"Belshazzar's grave is made,
His kingdom passed away,
He, in the balance weighed,
Is light and worthless clay.
The shroud his robe of state,
His canopy the stone;
The Mede is at his gate!

The Persian on his throne !"

In the fifth chapter of the prophecy of Daniel, the feast of Belshazzar, and the end of the Babylonian empire, which terminated in him, are recorded; but there is a vividness in Lord Byron's imitation of that passage which gives new power to the original.

BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

To comprehend the verses which the following facts are designed to illustrate, it is necessary they should be known. The verses relate especially to the memorable battle of Waterloo—a battle which put an end to the military career of Napoleon Bonaparte, and gave peace to Europe. Bonaparte was a native of the island of Corsica, and, in his early life, an officer of engineers in the French service: his military talents at length raised him to the chief command of the French armies.

Bonaparte subjected all the civil affairs of France to military power, caused himself to be declared First Consul, and afterwards Emperor of France, and King of Italy. He did not limit his ambition to the government of France and Italy, but actually conquered Switzerland, Holland, and the greater part of Germany. He united the Netherlands to France, made one of his brothers king of Holland, another of Naples, a third of Westphalia, and bestowed upon princes of Germany the titles of Kings of Bavaria, Saxony, and Wirtemburgh. He invited the King of Spain to visit him, made him a prisoner, and in 1808 placed his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain.

Bonaparte's insatiable thirst of dominion prompted him in 1812 to invade Russia at the head of 500,000 troops; but the severity of a Russian winter, and the defensive power of the Russians, gave the first check to his conquering spirit. In this campaign 100,000 men of the French army were made prisoners, and "200,000 perished by cold, famine, and the sword.

The different independent governments of Europe took advantage of these disasters in order to restore independence and political liberty to the subjugated countries. The monarchs of Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden, formed a confederacy to dethrone Bonaparte, and to restore to the several usurped thrones, members of families which had formerly held the sovereignty of the different states. This alliance is often called the Holy Alliance—as a compact of defenders of the rights of kings, and, as the allied powers professed, of protectors of religion and morals. The armies of these sovereigns—the combined forces which acted under the command of generals from each of the allied states, was called the Allied Army.

The allied army entered Paris and took possession of it on the 18th March, 1814. Bonaparte consequently fled, and retired to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean; but he quitted his retreat on the 1st March, 1815, and at the head of the French army which flocked to his standard he re-entered Paris amidst acclamations of Vive l'Empereur. The allied army was prepared to defend the rights of the Bourbons.—During the absence of Bonaparte, Louis XVIII, brother to Louis XVI, (a King of France beheaded in 1793,) was placed on the throne of France, and to restore him to his late assumed dignity was an immediate purpose of the allied powers.

Bonaparte encountered the allied army near Brussels in Belgium. On the 15th of June he defeated the Prussians; on the 16th he obtained some advantages over the British; but on the 18th his army was completely defeated in the Battle Of Waterloo. The French army under Bonaparte consisted of 75,000 Frenchmen. The troops under Lord Wellington, of 35,000 English and Scots, and the rest, of German contingents, formed, in point of numbers, a nearly equal force.

"The loss on the British side during this dreadful battle," to borrow the words of Sir Walter Scott, was "immense.—One hundred officers slain, five hundred wounded many of them to death, fifteen thousand men killed and wounded, threw half Britain into morning." It is supposed that about 35,000 French perished at Waterloo, or in consequence of the battle. It was said that the English officers, when news came to them of the advance of Bonaparte, were at a ball at Brussels. Lord Byron has commemorated this circumstance in Childe Harolde.

THE BALL OF BRUSSELS.

There was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gathered then
Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men ;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage-bell;

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes us like a rising knell;

Did ye not hear it?—No; 'twas but the wind,

Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;

No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet—
But, hark!—that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!

Arm! Arm! it is—it is—the cannon's opening roar!
Within a windowed niche of that high hall
Sate Brunswick's fated chieftain; he did hear
That sound the first amidst the festival,

And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear
And when they smiled because he deemed it near,
His heart more truly knew that peal too well
Which stretched his father on a bloody bier,

And roused the vengeance blood alone can quell:
He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.

Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro,
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago
Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness;
And there were sudden partings, such as press
The life from out young hearts, and choaking sighs
Which never might be repeated; who could guess
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,
Since upon nights so sweet such awful morn could rise.

And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,

And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar;
And near, the beat of the alarm drum

Roused up the soldier ere the morning star;
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb.

Or whispering, with white lips—"The foe! they come !
they come !"

And wild and high the "Cameron's gathering" rose
The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's hills
Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon foes;
How in the noon of night that pibroch thrills,
Savage and shrill! But with the breath which fills
Their mountain-pipe, so filled the mountaineers
With the fierce native daring which instils
The stirring memory of a thousand years.

And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears!
And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves,
Dewy with nature's tear-drops, as they pass,
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves,

Over the unreturning brave,—alas!

Ere evening to be trodden like the grass
Which now beneath them, but above shall grow
In its next verdure, when this fiery mass
Of living valour, rolling on the foe

And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold
and low.

Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,
Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay,

The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife,
The morn the marshalling in arms,—the day
Battle's magnificently-stern array!

The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent
The earth is covered thick with other clay,

Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent,

Rider and horse,—friend, foe,—in one red burial blent.

Brunswick's fated chieftain- The Duke of Brunswick, a German prince, killed in the action.

This alludes to the music

The Cameron's gathering" rose. of the Scottish troops. These distinguish themselves always as soldiers, for they bring the most noble principles of duty and patriotism to the service.

Evan's and Donald's fame. Sir Evan Cameron and his descendant Donald, chiefs ef the Camerons, beloved and cherished in the memory of their clansmen.

Ardennes' waves above them her green leaves.

"The wood of Soignies, near the field of Waterloo is supposed to be a remnant of the Forest of Ardennes,' famous in Boiardo's Orlando, and immortal in Shakspeare's' As you like it.' It is also celebrated in Tacitus as being the spot of successful defence by the Germans against the Roman encroachments."

WORDSWORTH.

Of living Poets there is not one whose moral feelings, as they are exhibited in his verses, more entitle him to the respect of mankind than Mr. Wordsworth. This gentleman resides in the North of England. He loves the rural life, and exhibits it delightfully in his poetry; and the benevolence of his heart is as remarkably connected with his poetic talent as the purest spirit of devotion, and the finest enjoyment of external nature. The Bee, the Solitary Reaper, and the Deserted Indian Woman, are the only extracts from Wordsworth's poetry which there is room to insert in this volume.

THE BEE.

the soft murmur of the vagrant Bee,
—A slender sound! yet hoary Time
Doth to his soul exalt it with the chime
Of all his years ;—a company
Of ages coming, ages gone;
(Nations from before them sweeping,
Regions in destruction Steeping,)
But every awful note in unison

With that faint utterance, which tells
Of treasure sucked from buds and bells
For the pure keeping of those waxen cells;
Where he, a prudent statist to confer
Upon the public weal; a warrior bold—
Radiant all over with unburnished gold:
And armed with living spear for mortal fight;
A cunning forager

That spreads no waste;—a social builder; one