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS.

Still was contested; for, like men resolved
On that one day to peril all to come-
To die, perchance, but never to submit-
The Assyrian captains strove; and, with like fire,
Their soldiers' hearts inflamed. Aid too had come-
Chariots, and horse, and foot; who, when the scale,
Charged with Assyria's doom, was sinking fast,
Twice had its fall arrested. Once again,
When seemed that utter ruin hovered nigh,
The chariot of Assyria's beauteous queen
From rank to rank flew on: and, as they saw,
The warriors' breast, as with new soul infused,
Like beacons freshly kindled, burst at once
Into intensest flame. Unhelmed, unarmed,
Her ebon hair loose flying in the wind,
She raised aloft her arms, her voice uplift,
And bade them on to glory. As the star
Of morning, while the sun yet sleeps below,
And the grey mist is on the dewy earth,
Her face was pale and radiant. Like a shape
From heaven descended, and to mortal harm
Impassive, gloriously and fearlessly

Through the death-laden air she flew along.
Her spirit fired the host; with deafening shouts
Onward they bore; and, for a time, the Medes
Compelled, though slowly, backward.

-ATHERSTONE.

THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS.

(B.C. 480.)

CONFIDENT therefore in their strength, and urged by the common necessity of invaders to push vigorous measures, the Persians were impatient for decision. Accident seems to have

made the Greeks at last the assailants; and thus perhaps contributed not a little to the greatness of their success. By daybreak, it is said, on the twentieth of October, in the four hundred and eightieth year before the Christian era, they had formed their fleet in order of battle. The Athenians, on the right, were opposed to the Phoenician squadron; the Lacedæmonians, on the left, to the Ionian. As the sun rose trumpets sounded, pæans were sung, and the Grecian leaders endeavored by all means to excite that animation among their people which their own divided and hesitating counsels had so tended to repress. A trireme galley returning from Ægina, excluded

from the Grecian fleet by the enemy's line, and nevertheless endeavoring to pass was attacked. An Athenian galley commanded by Aminias, brother of the poet Eschylus, advanced to her rescue: others followed: then the Æginetans moved, and the battle soon became general.

The onset was vigorous on both sides. But space did not suffice for the Persians to bring their whole fleet regularly into action, nor for the Phoenicians, in particular, to profit from the superior swiftness of their galleys and skill of their seamen. The Athenians and Æginetans therefore, after a sharp contest, broke the part of the Persian line first engaged. Numbers of galleys, yet out of action, pressed to its support. Among the various nations who composed the Persian fleet, commanded in chief by Persian officers little versed in naval business, while the vast army which lined the Attic shore, with the sovereign of the East at its head were witnesses of the scene, zeal itself contributed to disorder. Damage and loss of oars, and wounds in the hull from the beaks of their own galleys, ensued; while the Athenians and Æginetans, forgetting their late enmity, or remembering it only as an incentive to generous emulation, with the most animated exertion preserved the steadiest discipline. Shortly the sea itself became scarcely visible for the quantity of wreck and floating bodies. Such is the strong expression of the poet who himself fought in the Athenian squadron. In the meantime the business was easier to the Lacedæmonians and other Greeks in the left wing. Some of the Ionian officers exerted themselves to earn the favor of the monarch whom they served; but others were zealously disposed to the cause of the confederates. The confusion arising, thus and variously otherwise in the Persian fleet, spread and rapidly became general and extreme. All their galleys which could disengage themselves fled, Some were taken; many were sunk; and numbers of the crews, inland men, unpractised in swimming, were drowned. Among those who perished were very many of high rank, who had been forward to distinguish themselves, in this new species of war, under their monarch's

According to Herodotus, Ariabignes, brother of Xerxes, and admiral of the fleet, was among the killed; but he is not mentioned by Eschylus. Forty Grecian galleys are said to have been sunk, or otherwise destroyed: but the crews mostly saved themselves aboard other ships, or on the neighboring

nians, put all the Persians there to the sword, u eye of Xerxes, who, with his immense army arou afford them no assistance.

In considering Herodotus's account of this m fight we find not less reason than on former occasi his scrupulous honesty and modesty. His narrativ and incomplete, as all faithful narratives of great be, unless some eye-witness, very peculiarly qualifi ledge and situation be the relater. It is therefo regret, not indeed that Æschylus was a poet, but writing was yet in his age so little common that sketch of this great transaction is the most autho clearest and the most consistent of any that has pa terity. Concerning a day however so glorious, s interesting to Greece, and particularly to Athens would of course abound and a historian, a few later, desirous to shine in description rather than t truth, could not have wanted materials. Anecdote particular circumstances in great battles may often b cated; and to those Herodotus has chiefly confin avoiding a detail of the battle at large, with an ex ration that he could obtain none upon which he Among his anecdotes, one is too remarkable and of fame to be omitted. The queen of Halicarnassus, aft extraordinary bravery during the action, being amo who fled, was closely pursued by the Athenian gal Aminias commanded. In this extremity, at a loss refuge, she suddenly turned against the nearest gal Persian fleet, which happened to be that of Dama prince of Calynda in Lycia, with whom she is said to upon terms not of perfect friendship and taking h unprepared for such an attempt, the stroke of the be galley against the side of his was so violent and so w that the vessel instantly sunk, and the Calyndian p his crew were at the mercy of the enemy and the wave nias, in the hurry of the moment, without means for concluding from what he had seen that Artemisia's ga either one of the confederate fleet, or one that had de it, turned his pursuit toward other vessels, and the

Halicarnassus escaped. According to Herodotus, though in this instance we may have difficulty to give him entire credit, Xerxes, from the shore where he sat, saw, admired, and anplauded the exploit. -MITFORD.

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.

WITH heat o'erlabor'd and the length of way.
On Ethan's beach the bands of Israel lay.
'Twas silence all, the sparkling sands along;
Save where the locust trill'd her feeble song,
Or blended soft in drowsy cadence fell
The wave's low whisper, or the camel's bell.-
'Twas silence all !-the flocks for shelter fly
Where, waving light, the acacia shadows lie;
Or where, from far, the flattering vapors make
The noontide semblance of a misty lake:
While the mute swain, in careless safety spread,
With arms enfolded, and dejected head,
Dreams o'er his wondrous call, his lineage high,
And, late reveal'd, his children's destiny.-
For, not in vain, in thraldom's darkest hour,
Had sped from Amram's sons the word of power;
Nor fail'd, the dreadful wand, whose godlike sway
Could lure the locust from her airy way:
With reptile war assail their proud abodes,
And mar the giant pomp of Egypt's gods.
Oh, helpless gods! who nought avail'd to shiel
From fiery rain your Zoan's favour'd field !—
Oh, helpless gods, who saw the curdled blood
Taint the pure love of your ancient flood,
And four-fold might the wondering earth enchain,
While Memnon's orient harp was heard in vain !—
Such musings held the tribe, till now the west
With milder influence on their temples prest;
And that portentous cloud, which all the day
Hung its dark curtain o'er their weary way,
(A cloud by day, a friendly flame by night,)

Roll'd back its misty veil, and kindled into light !—
Soft fell the eve --But, ere the day was done,
Tall waving banners streak'd the level sun;

And wide and dark along the horizon red,

In sandy surge the rising desert spread.—

66

Mark, Israel, mark !"-On that strange sight intent, In breathless terror, every eye was bent;

And busy factions fast-increasing hum,

And female voices shriek, "They come! they come !"
They come, they come, in scintillating show