still wanting, but was quickly supplied by lot, from numbers who were now emulous of so ennobling an example. The keys of the city were then delivered to Sir Walter. He took the six prisoners into his custody; then ordered the gates to be opened, and gave charge to his attendants to conduct the remaining citi zens with their families, through the camp of the English.

11. Before they departed, however, they desired permission to take their adieu of their deliverers. What a parting! What a scene! They crowded, with their wives, and children, about St. Pierre and his fellow prisoners. They embraced; they clung around; they fell prostrate before them.

12. They groaned; they wept aloud; and the joint clamor of their mourning passed the gates of the city, and was heard throughout the English camp. The English by this time were apprised of what passed within Calais.

13. They heard the voice of lamentation, and they wers touched with compassion. Each of the soldiers prepared a portion of his own victuals to welcome and entertain the halffamished inhabitants; and they loaded them with as much as their present weakness was able to bear, in order to supply them with sustenance by the way.

14. At length St. Pierre and his fellow victims appeared, under the conduct of Sir Walter and a guard. All the tents of the English were instantly emptied. The soldiers poured from all parts, and arranged themselves on each side, to behold, to contemplate, to admire, this little band of patriots, as they passed.

15. They bowed down to them on all sides. They murmur ed their applause of that virtue, which they could not but revere, even in enemies; and they regarded those ropes which they voluntarily assumed about their necks, as ensigns of greater dignity than that of the British garter."

*

16. As soon as they had reached the presence, "Mauny," says the Monarch, "are these the principal inhabitants of Calais ?" "They are," says Mauny;" they are not only the principal men of Calais, but they are the principal men of France, my lord, if virtue has any share in the act of ennobling." Were they delivered peaceably?" says Edward. "Was there 20 resistance, no commotion among the people?" "Not in the .east, my lord! the people would all have perished, rather than have delivered the least of these to your Majesty. They

*Garter, the badge of an order of knighthood in Great Britain, instituted by Edward IIL

are self-delivered, self-devoted, and come to offer up their inestimable heads, as an ample equivalent for the ransom of thousands."

17. Edward was secretly piqued* at this reply of Sir Walter; but he knew the privilege of a British subject, and suppressed nis resentment. "Experience," says he, "has ever shown, that lenity only serves to invite people to new crimes. Severity, at times, is indispensably necessary, to compel subjects to submission, by punishment and example." "Go," he cried to an officer, "lead these men to execution.”

18. At this instant a sound of triumph was heard throughout the camp. The queen had just arrived with a powerful reinforcement of gallant troops. Sir Walter Mauny flew to receive her Majesty, and briefly informed her of the particulars respecting the six victims.

19. As soon as she had been welcomed by Edward and his court, she desired a private audience. "My lord," said she, "the question I am to enter upon, is not touching the lives of a few mechanics-it respects the honor of the English nation; it respects the glory of my Edward, my husband, and my king.

20. "You think you have sentenced six of your enemies to death. No, my lord, they have sentenced themselves; and their execution would be the execution of their own orders, not the orders of Edward. The stage on which they would suffer, would be to them a stage of honor, but a stage of shame to Edward; a reproach on his conquests; an indelible disgrace to his name.

We

21. "Let us rather disappoint these haughty burghers, who wish to invest themselves with glory at our expense. cannot wholly deprive them of the merit of a sacrifice so nobly intended, but we may cut them short of their desires; in place of that death by which their glory would be consummate, let us bury them under gifts; let us put them to confusion with applauses.

22. "We shall thereby defeat them of that popular opinion, which never fails to attend those who suffer in the cause of virtue." "I am convinced; you have prevailed. Be it so," replied Edward; "prevent the execution; have them instantly before us."

23. They came; when the Queen, with an aspect and accent diffusing sweetness, thus bespoke them: "Natives of France, and inhabitants of Calais, you have put us to a vast expense of

*Pronounced peek'd, offended.

blood and treasure in the recovery of our just natural inheritance; but you have acted up to the best of an erroneous judgment; and we admire and honor in you that valor and virtue, by which we are so long kept out of our rightful possessions.

24. "You, noble burghers! You, excellent citizens! Though you were ten-fold the enemies of our person and our throne, we can feel nothing on our part, save respect and affection for you. You have been sufficiently tested.

25. “We loose your chains; we snatch you from the scaffold! and we thank you for that lesson of humiliation which you teach us, when you show us, that excellence is not of blood, of title, or station; that virtue gives a dignity superior to that of kings; and that those whom the Almighty informs with sentiments like yours, are justly and eminently raised above all human

distinctions.

26. "You are now free to depart to your friends, relatives, and countrymen, to all those whose lives and liberties you have so nobly redeemed, provided you refuse not the tokens of our esteem. Yet we would rather bind you to ourselves by every endearing obligation; and for this purpose we offer to you your choice of the gifts and honors that Edward has to bestow. 27. "Rivals for fame, but always friends to virtue; we wish that England were entitled to call 66 her sons. you Ah, my country!" exclaimed St. Pierre; "it is now that I tremble for you. Edward only wins our cities, but Philippa conquers hearts."

LESSON LXI.

Examples of Decision of Character.-JOHN FOSTer.

1. I HAVE repeatedly remarked to you in conversation the effect of what has been called a ruling passion. When its object is noble, and an enlightened understanding directs its movements, it appears to me a great felicity; but whether its object be noble or not, it infallibly creates, where it exists in great force, that active ardent constancy which I describe as a capital feature of the decisive character.

2. The subject of such a commanding passion wonders, if indeed he were at leisure to wonder, at the persons who pretend to attach importance to an object which they make none but the most languid efforts to secure. The utmost powers of the man are constrained into the service of the favorite cause by this passion, which sweeps away, as it advances, all the trivial ob

jcctions and little opposing motives, and seems almost to open a way through impossibilities.

3. This spirit comes on him in the morning as soon as he recovers his consciousness, and commands and impels him through the day with a power from which he could not emancipate himself if he would. When the force of habit is added, the determination becomes invincible, and seems to assume rank with the great laws of nature, making it nearly as certain that such a man will persist in his course as that in the morning the sun will rise.

4. A persisting untameable efficacy of soul gives a seductive and pernicious dignity even to a character and a course which every moral principle forbids us to approve. Often in the narrations of history and fiction, an agent of the most dreadful designs compels a sentiment of deep respect for the unconquerable mind displayed in their execution.

5. While we shudder at his activity, we say with regret, mingled with an admiration which borders on partiality,-What a noble being this would have been if goodness had been his destiny! The partiality is evinced in the very selection of terms, by which we show that we are tempted to refer his atrocity rather to his destiny than to his choice.

6. In some of the high examples of ambition, we almost revere the force of mind which impelled them forward through the longest series of action, superior to doubt and fluctuation, and disdainful of ease, of pleasure, of opposition, and of hazard.

7. We bow to the ambitious spirit which reached the true sublime in the reply of Pompey to his friends, who dissuaded him from venturing on a tempestuous sea, in order to be at Rome on an important occasion: "It is necessary for me to go -it is not necessary for me to live."

8. You may recollect the mention, in one of our conversations, of a young man who wasted, in two or three years, a large patrimony in profligate revels with a number of worthless associates, who called themselves his friends, and who, when his last means were exhausted, treated him, of course, with neglect or contempt.

9. Reduced to absolute want, he one day went out of the house with an intention to put an end to his life; but wandering awhile almost unconsciously, he came to the brow of an eminence which overlooked what were lately his estates.

* Pompey, a distinguished Roman General, vanquished by Cesar in the battle of Pharsalia.

10. Here he sat down, and remained fixed in thought a num ber of hours, at the end of which he sprang from the ground with a vehement exulting emotion. He had formed his resolution, which was, that all these estates should be his again: he had formed his plan too, which he instantly began to execute.

11. He walked hastily forward, determined to seize the very first opportunity, of however humble a kind, to gain any money, though it were ever so despicable a trifle, and resolved absolutely not to spend, if he could help it, a farthing of whatsoever he might obtain.

12. The first thing that drew his attention was a heap of coals shot out of carts on the pavements before a house. He offered himself to shovel or wheel them into the place where they were to be laid, and was employed. He received a few pence for the labor, and then in pursuance of the saving part of his plan, requested some small gratuity of meat and drink, which was given him.

13. He then looked out for the next thing that might chance to offer, and went, with indefatigable industry, through a succession of servile employments in different places, of longer and shorter duration, still scrupulously avoiding, as far as possible, the expense of a penny. He promptly seized every opportunity which could advance his design, without regarding the meanness of occupation or appearance.

He

14. By this method he had gained, after a considerable time, money enough to purchase, in order to sell again, a few cattle, of which he had taken pains to understand the value. speedily but cautiously turned his first gains into second advantages; retained, without a single deviation, his extreme parsimony; and thus advanced by degrees into larger transactions and incipient wealth.

15. I did not hear, or have forgotten, the continued course of his life; but the final result was, that he more than recovered his lost possessions, and died an inveterate miser worth 60,0007. I have always recollected this as a signal instance, though in an unfortunate and ignoble direction, of decisive character, and of the extraordinary effect which, according to general laws, belongs to the strongest form of such a character.

LESSON LXII.

Ortogrul: or, the Vanity of Riches.-DR. JOHNSON. 1. As Ortogrul of Basra was one day wandering along the