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And I would thank him, if I chanced to pass
His dwelling.

Alb. T would not please him that a service
Sc trifling should be made so much of.
Ges. Trifling! You have saved my life.
Alb. Then do not question me,

But let me go.

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Ges. (To soldiers.) Seize him! Wilt thou tell me

Thy father's name?

Alb. No.

Ges. I can bid them cast thee

Into a dungeon!

Alb. No.

Wilt thou tell it now?

Ges. I can bid them strangle thee! Wilt tell it?

Alb. Never.

Ges. Away with him!

CI.

THE TYRANT OF SWITZERLAND.

SCENE THIRD.

(Gesler. William Tell in chains and guarded.)

Gesler. WHY speakest thou not?

Tell. For wonder!

Ges. Wonder?

Tell. Yes, that thou shouldst seem a man!

Ges. What should I seem?

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Tell. Though they were doubled, and did weigh me down

Prostrate to earth, methinks I could rise up,

Erect, with nothing but the honest pride

Of telling thee, usurper to thy teeth,

Thou art a monster! — Think upon my chains?
How came they on me?

Ges. Darest thou question me?

Tell. Darest thou not answer?

Ges. Do I hear?

Tell. Thou dost.

Ges. Beware my vengeance!

Tell. Can it more than kill?

Ges. Enough - it can do that.

Tell. No, not enough:

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Its comeliness of look that virtue gives,

Its port erect with consciousness of truth;
Its rich attire of honorable deeds;

Its fair report that 's rife on good men's tongues :
It cannot lay its hands on these, no more

Than it can pluck the brightness from the sun,
Or with polluted finger tarnish it!

Ges. But it can make thee writhe!

Tell. It may.

Ges. And groan !

Tell. It may; and I may cry

Go on, though it should make me groan again.

Ges. Whence comest thou?

Tell. From the mountains. Wouldst thou learn

What news from them?

Ges. Canst tell me any?

Tell. Ay! they watch no more the avalanche.

Ges. Why so?

Tell. Because they look for thee. The hurricane

Comes unawares upon them; from its bed

The torrent breaks, and finds them in its track.

Ges. What do they then?

Tell. Thank Heaven it is not thou!

Thou hast perverted nature in them.

There's not a blessing Heaven vouchsafes them, but

The thought of thee doth wither to a cursę!

Ges. That's right! I'd have them like their hills, That never smile, though wanton summer tempt them Ever so much.

Tell. But they do sometimes smile.

Ges. Ay!-when is that?

Tell. When they do talk of vengeance.

Ges. Vengeance! Dare they talk of that?

Tell. Ay, and expect it too.

Ges. From whence?

Tell. From Heaven!

Ges. From Heaven?

Tell. And their true hands

Are lifted up to it on every hill
For justice on thee!

J. S. KNOWLES.

CII. CONFESSIONS OF A BASHFUL MAN.

PART FIRST.

1. You must know that in my person I am tall and thin, with a fair complexion, and light flaxen hair; but of such extreme sensibility to shame, that, on the smallest subject of confusion, my blood all rushes into my cheeks. Having been sent to the university, the consciousness of my unhappy failing made me avoid society, and I became enamored of a college life. But from that peaceful retreat I was called by the deaths of my father and of a rich uncle, who left me a fortune of thirty thousand pounds.

2. I now purchased an estate in the country; and my company was much courted by the surrounding families, especially by such as had marriageable daughters. Though I wished to accept their offered friendship, I was forced repeatedly to excuse myself, under the pretence of not being quite settled. Often, when I have ridden or walked with full intention of returning their visits, my heart has failed me as I approached their gates, and I have returned homeward, resolving to try again the next day. Determined, however, at length to conquer my timidity, I accepted of an invitation to dine with one, whose open, easy manner left me no room to doubt a cordial welcome.

3. Sir Thomas Friendly, who lives about two miles distant, is a baronet, with an estate joining to that I purchased. He has two sons and five daughters, all grown up, and living, with their mother and a maiden sister of Sir Thomas's, at Friendly Hall. Conscious of my unpolished gait, I have, for some time past, taken private lessons of a professor, who teaches "grown gentlemen to dance;" and though I at first found wondrous difficulty in the art he taught, my knowledge of the mathematics was of prodigious use in teaching me the equilibrium of my body, and the due adjustment of the centre of gravity to the five positions.

4. Having acquired the art of walking without tottering, and learned to make a bow, I boldly ventured to obey the baronet's invitation to a family dinner, not doubting but my new acquire ments would enable me to see the ladies with tolerable intrepidity; but, alas! how vain are all the hopes of theory, when unsupported by habitual practice!

5. As I approached the house, a dinner-bell alarmed my fears, lest I had spoiled the dinner by want of punctuality. Impressed with this idea, I blushed the deepest crimson, as my name was repeatedly announced by the several livery-servants, who ushered me into the library, hardly knowing what or whom I saw. At my first entrance, I summoned up all my fortitude, and made my new-learned bow to Lady Friendly; but, unfortunately, in bringing back my left foot to the third position, I trod upon the gouty toe of poor Sir Thomas, who had followed close at my heels, to be the nomenclator of the family.

6. The confusion this occasioned in me is hardly to be conceived, since none but bashful men can judge of my distress. The baronet's politeness, by degrees, dissipated my concern, and I was astonished to see how far good breeding could enable him to suppress his feelings, and to appear with perfect ease after so painful an accident.

7. The cheerfulness of her ladyship, and the familiar chat of the young ladies, insensibly led me to throw off my reserve and sheepishness, till, at length, I ventured to join the conversation, and even to start fresh subjects. The library being richly furnished with books in elegant bindings, I conceived Sir

Thomas to be a man of literature, and ventured to give my opinion concerning the several editions of the Greek classics, in which the baronet's opinion exactly coincided with my own.

8. To this subject I was led by observing an edition of Xenophon3 in sixteen volumes, which (as I had never before heard of such a thing) greatly excited my curiosity, and I rose up to examine what it could be. Sir Thomas saw what I was about, and, as I supposed, willing to save me trouble, rose to take down the book; which made me more eager to prevent him, and, hastily laying my hand on the first volume, I pulled it forcibly; but, lo! instead of books, a board, which, by leather and gilding, had been made to look like sixteen volumes, came tumbling down, and unluckily pitched upon a wedgwood inkstand on the table under it.

9. In vain did Sir Thomas assure me there was no harm; I saw the ink streaming from an inlaid table on the Turkey carpet, and, scarce knowing what I did, attempted to stop its progress with my cambric handkerchief. In the height of this confusion, we were informed that dinner was served up; and I, with joy, perceived that the bell, which at first had so alarmed my fears, was only the half-hour dinner-bell.

CIII. CONFESSIONS OF A BASHFUL MAN.

PART SECOND.

1. In walking through the hall, and suite of apartments, tc the dining-room, I had time to collect my scattered senses, and was desired to take my seat betwixt Lady Friendly and her eldest daughter at the table. Since the fall of the wooden Xenophon, my face had been continually burning like a firebrand; and I was just beginning to recover myself, and to feel comfortably cool, when an unlooked-for accident rekindled all my heat and blushes.

2. Having set my plate of soup too near the edge of the table, in bowing to Miss Dinah, who politely complimented the pattern of my waistcoat, I tumbled the whole scalding contents into my lap In spite of an immediate supply of napkins to wipe the

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