But his limbs were borne up bravely

By the brave heart within, And our good Father Tiber Bare bravely up his chin.

35

And now he feels the bottom;
Now on dry earth he stands;
Now round him throng the Fathers
To press his gory hands;

And now, with shouts and clapping,
And noise of weeping loud,

He enters through the River-Gate, Borne by the joyous crowd.

36

They gave him of the corn-land,
That was of public right,
As much as two strong oxen

Could plow from morn till night;

And they made a molten image,

And set it up on high,

And there it stands unto this day

To witness if I lie.

37

And in the nights of winter,

When the cold north winds blow, And the long howling of the wolves Is heard amidst the snow; When round the lonely cottage Roars loud the tempest's din, And the good logs of Algidus

Roar louder yet within;

38

When the oldest cask is opened,
And the largest lamp is lit;

When the chestnuts glow in the embers,
And the kid turns on the spit;
When young and old in circle

Around the firebrands close;
When the girls are weaving baskets,
And the lads are shaping bows;

39

When the goodman mends his armor,
And trims his helmet's plume;
When the goodwife's shuttle merrily

Goes flashing through the loom ;

With weeping and with laughter
Still is the story told,

How well Horatius kept the bridge

In the brave days of old.

Abridged

No city boasts more interesting legends than Rome, the City of the Seven Hills. Its legendary founder, Romulus, was the first of a line of seven kings, ending with Tarquin the Proud. This haughty tyrant, who was hated by the people for his cruelty and tyranny, was finally driven out of the city, together with his son Sextus and all the rest of the royal family. So angry were the people with their line of kings that they abolished even the nobles and set up a government by the common people, with two chief magistrates, called Consuls.

After their banishment, Tarquin and his family began at once to raise an army to march on Rome and regain their kingdom. They finally secured the help of the famous Lars Porsena, king of Etruria. With a huge army of allies, Lars Porsena marched proudly on Rome until he reached the summit of Janiculum, the most northern hill of the city, and rejoiced to see that no further resistance to him seemed possible. But he had not counted on Horatius.

Macaulay based this ballad of Horatius on a very old poem, supposed to have been composed about a hundred and twenty years after the war which it describes.

Interesting legends of Rome are told in Harding's City of the Seven Hills and Haaren's Famous Men of Rome.

1. Find a map of "the City of the Seven Hills" and locate the army of Lars Porsena at the top of one hill (Janiculum) with the Tiber flowing between the hill and the rest of the city.

2. Picture to yourself the Consul and the Fathers of the city on the wall watching the approach of the army.

3. Make a list of the events in the order in which they happened. Is this the order in which they are told?

4. What is there especially thrilling about the victory of Horatius over Astur?

5. Picture to yourself the scene when Horatius reaches the Roman side.

6. What was the reward of Horatius? You can learn from this an oldtime way of measuring land.

7. What interesting things do you learn about Roman customs in this poem? Contrast the Roman manner of fighting with ours. They wore heavy peaked helmets of leather or bronze, coats of chain armor, and corselets of mail in which the joints were covered with metal plates. On their legs they wore greaves and on the left arm a heavy shield.

8. How should you dramatize this poem? What lines could you read just as they are? Note that even the facial expression of the men is suggested by their words.

9. If you want to see how a bridge might be destroyed in a battle of our own day, read the poem, "The Hell Gate of Soissons" by Herbert Kaufman.

10. Macaulay describes vividly, never failing to tell us what happened in the fight. He often uses comparisons to help us see it more vividly. Which comparisons do you think help most?

II Macaulay was fond of repeating words to emphasize an idea, as in stanza 3. Find other instances of this.

EXPLANATORY NOTES (Numbers refer to stanzas.)

1. River-Gate, a gate close to the wooden bridge across the Tiber at the foot of Janiculum hill (jă-nik'ü-lum).

4. Umbrians and Gauls, people who lived to the east and the north of Etruria, the kingdom of Lars Porsena.

7. Yon strait path, the narrow passage between the walls, connecting Janiculum with the bridge. Notice that strait means narrow.

8. Ramnian, belonging to the Ramnes. Titian, belonging to the Tities. These were two of the three tribes of the ancient Roman people.

10. Commons. In Rome there were two classes: the Patricians were the ruling class; the lower class were the Commons or Plebeians.

13. Falerii (fă-lē'ri-i) is a city of Etruria. Urgo is an island, Cosa a seaport, Volsinium a city, and Albinia (ål-bi-nē ́à) a river. Three fierce leaders of the Etruscans (the people of Etruria) are mentioned in this stanza.

14. Campania's hinds, the peasants of Campania, who were exposed to the raids of the Etruscan pirates.

16. Astur (äs'tōōr), an Etruscan chief from Luna, a town in northern Etruria.

17. The she-wolf's litter, the she-wolf's young, meaning here the Roman people. According to ancient Roman legend, two brothers, Romulus and Remus, were nursed by a she-wolf, and Romulus became the founder of Rome and its first king.

20. Augurs, religious officials whose duty it was to foretell future events by interpreting omens and to give advice on public affairs. The effects of lightning were carefully watched and interpreted by these priests.

21. Lucumo, the head of a family among the Etruscan nobility.

29. Yield thee to our grace, give yourself up for us to do with as we wish. 30. Palatinus. The first Roman settlement was made on Palatinus or Palatine hill.

31. Father Tiber, the river god. The Romans believed that every river had its own unseen god.

36. Of public right, which belonged to the public, or people as a whole. 37. Algidus (ăl'jĭ-dŭs), a hill southeast of Rome covered with forest. 38. Oldest cask, the best wine. Spit, a pointed bar on which meat is fixed to be roasted before a fire. The spit is slowly turned to expose to the heat all parts of the surface of the meat.

THE EVE BEFORE WATERLOO

LORD BYRON

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 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! the 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 could quell;
He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.