Through many a stage of horrors had they past,
The climax this, the direst and the last ;
Albeit unused o'er others' griefs to moan,

Soon shall they purchase feeling from their own.
From flank to centre, and from rear to van,
The billowing, crackling conflagration ran

Wraps earth in sulphurous wave, and now the skies
With tall colossal magnitude defies;

Extends her base, while sword and spear retire,
Weak as the bulrush to the lava's ire.

Long had that circle, belted wide and far
By burnished helm, and bristling steel of war,
Presented hideous to the Gallic host

One blazing sea, one adamantine coast!

High o'er their heads the bickering radiance towers,
Or falls from clouds of smoke in scorching showers :
Beneath their crimson concave long they stood
Like bordering pines when lightning fires the wood.
And as they hemmed that grim horizon in,
Each read in each the terrors of the scene;
Some feared accusing conscience waked the fear-
The DAY of wrath and retribution near,

Deemed that they heard that thundering VOICE pro

claim,

"Thou moon to blood be turned, thou earth to flame!"

Red-robed Destruction far and wide extends Her thousand arms, and summons all her fiends To glut their fill, a gaunt and ghastly brood! Their food is carnage, and their drink is blood;

Their music, woe; nor did the feast of hell
Fit concert want - the conqueror's savage yell
Their groans and shrieks, whom sickness, age, or
wound,

Or changeless, fearless love. in fatal durance bound.

While valour sternly sighs, while beauty weeps, And vengeance, soon to wake like Sampson, sleeps, Shrouded in flame, th' Imperial City low

Like Dagon's temple falls! -but falls to crush the foe!

THE NORTHERN STAR.

THE Northern Star

Sailed o'er the bar,

Bound to the Baltic sea;

In the morning grey

She stretched away

'T was a weary day to me.

And many an hour

In sleet and shower,

By the light-house rock I stray,

Set in the raging sea;

And the billows spread

O'er the sandy bed,

That holds thy love from thee!

EVENING PRAYER AT A GIRL'S SCHOOL.

BY MRS. HEMANS.

HUSH! 'tis a holy hour - the quiet room
Seems like a temple, while yon soft lamp sheds
A faint and starry radiance, through the gloom
And the sweet stillness, down on bright young
heads,

With all their clustering locks, untouched by Care, And bowed, as flowers are bowed with night — in prayer.

Gaze on

't is lovely!-childhood's lip and cheek, Mantling beneath its earnest brow of thoughtGaze

- yet what seest thou in those fair, and meek, And fragile things, as but for sunshine wrought? Thou seest what grief must nurture for the sky, What death must fashion for eternity!

Oh! joyous creatures, that will sink to rest,
Lightly, when those pure orisons are done,
As birds with slumber's honey-dew oppressed,
'Midst the dim folded leaves, at set of sun
Lift up your hearts! though yet no sorrow lies
Dark in the summer heaven of those clear eyes;

86 EVENING PRAYER AT A GIRL'S SCHOOL.

Though fresh within your breasts th' untroubled springs

Of hope make melody where'er ye tread ; And o'er your sleep bright shadows, from the wings Of spirits visiting but youth, be spread; Yet in those flute-like voices, mingling low, Is woman's tenderness - how soon her woe!

Her lot is on you silent tears to weep,

And patient smiles to wear through suffering's

hour,

And sumless riches, from affections deep,

To pour on broken reeds a wasted shower!

And to make idols, and to find them clay,

And to bewail that worship

therefore pray!

Her lot is on you to be found untired,

Watching the stars out by the bed of pain,
With a pale cheek, and yet a brow inspired,
And a true heart of hope, though hope be vain
Meekly to bear with wrong, to cheer decay,

And oh! to love through all things therefore pray!

And take the thought of this calm vesper time,

With its low murmuring sounds and silvery light, On through the dark days fading from their prime, As a sweet dew to keep your souls from blight: Earth will forsake -oh! happy to have given Th' unbroken heart's first fragrance unto heaven!