Then came arraignments, and trials, and pleadings; and the whole country was in a ferment about this unfortunate queue. As it is well known that the commander of distant frontier posts, has the power of acting pretty much after his own will, there is little doubt that the veteran would have been hanged, or shot, at least, had he not luckily fallen ill of a fever, through mere chagrin and mortification, and most flagitiously deserted from earthly command, with his beloved locks unviolated. His obstinacy remained unshaken to the very last moment, when he directed that he should be carried to his grave with his eel-skin queue sticking out of a hole in his coffin!

EXERCISE CVI.

SCENE FROM GUSTAVUS VASA. Brooke.

Gustavus Vasa, Sivard, and Swedish Peasants.

Gustavus. Ye men of Sweden, wherefore are ye come? See ye not, yonder, how the locusts swarm,

To drink the fountains of your honor up,

And leave your hills a desert! Wretched men!
Why come ye forth? Is this a time for sport?
Or are ye met with song and jovial feast,

To welcome your new guests, your Danish visitants?
To stretch your supple necks beneath their feet,
And fawning lick the dust? Go, go my countrymen,
Each to your several mansions, trim them out,
Cull all the tedious earnings of your toil,
To purchase bondage. O Swedes! Swedes!
Heavens! are ye men, and will ye suffer this?
There was a time, my friends, a glorious time,
When had a single man of your forefathers,
Upon the frontiers, met a host in arms,

His courage scarce had turned; himself had stood,
Alone had stood, the bulwark of his country.
Come, come ye on, then. Here I take my stand!
Here, on the brink, the very verge of liberty:
Although contention rise upon the clouds,

Mix heaven with earth, and roll the ruin onward,
Here will I fix, and breast me to the shock,
Till I or Denmark fall.

Sivard. And who art thou

That thus wouldst swallow all the glory up
That should redeem the times?

The sword has tilled it; and the

Behold this breast!

stripes of slaves

Shall ne'er trace honor here, shall never blot

The fair inscription. Never shall the cords
Of Danish insolence bind down these arms,
That bore my royal master from the field!

Gust. Ha! Say you, brother? Were you there ? — Oh! grief!

Where liberty and Stenon fell together?

Siv. Yes, I was there. A bloody field it was,
Where conquest gasped, and wanted breath to tell
Its o'er-toiled triumph. There our bleeding king, —
There Stenon on this bosom made his bed,
And, rolling back his dying eyes upon me,-
6 Soldier,' he cried, "if e'er it be thy lot
To see my gallant cousin, great Gustavus,
Tell him, for once,

that I have fought like him,

And would like him have conquered.'

Gust. O Danes, Danes!

You shall weep blood for this! Shall they not, brother?
Yes, we will deal our might with thrifty vengeance,

A life for every blow; and, when we fall,

There shall be weight in 't, like the tottering towers,

That draw contiguous ruin.

Siv. Brave, brave man!

My soul admires thee. By my father's spirit,
I would not barter such a death as this

For immortality! Nor we alone,

Here be the trusty gleanings of that field,

Where last we fought for freedom: here's rich poverty,
Though wrapped in rags, my fifty brave companions;
Who through the force of fifteen thousand foes
Bore off their king, and saved his great remains.
Gust. Why, captain,

We could but die alone, with these we 'll conquer.
My fellow-laborers, too. What say ye, friends?

Shall we not strike for it?

Peasants. Death! Victory or death! No bonds! no bonds! Gust. Approach, my fellow-soldiers, your Gustavus Claims no precedence here.

Haste, brave men!

Collect your friends, to join us on the instant;

Summon our brethren to their share of conquest;
And let loud echo, from her circling hills,
SoundFreedom!' till the undulation shake
The bounds of utmost Sweden.

We

We may not mourn over the departure of such men. should rather hail it as a kind dispensation of Providence, to affect our hearts with new and livelier gratitude. They were not cut off in the bloom of their days, while yet the vigor of manhood flushed their cheeks, and the harvest of glory was ungathered. They fell not, as martys fall, seeing only in dim perspective the salvation of their country. They lived to enjoy the blessings earned by their labors, and to realize all which their fondest hopes had desired. The infirmities of life stole slowly and silently upon them, leaving still behind a cheerful serenity of mind.

In peace, in the bosom of domestic affection, in the hallowed reverence of their countrymen, in the full possession of their faculties, they wore out the last remains of life, without a fear to cloud, with scarcely a sorrow to disturb, its close. The joyful day of our Jubilee came over them with refreshing influence. To them, indeed, it was a great and good day.' The morning sun shone with softened lustre on their closing eyes. Its evening beams played lightly on their brows, calm in all the dignity of death. Their spirits escaped from these frail tenements without a struggle or a groan. Their death was gentle as an infant's sleep. It was a long, lingering twi light, melting into the softest shade.

Fortunate men, so to have lived, and so to have died! Fortunate, to have gone hand in hand in the deeds of the Revolution. Fortunate, in the generous rivalry of middle life. Fortunate, in deserving and receiving the highest honors of their country. Fortunate, in old age, to have rekindled their ancient friendship with a holier flame. Fortunate, to have passed through the dark valley of the shadow of death together. Fortunate, to be indissolubly united in the memory and affections of their countrymen. Fortunate, above all, in an immortality of virtuous fame.

Every scene of riot in America, will, no doubt, be quoted in Europe, as an argument against republicanism and toleration. We might reply, that these are not the results of freedom any more than of despotism, and that, with all their iron force and their narrow suffrages, they have their outbreaks, riots, and civil wars. Still, with them, many of these movements are dignified as efforts for freedom. The fires that light the roofs of factory towns, the yeoman's resistance to tolls, the chartist's demand for bread or blood, however contrary to the existing order, may be the endeavors of the oppressed and the needy against privileged classes or odious customs. But with us, rebellion is suicidal. It is the members warring with the body. It is freemen attacking free institutions. We all feel, that an extension of such outbreaks would be not only fatal to our own peace, but to the cause of human liberty, the principle of human equality. Let us each, then, be provided against such a result, by cherishing the deepest reverence for social order; by the maintenance, at all sacrifices of feeling, of the great authority that binds and secures all our interests.

My friends, I am no alarmist, nor disposed to predict the failure of our great experiment for freedom and human rights, here, in the Western World. But let us not be insanely con

fident of the permanence of our institutions. Let us not imagine that our republic will be preserved by miracle. Republics have fallen in days gone by,- splendid, powerful republics. The crash of their fall echoes on the ear of ages. may see their ruins now, magnificent even in decay.

We

Like causes will produce like effects, the wide world over, and through all time. Let us not rest upon the glorious promises of the past, nor its memorable deeds. Let us not think our cause impregnable, because it was baptized with prayer, -because great men, like Penn and Washington, were its pioneers. It is just as durable as Virtue, as Principle, as reverence for Right, is durable in the hearts of the people. It has no roots in the ashes of the dead. It lives in the vital force of the acting generation, it lives with their morality, their truth, their righteousness:- it dies when these die out. Let these dwindle and rot, and we are sure to perish as ever a nation perished in the past. And with all our advantages and all our anticipations deepening the shame of our fall, others will clap their hands at us, and hiss, and wag their heads, saying, 'Is this the land of great experiments and lofty principles, of glorious promise and unprecedented opportunities?'

Having determined, with a view to improving the condition of his people, to visit, in person, several countries of Europe, Peter appointed an embassy extraordinary on a grand scale, to proceed, in the first instance, to the Statesgeneral of Holland, and resolved to accompany it himself, incognito, in the character of a private gentleman, attached to the embassy.

Having reached Emmerie, on the Rhine, the czar, impatient to arrive at his destination, left the embassy, and, having hired a small boat, proceeded to Amsterdam, through which he flew like lightning, and never once stopped till he arrived at Zaandam,* fifteen days before the embassy reached Amsterdam.

* Sometimes, but incorrectly, spelled Saardam.