and beams are hailed down on the bold championhe regards them no more than if they were thistledown or feathers!" 13 Ha!" said Ivanhoe, raising himself joyfully on his couch, "methought there was but one man in England that might do such a deed!" The postern gate shakes," continued Rebecca; "it crashes-it is splintered by his blows-they rush in the outwork is won! O God!-they hurl the defenders from the battlements-they throw them into the moat. O be indeed men, men, if ye spare them that can resist no longer!" "The bridge the bridge which communicates with the castle-have they won that pass?" exclaimed Ivanhoe. "No," replied Rebecca; "the Templar has destroyed the plank on which they crossed. A few of the defenders have escaped with him into the castle the shrieks and cries which you hear tell the fate of the others. Alas! I see it is even more difficult to look upon victory than upon battle." "What do they now, maiden?" said Ivanhoe ;"look forth yet again—this is no time to faint at bloodshed." "It is over for the time," answered Rebecca; "our friends strengthen themselves within the outwork which they have mastered, and it affords them so good a shelter from the foemen's shot, that the garrison only bestow a few bolts on it from time to time, as if rather to disquiet than effectually to injure them." "Our friends," said Wilfred, "will surely not abandon an enterprise so gloriously begun and so happily attained. Oh, no! I will put my faith in the good knight whose axe hath rent heart-of-oak and bars of iron. Singular," he again muttered to himself, "if there be two who can do a deed of such derringdo!14 A fetterlock and shacklebolt on a field-sable—what may that mean? 15 Seest thou naught else, Rebecca, by which the Black Knight may be distinguished?" "Nothing," said the Jewess; "all about him is black as the wing of the night raven. Nothing can I spy that can mark him further;-but having once seen him put forth his strength in battle, methinks I could know him again among a thousand warriors. He rushes to the fray as if he were summoned to a banquet. There is more than mere strength, there seems as if the whole soul and spirit of the champion were given to every blow which he deals upon his enemies. God forgive him the sin of bloodshed!it is fearful, yet magnificent, to behold how the arm and heart of one man can triumph over hundreds." 'Bar'tisan, a small overhanging turret projecting from the angle of a tower or wall. Lat'tice, the framework of laths or bars with which the window was filled. 3 Post'ern gate-back or private gate. [Lat. post, after.] "Front-de-Bœuf: pronounce Frong de-Büf. 5 SIR WALTER SCOTT. 16 which the garrison made sallies, or sudden attacks on the besiegers. "Palisade, a fence formed of stakes pointed at the top. 9 A fet'terlock and shacklebolt aʼzure. This is what Rebecca called a bar of iron and a padlock painted blue," translated into the language of heraldry by Ivanhoe. Fetterlocks were fastened on the feet, shacklebolts on the wrists. Azure indicates that the device was painted blue; and it was on a black G Bar'bican, an outwork or detach-ground-field-sable, as Ivanhoe aftered fort, defending the entrance to a wards expresses it. castle. Moat, a trench surrounding a castle; often filled with water. 7 Sal'ly-port, a port or gate through 10 Embra'sure, loop-hole through which arrows were shot; now an open . ing in a wall through which cannon are fired. "Parapet, the wall which screened the soldiers of the garrison from the besiegers; lit. a breast-work. | here hints his belief that the Black Knight can be no other than King Richard himself, whose long imprisonment has plainly suggested the badge, or cognizance, on his shield. 16 Sir Walter Scott, poet and novel 12 Blench, become pale from fear; shrink. The meaning of Ivanhoe's ques-ist-born at Edinburgh in 1771-betion is, "Does he shrink from guiding the ship when the storm is at its height, and there is most need of a strong hand?" 13 But one man in England.-Ivanhoe refers to King Richard I. 14 Der'ringdo, desperate valour. came a lawyer: chief poems, Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, The Lady of the Lake, and The Lord of the Isles: author of the Waverley Novels: the above extract is from Ivanhoe, the most popular of his novels. - Lived at Abbotsford on the Tweed; died there in 1832. QUESTIONS.-Why was Ivanhoe unable to witness the assault? Who was tending him in prison? How was he made aware of what went on? What point was expected to be attacked first? What separated the barbican from the fortress? Who was the most conspicuous of the besiegers? What was the device upon his shield? With whom did he fight hand to hand in the breach made in the palisade? With what result? What advance did the besiegers then make? Who beat down the postern gate? What did Ivanhoe say when he heard of his valour? To whom did he refer? Why did not the besiegers reach the fortress? But what had they gained? TIME. (To be written from memory.) TIME's glory is to calm contending kings; To wrong the wronger, till he render right; And smear with dust their glittering golden towers: To blot old books, and alter their contents; To pluck the quills from ancient ravens' wings; SHAKESPEARE. PENNSYLVANIA. IT was not till the year 1682 that the uneventful but quietly prosperous career of Pennsylvania1 began. The Stuarts were again upon the throne of England. They had learned nothing from their exile; and now, with the hour of their final rejection at hand, they were as wickedly despotic as ever. William Penn was the son of an admiral2 who had gained victories for England, and enjoyed the favour of the royal family as well as of the eminent statesmen of his time. The highest honours of the State would in due time have come within the young man's reach, and the brightest hopes of his future were reasonably entertained by his friends. To the dismay of all, Penn became a Quaker. It was an unspeakable humiliation to the well-connected admiral. He turned his son out of doors, trusting that hunger would subdue his intractable spirit. After a time, however, he relented, and the youthful heretic was restored to favour. His father's influence could not shield him from persecution. Penn had suffered fine, and had lain in the Tower for his opinions. Ere long the admiral died, and Penn succeeded to his possessions. It deeply grieved him that his brethren in the faith should endure such wrongs as were continually inflicted upon them. He could do nothing at home to mitigate the severities under which they groaned. Therefore he formed the great design of leading them forth to a new world. King Charles II. had owed to the admiral a sum of £16,000 of arrears, and this doubtful investment had descended from the father to the son. Penn offered to take payment in land, and the king readily bestowed upon him a vast region stretching westward from the river Delaware.* Here Penn proposed to found a State free and self-governing. It was his noble ambition "to show men as free and as happy as they can be." He proclaimed to the people already settled in his new dominions that they should be governed by laws of their own making. "Whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire," he told them, "for the security and improvement of their own happiness, I shall heartily comply with." He was as good as his word. The people appointed representatives, by whom a Constitution was framed. Penn confirmed the arrangements which the people chose to adopt. Penn dealt justly and kindly with the Indians, and they requited him with a reverential love such as they evinced to no other Englishman. The neighbouring colonies waged bloody wars with the Indians who lived around them--now inflicting defeats which were almost exterminating-now sustaining hideous massacres. Penn's Indians were his children and most loyal subjects. No drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by Indian hand in the Pennsylvanian territory. The Soon after Penn's arrival, he invited the chief men of the Indian tribes to a conference. meeting took place beneath a huge elm-tree. The |