up with an impetuosity that his assailant was unable to check, and the shock, which arose from his furious attack, stretched him on the body of the baron. The exhaustion, which arose from the long and arduous combat, confined the warriors for some time in a dreary stupor, from which Blondel was the first to recover. Scarce, however, had he lifted his small truncheon o'er his prostrate enemy, before a miscreant retainer, in the pay of Prince John, discharged his mace on the conqueror, with a blow that felled him to the ground. "Thus doth it behove every man to revenge the wrongs of England's noblest forester!" exclaimed the ruffian, with a smile of assurance,"And thus doth it behove an adherent of royalty to mete a full measure unto every outlaw," replied a page of Suffolk, introducing his dirk into the stomach of the assassin. And whom will it behove next?" vociferated Richard, in a voice that produced a fearful echo among the moonless cloisters of the monastery; "will it behove my cross handled sword to clear this fane of its pollution-of wranglers, and profaners of scriptural writ—of swordsmen, that prefer the jests of a potroom to the clangor of a trumpet, or the ring of a steel gauntlet? Thou hast my pardon, John; never shall my wrath descend on the head of a Plantagenet:-the same queenly womb produced both thee and me, and fameless shall be the sword that could destroy its fruit. I pardon thee, John; begone, and forget thine iniquities."

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A loud clamor arose from the lips of the crowding warriors, as the king thus expressed his magnanimity. Banner, pennon, and jack, formed a beautiful spectacle as they fluttered o'er the spears of the yeomen, and the plumes of the archery. Then, the moon, as she escaped from the dingy clouds that had hitherto obscured her magnificence, threw her broad and unremitted glare on the dilapidated ruins of the monastery, and tinged the military scene with such radiant splendor, that it wore the appearance of a festal pageant. Bacinet, morion, and, indeed, every species of head-armour, became completely burnished; and the high emblazoned windows seemed to look on their deliverers with a grand and peculiar expression. Blondel, who had now recovered from the blow which he had so unexpectedly received, pointed with enthusiasm to the warriors that thronged around his sovereign. "Lo, my highness," said he, the saints, that are enshrined in this holy

place, sanction thy grandeur of soul! The holy forms, that are here represented, look more benign on the Syrian vanquisher; and thy faithful subjects know not how to express the joy that exists in their hearts. Oh for the lyre of a minstrel seraph to hymn thy last triumph! its first rich song should swell to the fame of Richard Plantagenet !" Ah, my troubadour,!" exclaimed the king, "it is to thee that the gratitude of my nation ought to arise. Thou didst free me from a dark tower, in which a treacherous Saxon would have kept me, and thou didst point out the path which hath conducted me to my present haven; and in that haven, Blondel, hath England found a sceptre, and its people a monarch to govern them."

"And on the morrow shall the virgin's lute be heard in many a festal hall," said Suffolk; "'tis well, my chief,the chains of thraldom are broken, and the orb of liberty shall soon beam on a brightening land!-Prince John and his minions have vanished from before us.

"In sooth, they have," returned Blondel, "and like courtiers too"-for the wily Lackland had disappeared amid the thronging hosts that applauded the pardon which his generous brother had conferred on him.

""Tis well-'tis well," said Suffolk, in an ecstacy of joyance; "if the giant Saracen shrank from before the dreadful mace which the Lion wielded in Palestine, I marvel not that the puny Lackland should have left us with so little

courtesy.

A smile gave a sunny appearance to the eyes and lips of Blondel, as Suffolk thus expressed himself; but the awful voice of Richard cast a tinge of reverence o'er his countenance, as the ruinous recesses of the monastery awoke their spectral echoes in reply. "Now," exclaimed the king,noblemen, gentils, and commoners,-now can ye breathe the air of a free country! your determined spirit has scattered the vile myrmidons of tyranny;—and what lacks England?— what doth she lack to make her the mistress of nations?Magnanimous lords, and valiant vassalry-hands that need no gauntlets, and warriors that despise lucre. England, like Sparta, shall be poor, but she shall be splendid. Gold and silver shall find no place among us; but, nevertheless, nobles shall come on with their grandeur of plume and helmet; and

serfs, with their bacinets and pennons, shall follow them, exuiting? and dare ve ask how England shall acquire such pageantry? She shall win them by deeds of triumph-she shall win them from her foes; and every warrior shall pride himself in the flashing trophies that he gained from a vanquished enemy. The priests say that gold doth corrupt; but true steel shall never rust in the hands of a free people. Let us hence, warriors; honored shall be the sun that sees the diadem of England o'er my brows, and long life to the monastery of St. Michael; for, in its reverend walls, did freedom first display herself to the companions of Richard!"

It is rumoured, moreover that on the same night, Coeur-deLion returned to London, where his subjects received him with exceeding great joy.

Now let this be a proverb in the mouth of every Englishman, biz.—that no country need exist in slavery, if she possesseth one hero to defend her!

Deal.

REGINALD AUGUSTINE.

THE DEATH OF LARA.

The incense dew descended on each leaf and chrystal flow's, And the sunshine fell, with its gold sweep, on brook, and plain, and bow'r;

The earth, rob'd in magnificence, sent up her festal song, And the rivers, bounding o'er their beds, in music pour'd

along.

But the trumpet's clangor was abroad, and forest path and glen

Replied to ringing spears, and shouts of bright and warlike

men;

On came the grim old gonfalons-on came the plumes of

sheen,

And the wood sent forth its archers with their vests of brilliant green!

But ere an hour had pass'd away, arose the battle-shout, And the pennons, in the dire onset, were torn and toss'd

about;