ABOU BEN ADHEM.

LEIGH HUNT.

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold.

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said:
"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,
And, with a look made of all sweet accord,

Answered: "The names of those who love the Lord!" "And is mine one?" said Abou. Replied the angel.

"Nay, not so,'

Abou spoke more low,

But cheerily still, and said: "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."
The angel wrote and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed;
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS.

E. A. FREEMAN.

King Harold had risen early, and had put his men in battle order. On the slope of the hill, just in the face of William's army as it came from Hastings, he planted the two ensigns which were always set up in an English royal army, and between which the king had his royal post. The one banner was the golden dragon, the old ensign of Wessex; the other was the standard, which seems to have been the king's own device. King Harold's standard was a great flag richly adorned with precious stones and with the figure of a fighting man wrought upon it in gold. *

*

*

*

And now began the great battle of Senlac, or Hastings. The Norman archers let fly their arrows against the English; then all the heavy-armed foot were to come up, and lastly the horsemen. William hoped, of course, that the shower of arrows would kill many of the English and put the rest into confusion, and that the heavy-armed foot would then be able to break down the barricades, so that the horsemen might ride up the hill.

They tried very hard-first the foot and then the horse-to break down the barricade, but it was all in vain. The English hurled their javelins at them. as they were drawing near; and when they came near enough, they cut them down with their axes. The Norman writers themselves tell us how dreadful the fight was, and how the English ax, in the hand of King Harold, or of any other strong man, cut down the horse and his rider with a single blow.

Duke William with all his army tried and tried again to get up the hill, but they did not succeed. Our men did not swerve an inch, and they cut down every Frenchman who came near, King Harold himself and his brothers fighting among the foremost. Soon the French lines began to waver; the Bretons, on the right, turned and fled; and soon the Normans themselves followed. The English were now sorely tempted to break their lines and pursue, which was just what King Harold had told them not to do. Some of them, seemingly the troops in the rear, when the Bretons had first given way, were foolish enough to disobey the king's orders, and to follow their flying enemies down into the plain.

It seemed as if the French were utterly beaten, and a cry was raised that Duke William himself was dead. So, just as our King Edmund had done at Shenstone, he tore off his helmet, that men might see that he was alive, and cried out: "I live, and, by God's help, I will conquer!" Then he and his brother, the bishop, contrived to bring their men together again. They turned again to the fight. Those who were pursued by the English cut their pursuers in pieces, and then another assault on the hill began.

Duke William this time had somewhat better luck. He got so near to the barricade in front of the standard that Earl Gyrth-who, we know, fought near his brother, the king-was able to hurl a spear directly at him. It missed the duke, but his horse was killed and fell under him, as two others did before the day was out. Duke William then pressed on on foot, and met Gyrth face to face and slew

him with his own hand. Earl Leofwine, too, was killed about the same time, and Roger of Montgomery and his Frenchmen on the right contrived to break down part of the barricade on that side.

So this second attack was by no means so unsuccessful as the first. The two earls were killed, and the barricade was beginning to give way. Still, Duke William saw that he could never win the battle by making his horsemen charge up the hill in the teeth of the English axes; he saw that his only chance was to tempt the English to break their shield wall and come down into the plain, so he tried a very daring and dangerous trick. He had seen the advantage which, by his good generalship, he had contrived to gain out of the real flight of his men a little time before; so he ordered his troops to pretend flight, and, if the English followed, to turn upon them.

And so it was. The whole French army seemed to be fleeing a second time; so a great many of the English ran down the hill to chase them. As far as I can make out, it was only the light-armed -the troops on the right-who did this. I do not think that any of King Harold's own house carles left their ranks. But presently the Normans turned, and now the English had to fly. Those who had made this great mistake did their best to make up for it. Some managed to seize on a little hill which rose in front of the English position, and thence they hurled down javelins and stones on those who attacked them, and thus they completely cut off a party who were sent against them.

Others who knew the ground well led the French

men, who chased them to a place near the isthmus, where the ground is very rough, and where there is a narrow little cleft with steep sides all covered with bushes and low trees. So the Normans came riding on, and their horses came tumbling head over heels into the trap which was thus ready for them, and the English who were flying now turned round and killed the riders.

All this was bravely done, but it could not recover the battle, now that King Harold's wise orders had once been disobeyed. The English line was broken, the hill was defenseless at many points, so the Normans could ride up, and the battle was now fought on the hill. The fight was by no means over yet; the English had lost their great advantage of the ground, but King Harold and all his mighty men were there; so they still formed their shield wall and fought with their great axes. Luck had, no doubt, turned against the English; still, they were not beaten yet, and they kept on fighting bravely, and it is doubtful that they would have been beaten at all if King Harold had only lived till nightfall.

Here, as always in those old times, everything depended on one man. Harold still lived and fought by his standard, and it was against that point that all the devices of the Normans were now aimed. The Norman archers had begun the fight, and the Norman archers were now to end it. bade them shoot up into the air, might fall like bolts from heaven. proved the most successful of all. pierced right through their helmets; others had their eyes put out; others lifted up their shields to guard

Duke William now
that the arrows
This new device
Some men were