EXAMPLES FOR IRELAND. 231 plenty, the children to whom she has given birth-has trained those children up in the arts that contribute most to the security, the joy, the dignity of life-has taught them to depend upon themselves, and for their fortune to be thankful to no officious stranger -and, though a blood-red cloud is breaking over one of her brightest lakes, whatever plague it may portend, be assured of this-the cap of foreign despotism will never again gleam in the market-place of Altorff! Shame upon you! Norway with her scanty population, scarce a million strong-has kept her flag upon the Cattegat-has reared a race of gallant sailors to guard her frozen soil-year after year has nursed upon that soil a harvest to which the Swede can lay no claim-has saved her ancient laws-and to the spirit of her frank and hardy sons commits the freedom which she rescued from the allied swords, when they hacked her crown at Frederickstadt! Shame upon you! Greece-" whom Goth, nor Turk, nor Time hath spared not "-has flung the crescent from the Acropolis-has crowned a king in Athens whom she calls her own--has taught you that a nation should never die—that not for an idle pageant has the blood of heroes flowed-that not to vex a schoolboy's brain, nor smoulder in a heap of learned dust, has the fire of heaven issued from the tribune's tongue! Shame upon you! Holland-with the ocean as her foe-from the swamp in which you would have sunk your graves, has bid the palace, and the warehouse costlier than the palace, rear their ponderous shapes above the waves that battle at their base-has outstripped the merchant of the Rialto-has threatened England in the Thames-has swept the channel with her broom-and, though for a day she reeled before the bayonets of Dumouriez, she sprang to her feet again and struck the tri-color from her dykes! And you-you, who are eight millions strong-you, who boast at every meeting that this island is the finest which the sun looks down upon-you, who have no threatening sea to stem, no avalanche to dread-you, who say that you could shield along your coast a thousand sail, and be the princes of a mighty commerce— you, who by the magic of an honest hand, beneath each summer sky, might cull a plenteous harvest from your soil, and with the 232 MARY O'CONNOR. sickle strike away the scythe of death—you, who have no vulgar history to read-you, who can trace, from field to field, the evidences of civilization older than the Conquest-the relics of a religion far more ancient than the Gospel-you, who have thus been blessed, thus been gifted, thus been prompted to what is wise and generous and great-you will make no effort-you will whine, and beg, and skulk, in sores and rags, upon this favored land-you will congregate in drowsy councils, and then, when the very earth is loosening beneath your feet, you will bid a prosperous voyage to your last grain of corn-you will be beggared by the million-you will perish by the thousand, and the finest island which the sun looks down upon, amid the jeers and hootings of the world, will blacken into a plague-spot, a wilderness, a sepulchre. ΑΝ MARY O'CONNOR. shure, I was tould to come in to yer honor, To see would ye write a few words to my Pat; Wid a stripe on his arm, and a band on his hat. An' what 'ill ye tell him? it aught to be aisy For the likes of yer honor to spake with the pen,—— (The baby, yer honor,) is better again. For when he wint off, so sick was the child, sir, So he left her in danger, and me sorely greeting, An' say will he send me a bit of his money, THE GUILTY CONSCIENCE. I'm over-much trifling-I'll not give ye trouble I'll find some one willin'-oh, what can it be? Dead! Patrick O'Connor! O God, it's some other— Don't tell me it's not him-O God, am I crazy? This room is so dark-I'm not seein' yer honor ; 233 THE GUILTY CONSCIENCE.--SHAKESPEARE. GIV IVE me another horse,-bind up my wounds!— Is there a murderer here? No;-yes; I am: I love myself. Wherefore? for any good, I am a villain: yet I lie, I am not. Fool, of thyself speak well:-fool, do not flatter. 234 THE POLISH BOY. And every tongue brings in a several tale, Nay, wherefore should they? since that I myself Methought the souls of all that I had murdered THE POLISH BOY.-A. S. STEPHENS. HENCE come those shrieks so wild and shrill, What cut, like blades of steel, the air, Causing the creeping blood to chill With the sharp cadence of despair? Again they come, as if a heart Were cleft in twain by one quick blow, To utter its peculiar woe. Whence came they? from yon temple, where Now forms the warrior's marble bed The dim funereal tapers throw THE POLISH BOY. What hand is that, whose icy press Clings to the dead with death's own grasp, No thrilling fingers seek its clasp. With pallid lip and stony brow The mother sprang with gesture wild, "Back, ruffians, back! nor dare to tread Nor touch the living boy; I stand Between him and your lawless band. Take me, and bind these arms, these hands, With Russia's heaviest iron bands, And drag me to Siberia's wild To perish, if 'twill save my child!" 66 'Peace, woman, peace!" the leader cried, Tearing the pale boy from her side, His victim to the temple door. 235 |