Then lightly rose that loyal son, and bounded on his steed, And urged, as if with lance in hand, his charger's foaming speed. 3. And lo! from far, as on they pressed, there came a glittering band, With one that 'mid them stately rode, as "Now haste, Bernardo, haste! for there, in is he, [the land: a leader in very truth, The father whom thy grateful heart hath yearned so long to see." 4. His dark eye flashed, his proud breast heaved, his cheek's blood came and went ;. He reached that gray-haired chieftain's side, and there dismounting, bent : A lowly knee to earth he bent, his father's hand he took ; What was there in its touch that all his fiery spirit shook ? 5. That hand was cold, a frozen thing-it dropped from his like lead; He looked up to the face above-the face was of the dead; A plume waved o'er that noble brow-the brow was fixed and white; He met at length his father's eyes, but in them was no sight! 6. Up from the ground he sprung, and gazed; but who can paint that gaze? They hushed their very hearts who saw its horror and amaze : They might have chained him, as before that noble form he stood; For the power was stricken from his arm, and from his cheek the blood. 7." Father!" at length he murmured low, and wept like childhood then Talk not of grief till thou hast seen the tears of warlike men He thought on all his glorious hopes, on all his high renown; Then flung the falchion from his side, and in the dust sat down; 8. And, covering with his steel-gloved hand his darkly mournful brow, "No more, there is no more," he said, "to lift the sword for now; My king is false! my hope betrayed! my father-oh! the worth, The glory, and the loveliness, are passed away from earth!" 9. Up from the ground he sprung once more, and seized the monarch's rein, Amid the pale and wildered looks of all the courtier train ; And with a fierce, o'ermastering grasp, the rearing war-horse led, And sternly set them face to face—the king before the dead! 10."Came I not forth upon thy pledge, my father's hand to kiss?— [what is this? Be still, and gaze thou on, false king! and tell me The voice, the glance, the heart I sought-give answer, where are they? If thou wouldst clear thy perjured soul, send life through this cold clay ! 11."Into these glassy eyes put light-be still, keep down thine ire ![my sire! Bid these white lips a blessing speak-this earth is not Give me back him for whom I strove, for whom my blood was shed! Thou canst not?-and a king!-His dust be mountains on thy head!" 12. He loosed the steed-his slack hand fell; upon the silent face He cast one long, deep, troubled look, then turned from that sad place: His hope was crushed-his after-fate untold in martial His banner led the spears no more amidst the hills of Summary:-Don Sancho, Count Saldana of Spain, had for many years been kept in prison by King Alphonso of Asturias; but at length his son, Bernardo del Carpio, on coming to maturity, took up arms to effect his father's release. Alphonso had promised to release Don Sancho on condition that Bernardo should deliver up to him his castle of Carpio in exchange for his father's person. To this Bernardo at once consented, and surrendered the castle in all simplicity of heart, little knowing the treachery which lurked under the agreement. The treacherous king caused Count Saldana to be slain, and his dead body to be placed on horseback, to deceive for a time the dutiful son. Exercises: 1. Write an essay on Obedience to Parents. show their love for their children? How do parents 2. Explain the Fifth Commandment, "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee" (Ex. xx. 12). 3. The Saxon prefix un signifies not, or the opposite of-as, unsafe, not safe; unkind, not kind; unbar, to draw the bar; uncover, to take off the cover. Make sentences containing unsafe, unkind, unbar, uncover. NIGHT COACH TO LONDON. 1. Of all that ever flourished a whip, professionally, the coachman might have been elected emperor. He didn't handle his gloves like another man, but put them on, even when he was standing on the pavement, quite detached from the coach, as if the four grays were, somehow or other, at the ends of the fingers. It was the same with his hat. He did things with his hat which nothing but an unlimited knowledge of horses and the wildest freedom of the road could ever have made him perfect in. 2. Valuable little parcels were brought to him with particular instructions, and he pitched them into this hat, and stuck it on again, as if the laws of gravity did not admit of such an event as its being knocked off or blown off, and nothing like an accident could befall it. The guard, too! The guard, too! Seventy breezy miles a day were written in his very whiskers. His manners were a canter; his conversation a round trot. He was a fast coach upon a down-hill turnpike road; he was all pace. (775) 4 A waggon couldn't have moved slowly with that guard and his key-bugle on the top of it. 3. The coach was none of your steady-going, yokel coaches, but a swaggering, rakish, dissipated London coach; up all night, and lying by all day. It cared no more for Salisbury than if it had been a hamlet. It rattled noisily through the best streets, defied the cathedral, took the worst corners sharpest, went cutting in everywhere, making everything get out of its way, and spun along the open country-road, blowing a lively defiance out of its key-bugle, as its last glad parting legacy. 4. It was a charming evening-mild and bright. |