HESPERUS. AWAKE, O beautiful Hesperus! Awake! for the day is done, And the royal purple curtains are drawn And silence, too, in the courts of Heaven, Hesperus! All things beautiful wait for thee! 'Tis the hour for fancy's fairy reign, With the light of warm and glorious dreams Hesperus, Open thy volume of golden light. There may I read of the youth of old, Who clambered the mountain height, Till his brow grew bright with wonderful light, And away from the world's rude jars, He was lost in the beams of his radiant dreams, And himself was the fairest of stars. Hesperus ! The best beloved of the stars! There may I read this legend rare, And its beautiful meaning learn, While my soul, new kindled to hopes divine, O never should human heart despair Thy voice is the voice of eternity. Thou art smiling down on me, Hesperus, I know that kindled to me and mine, The love and the hope it bore on high, Hesperus ! Thy sweetest story hath never been told. O to be like thee, Hesperus ! To climb the heights of truth, And there to drink of celestial airs, And to glow with immortal youth There, wrapt in the light which is born in the skies, To hear earth's harmonies only rise How can my spirit become a star? A NATIONAL HYMN. UNION AND LIBERTY. LAG of the heroes who left us their glory, FLAG Borne through their battle-fields' thunder and flame, Blazoned in song and illumined in story, Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame! Sprinkled with starry light, Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, Loud rings the Nation's cry UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE! Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation, Empire unsceptred! what foe shall assail thee, Yet if, by madness and treachery blighted, Dawns the dark hour when the sword thou must draw, Then, with the arms of thy millions united, Smite the bold traitors to Freedom and Law! Up with our banner bright, etc. Lord of the Universe! shield us and guide us, Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun! Thou hast united us: who shall divide us? Sprinkled with starry light, Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, Loud rings the Nation's cry UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE! O. W. Holmes. EXECUTION OF JOAN OF ARC. AVING placed the king on his throne, it was her fortune thenceforward to be thwarted. More than one military plan was entered upon which she did not approve. Too well she felt that the end was now at hand. Still, she continued to expose her person in battle as before; severe wounds had not taught her caution; and at length she was made prisoner by the Burgundians, and finally given up to the English. The object now was to vitiate the coronation of Charles VII. as the work of a witch; and, for this end, Joan was tried for sorcery. She resolutely defended herself from the absurd accusation. Never, from the foundation of the earth, was there such a trial as this, if it were laid open in all its beauty of defence and all its malignity of attack. O child of France, shepherdess, peasant-girl! trodden under foot by all around thee, how I honor thy flashing intellect,- quick as the lightning, and as true to its mark,—that ran before France and laggard Europe by many a century, confounding the malice of the ensnarer, and making dumb the oracles of falsehood! "Would you examine me as a witness against myself?" was the question by which many times she defied their arts. The result of this trial was the condemnation of Joan to be burnt alive. Never did grim inquisitors doom to death a fairer victim by baser means. Woman, sister! there are some things which you do not execute as well as your brother, man; no, nor ever will. Yet, sister, woman! cheerfully, and with the love that burns in depths of admiration, I acknowledge that you can do one thing as well as the best of men,you can die grandly! On the twentieth of May, 1431, being then about nineteen years of age, Joan of Arc underwent her martyrdom. She was conducted before midday, guarded by eight hundred spearmen, to a platform of prodigious height, constructed of wooden billets, supported by occasional walls of lath and plaster, and traversed by hollow spaces in every direction, for the creation of air currents. With an undaunted soul, but a meek and saintly demeanor, the maiden encountered her terrible fate. Upon her head was placed a mitre, bearing the inscription, “Relapsed heretic, apostate, idolatress." Her piety displayed itself in the most touching manner to the last, and her angelic forgetfulness of self was manifested in a remarkable degree. The executioner had been directed to apply his torch from below. He did so. The fiery smoke rose upwards in billowing volumes. A monk was then standing at Joan's side. Wrapt up in his sublime office, he saw not the danger, but still persisted in his prayers. Even then, when the last enemy was racing up the fiery stairs to seize her, |