Ah, blessed vision! blood of God! When on my goodly charger borne The tempest crackles on the leads, And, ringing, springs from brand and mail; But o'er the dark a glory spreads, And gilds the driving hail. I leave the plain, I climb the height; A maiden knight-to me is given I muse on you that will not cease, Whose odors haunt my dreams; This weight and size, this heart and eyes, The clouds are broken in the sky, Swells up, and shakes and falls. So pass I hostel, hall, and grange; By bridge and ford, by park and pale, All-armed I ride, whate'er betide, Until I find the Holy Grail. BOADICEA. WILLIAM Cowper. WHEN the British warrior queen, Sage beneath a spreading oak Princess, if our aged eyes Weep upon thy matchless wrongs, 'Tis because resentment ties All the terrors of our tongues. Rome shall perish - write that word In the blood that she has spilt; Perish hopeless, and abhorred, Deep in ruin as in guilt. Rome, for empire far renowned, Tramples on a thousand states; Soon her pride shall kiss the groundHark! The Gaul is at her gates. 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. Regions Cæsar never knew, Thy posterity shall sway; Where his eagles never flew Such the bard's prophetic words, She, with all a monarch's pride, Felt them in her bosom glow: Rushed to battle, fought and died; Ruffians, pitiless as proud, Heaven awards the vengeance due; THE WATCH ON THE RHINE. MAX SCHNECKENBURGER. TRANSLATION BY G. F. DUNNING. A VOICE resounds like thunder-peal, 'Mid dashing waves and clang of steel, "The Rhine! the Rhine! the German Rhine! Who guards to-day my stream divine?" Dear Fatherland! No danger thine: Firm stand thy sons to watch the Rhine. They stand, a hundred thousand strong, Dear Fatherland! No danger thine: And though in death our hopes decay, Dear Fatherland! No danger thine: From yon blue sky are bending now "As long as German hearts are free Firm stand thy sons to watch the Rhine. "While flows one drop of German blood, Our oath resounds; the river flows; THE PRUSSIAN ARMISTICE. LEON GAMBETTA. EXTRACTS. TRANSLATION ANONYMOUS. CITIZENS,- The foreigner is about to inflict on France the most cruel injury which it has been given him to attempt during this cursed war, a punishment unmeasurably beyond the errors and weaknesses of a great people. Paris, impregnable to force, vanquished by |