spears in
rest,
A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white
crest;
And in they burst, and on they rush’d, while, like a
guiding star,
Amidst the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Navarre.

    Now, God be praised, the day is ours!  Mayenne hath turned
          his rein. 
    D’Aumale hath cried for quarter.  The Flemish Count is
          slain. 
    Their ranks are breaking like thin clouds before a Biscay
          gale. 
    The field is heap’d with bleeding steeds, and flags, and
          cloven mail. 
    And then we thought on vengeance, and, all along our van,
    “Remember St. Bartholomew!” was pass’d from man to man: 
    But out spake gentle Henry, “No Frenchman is my foe;
    Down, down, with every foreigner! but let your brethren
          go.” 
    Oh! was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war,
    As our Sovereign Lord, King Henry, the soldier of Navarre!

    Ho! maidens of Vienna; ho! matrons of Lucerne;
    Weep, weep, and rend your hair for those who never shall
          return. 
    Ho!  Philip, send, for charity, thy Mexican pistoles,
    That Antwerp monks may sing a mass for thy poor spearmen’s
          souls. 
    Ho! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be
          bright: 
    Ho! burghers of St. Genevieve, keep watch and ward to-
          night,
    For our God hath crush’d the tyrant, our God hath raised
         the slave,
    And mock’d the counsel of the wise, and the valour of the
          brave. 
    Then glory to His holy name, from whom all glories are;
    And glory to our Sovereign Lord, King Henry of Navarre!

MACAULAY.

[Notes:  D’Aumale, The Duke of; another leader of the League.

The Flemish Court.  Count Egmont, the son of the Count Egmont, whose death on the scaffold in 1568, in consequence of the resistance he offered to the tyranny of Philip II. of Spain, has made the name famous.  The son, on the other hand, was the attached servant of Philip II.; and was unnatural enough to say, when reminded of his father, “Talk not of him, he deserved his death.”

Remember St. Bartholomew, i.e., the massacre of the Protestants on St. Bartholomew’s day, 1572.

Maidens of Vienna:  matrons of Lucerne.  In reference to the Austrian and Swiss Allies of the League.

Thy Mexican pistoles.  Alluding to the riches gained by the Spanish monarchy from her American colonies.

Ho! burghers of St. Genevieve = citizens of Paris, of which St. Genevieve was held to be the patron saint.]

* * * * *

NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION.

And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as I found I most wanted, as particularly a chair or a table; for without these I was not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world; I could not write or eat, or do several things with so much pleasure without a table.