the night in the prison of the garrison, a chamber known by the fearful name of the Black Hole. Even for a single European malefactor, that dungeon would, in such a climate, have been too close and narrow. The space was only twenty feet square. The air-holes were small and obstructed. It was the summer solstice, the season when the fierce heat of Bengal can scarcely be rendered tolerable to natives of England by lofty halls and the constant waving of fans. 6. The number of the prisoners was one hundred and forty-six. When they were ordered to enter the cell, they imagined that the soldiers were joking; and, being in high spirits on account of the promise of the Nabob to spare their lives, they laughed and jested at the absurdity of the notion. They soon discovered their mistake. They expostulated; they entreated; but in vain. The guards threatened to cut down all who hesitated. The captives were driven into the cell at the point of the sword, and the door was instantly shut and locked upon them. 7. Nothing in history or fiction approaches the horrors which were recounted by the few survivors of that night. They cried for mercy. They strove to burst the door. Holwell, who, even in that extremity, presence of mind, offered large bribes But the answer was that nothing could be done without the Nabob's orders, that the Nabob was asleep, and that he would be angry if anybody awoke him. retained some to the jailers. 8. Then the prisoners went mad with despair. They trampled each other down, fought for the places at the windows, fought for the pittance of water with which the cruel mercy of the murderers mocked their agonies, raved, prayed, blasphemed, implored the guards to fire among them. The jailers, in the meantime, held lights to the bars, and shouted with laughter at the frantic struggles of their victims. At length the tumult died away in low gasps and moanings. 9. The day broke. The Nabob had slept off his debauch, and permitted the door to be opened. But it was some time before the soldiers could make a lane for the survivors, by piling up on each side the heaps of corpses on which the burning climate had already begun to do its loathsome work. When at length a passage was made, twenty-three ghastly figures, such as their own mothers would not have known, staggered one by one out of the charnelhouse. A pit was instantly dug. The dead bodies, a hundred and twenty-three in number, were flung into it promiscuously, and covered up. 10. But these things, which, after the lapse of many years, cannot be told or read without horror, awakened neither remorse nor pity in the bosom of the savage Nabob. He inflicted no punishment on the murderers. He showed no tenderness to the survivors. Some of them, indeed, from whom nothing was to be got, were suffered to depart; but those from whom it was thought that anything could be extorted, were treated with execrable cruelty. 11. Holwell, unable to walk, was carried before the tyrant, who reproached him, threatened him, and sent him up the country in irons, together with some other gentlemen who were suspected of knowing more than they chose to tell about the treasures of the Company. These persons, still bowed down by the sufferings of that great agony, were lodged in miserable sheds, and fed only with grain and water, till at length the intercessions of the female relations of the Nabob procured their release. in-cap'-a-ble Eu-ro-pe'-an mil'-i-tar-y com-mit'-ted ab-surd'-i-ty Lord Macaulay. stag'-gered com-mand-ant' Su-ra'-jah Dow'-lah, the native ruler de-bauch' re-lease' director-general of the trading settlements of the French in India. fac'-to-ry, trading settlement. whim, caprice, or fancy taken up in'-sol-ence, insulting conduct. without reason. ex-ag'-ger-at-ed, far beyond the truth. Cal-cut'-ta, the capital of British com-pen'-sate, make up for. division of India of the same mem'-or-a-ble, worthy of being re- a-troc'-i-ty, cruelty and wickedness. ex-pos'-tu-lat-ed, reasoned with. ex'-e-cra-ble, shameful; detestable. EXERCISES.-1. Make as many verbs as you can from the following verbs by changing the prefix: Subscribe, extract, advert, remit. 2. Make verbs and nouns from each of the following adjectives: Black, feeble, special, clear, glad, stupid, human. 3. Make adjectives from the following nouns: Whim, quarter, pomp, crime, mercy, spirit, soldier, promise, despair, blasphemy. 4. Make sentences of your own, and use in each sentence one or more of the following words: Compensate, exaggerate, memorable, remorse. THE SHIPBUILDERS. [This is taken from the poems of John G. Whittier, the Quaker poet of America. Here he tells the story of the building of a ship from the first cutting down of the timber, and he afterwards follows her in imagination across the waters.] 1. The sky is ruddy in the east, And, spectral in the river mist, The ship's white timbers show. Then let the sounds of measured stroke And grating saw begin; The broad-axe to the gnarlèd oak, The mallet to the pin! 2. Hark! roars the bellows, blast on blast, And fire-sparks, rising far and fast, All day for us the smith shall stand 3. From far-off hills, the panting team For us the raftsmen down the stream Rings out for us the axe-man's stroke 4. Up! up! in nobler toil than ours Lay rib to rib and beam to beam, 5. Where'er the keel of our good ship The sea's rough field shall plough— And seamen tread her reeling deck 6. Her oaken ribs the vulture-beak And know we well the painted shell We give to wind and wave, Or sink, the sailor's grave! 7. Ho! strike away the bars and blocks, And set the good ship free! |