monument to his fame. Since the battle of Trafalgar England has been undisputed mistress of the seas.

NAPOLEON'S banners at Boulogne

Arm'd in our island every freeman;
His navy chanced to capture one
Poor British seaman.

They suffer'd him-I know not how-
Unprison'd on the shore to roam;
And aye was bent his longing brow
On England's home.

His eye, methinks, pursued the flight
Of birds to Britain half-way over
With envy; they could reach the white
Dear cliffs of Dover.

A stormy midnight watch, he thought,

Than this sojourn would have been dearer,

If but the storm his vessel brought

To England nearer.

140

NAPOLEON AND THE SAILOR.

At last, when care had banished sleep,
He saw one morning-dreaming, doating-
An empty hogshead from the deep
Come shoreward floating;

He hid it in a cave, and wrought
The livelong day laborious, lurking,
Until he launch'd a tiny boat

By mighty working.

Heaven help us! 'twas a thing beyond
Description wretched; such a wherry
Perhaps ne'er ventur'd on a pond,
Or cross'd a ferry.

For ploughing in the salt sea-field,

It would have made the boldest shudder;
Untarred, uncompassed, and unkeeled,
No sail-no rudder.

From neighbouring woods he interlaced
His sorry skiff with wattled willows;
And thus equipped he would have passed
The foaming billows.

But Frenchmen caught him on the beach,
His little Argo sorely jeering;
Till tidings of him chanced to reach
Napoleon's hearing.

With folded arms Napoleon stood,

Serene alike in peace and danger;

And in his wonted attitude

Address'd the stranger :

'Rash man, that wouldst yon Channel pass
On twigs and staves so rudely fashioned,
Thy heart with some sweet British lass
Must be impassioned.'

'I have no sweetheart,' said the lad;
'But-absent long from one another-
Great was the longing that I had
To see my mother.'

And so thou shalt,' Napoleon said,
'Ye've both my favour fairly won;
A noble mother must have bred
So brave a son.'

He gave the tar a piece of gold,

And with a flag of truce commanded He should be shipp'd to England Old, And safely landed.

1. You have read how Nelson destroyed the power of the French at sea. The Duke of Wellington is nearly as famous for what he did on land. Only as England is rather a nation of sailors than of soldiers, our armies are not so large or so powerful as our fleets. Napoleon I. was at war with the different countries of Europe during the great part of his reign. He was one of the best generals that ever lived, and he used to collect large armies with great speed, lead them to a place where he was not expected, attack his enemy, and defeat him. England was almost the only country in Europe that he did not invade or conquer, and on more than one occasion he tried to invade England.

2. It was in great measure owing to the English that foreign nations were able to get the better of him at last. Wellington took an English army to Portugal, and when he found the French were in large numbers, and that he could not make head against them, he fortified a long line of heights in a corner of the country between a river and the sea. Here he remained secure against all attacks. He said, 'I conceive that the honour and interest of our country require that we should hold our ground here as long as possible, and, please God, I will maintain it as long as I can.'

3. Napoleon, at the close of his reign, marched a large army into Russia, but he delayed too long, and his troops were destroyed by the frost and snow. By and by Wellington came out of his defences and defeated the

The

French generals who were opposed to him. next year he advanced still farther, and at last drove the French entirely out of Spain, and led his troops into France. When he reached Paris, the chief town of France, and met there the kings and princes who had contended for so many years against Napoleon, he was treated with as much honour as any of them.

4. Napoleon was sent to an island as a punishment for his wars, but in a short time he escaped and was prepared to fight again. Wellington now for the first time met his great rival face to face at the battle of Waterloo. The battle was fought on a Sunday. The fields on which it was fought were sodden with heavy rains. Napoleon quite expected to gain a victory, and when he saw the red coats of the English before him, he cried, ‘I have them.' But the English troops were very brave, and stood their ground. Napoleon sent the French cavalry to attack the English troops, and they came on so fiercely that it seemed as if they would sweep everything before them. But the English soldiers collected themselves into hollow squares, with the officers and the colours in the centre, and a double line of troops facing outwards. The horses did not dare to attack the close lines of men, and the French were unable to beat them. Their firmness saved the battle.

5. The Duke's character was as firm as the squares which stood that day against the French, and he is always known as the Iron Duke. Towards evening the Prussian troops, whom Wellington had been expecting all day, arrived on the field. Napoleon, as a last resource, sent the Imperial Guard, his best and strongest soldiers, against the