Page images
PDF
EPUB

And when my worship was most warm,
She "never found it colder."

I don't object to wealth or land;
And she will have the giving
Of an extremely pretty hand,

Some thousands, and a living.
She makes silk purses, broiders stools,
Sings sweetly, dances finely,

Paints screens, subscribes to Sunday schools,
And sits a horse divinely.

But to be linked for life to her!

The desperate man who tried it

Might marry a barometer,

And hang himself beside it!

CHARADE.

SIR HILARY charged at Agincourt, —
Sooth 't was an awful day!

And though in that old age of sport
The rufflers of the camp and court
Had little time to pray,

'Tis said Sir Hilary muttered there
Two syllables by way of prayer.

My First to all the brave and proud
Who see to-morrow's sun;

My Next with her cold and quiet cloud
To those who find their dewy shroud
Before to-day's be done;

And both together to all blue eyes

That weep when a warrior nobly dies.

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT.

PRESCOTT, WILLIAM HICKLING, an American historian; born at Salem, Mass., May 4, 1796; died at Boston, January 28, 1859. He was graduated at Harvard in 1814; but in the last year of his college life a fellow-student playfully threw a crust of bread at him, striking one of his eyes, which was rendered almost sightless. Inflammation set in in the other eye, resulting in almost total loss of vision, so that practically for nearly all the remainder of his life. his eyes were of little use in reading or writing. In 1819 he resolved to devote the next ten years to the study of ancient and modern literature, and the ensuing ten years to the composition of a history. His studies in literature led to the publication of several essays in the "North American Review," which were in 1845 collected into a couple of volumes entitled "Miscellanies." The history of the "Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella," after fully ten years of continuous labor, was published in 1838. The next six years were devoted to the "History of the Conquest of Mexico" (1843), and the four subsequent years to the "History of the Conquest of Peru" (1847). After a visit to Europe, he set himself to writing the history of the "Reign of Philip II. of Spain." Of this work Volumes I. and II. appeared in 1855, and Volume III. in 1858. The work was to have consisted of six volumes, but the remaining three were never written. A revised edition of Prescott's Works, edited by John Foster Kirk, was published in 1875.

SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF THE CITY OF GRANADA.

(From "Ferdinand and Isabella.")

IN the spring of 1490, ambassadors arrived from Lisbon for the purpose of carrying into effect the treaty of marriage, which had been arranged between Alonso, heir of the Portuguese monarchy, and Isabella, infanta of Castile. An alliance with this kindgom, which from its contiguity possessed such ready means of annoyance to Castile, and which had shown such willingness to employ them in enforcing the pretensions

[graphic][merged small][merged small]

of Joanna Beltraneja, was an object of importance to Ferdinand and Isabella. No inferior consideration could have reconciled the queen to a separation from this beloved daughter, her eldest child, whose gentle and uncommonly amiable disposition seems to have endeared her beyond their other children to her parents.

The ceremony of the affiancing took place at Seville, in the month of April, Don Fernando de Silveira appearing as the representative of the prince of Portugal; and it was followed by a succession of spendid fêtes and tourneys. Lists were

enclosed, at some distance from the city on the shores of the Guadalquivir, and surrounded with galleries hung with silk and cloth of gold, and protected from the noontide heat by canopies or awnings, richly embroidered with the armorial bearings of the ancient houses of Castile. The spectacle was graced by all the rank and beauty of the court, with the infanta Isabella in the midst, attended by seventy noble ladies, and a hundred pages of the royal household. The cavaliers of Spain, young and old, thronged to the tournament, as eager to win laurels on the mimic theatre of war, in the presence of so brilliant an assemblage, as they had shown themselves in the sterner contests with the Moors. King Ferdinand, who broke several lances on the occasion, was among the most distinguished of the combatants for personal dexterity and horsemanship. The martial exercises of the day were relieved by the more effeminate recreations of dancing and music in the evening; and every one seemed willing to welcome the season of hilarity, after the long-protracted fatigues of war.

In the following autumn, the infanta was escorted into Portugal by the cardinal of Spain, the grand master of St. James, and a numerous and magnificent retinue. Her dowry exceeded that usually assigned to the infantas of Castile, by five hundred marks of gold and a thousand of silver; and her wardrobe was estimated at one hundred and twenty thousand gold florins. The contemporary chroniclers dwell with much complacency on these evidences of the stateliness and splendor of the Castilian court. Unfortunately, these fair auspices were destined to be clouded too soon by the death of the prince, her husband.

No sooner had the campaign of the preceding year been brought to a close, than Ferdinand and Isabella sent an embassy to the king of Granada, requiring a surrender of his

« PreviousContinue »