Cutlass1 and corselet of steel, and his trusty sword of Damas Curved at the point and inscribed with its mystical Arabic sentence, While underneath, in a corner, were fowling-piece, musket, and matchlock." 10 Short of stature he was, but strongly built and athletic, of iron; Brown as a nut was his face, but his russet beard was already Flaked with patches of snow, as hedges sometimes in Novem Near him was seated John Alden, his friend and household 15 companion, Writing with diligent speed at a table of pine by the window; Fair-haired, azure-eyed, with delicate Saxon complexion, 1 A short, curved sword used by sailors. 2 A coat-of-mail, or piece of armor, consisting of breastplate and backpiece, worn by pike-men to protect the body. 3 Formerly the capital of Syria in Asiatic Turkey, and one of the oldest cities in the world. It was renowned for its sword-blades, which were made of such finely tempered steel that the point could be made to touch the hilt without breaking. They were often engraved with phrases from the Koran. The Pilgrim Society of Plymouth and the Massachusetts Historical Society both exhibit the alleged "identical sword-blade used by Miles Standish"! 4 A light gun for shooting water-fowl or other birds. • A form of musket invented about the end of the fourteenth century. It was fired by bringing a slow match of twisted rope fixed in a crooked iron lever into contact with the powder-pan, the lid of which was thrown forward by the hand. It was a very uncertain weapon in time of wind or rain, and was replaced by the flintlock about 1650. • Miles Standish (1584-1656) was born in England; fought in the Netherlands in their heroic struggle against the King of Spain, emigrated to New England in 1620; took a leading part in the wars with the Indians; visited England for supplies (1625-1626); was magistrate of Duxbury, and aided in the settlement of Bridgewater. He is mentioned in Bradford's and Winslow's Journal, which was printed in Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims. Little else is known with certainty of his history. John Alden (1599-1687) was born in England, emigrated to New England in 1620; married Priscilla Mullens; was a magistrate for over fifty years, and was active in the management of the new colony. He was one of the signers of the compact in the cabin of the "Mayflower." こ Having the dew of his youth, and the beauty thereof, as the captives Whom Saint Gregory' saw, and exclaimed, "Not Angles but Angels." Youngest of all was he of the men who came in the "May flower." 20 Suddenly breaking the silence, the diligent scribe interrupting, Spake, in the pride of his heart, Miles Standish the Captain of Plymouth. "Look at these arms," he said, "the warlike weapons that hang here Burnished and bright and clean, as if for parade or inspection! This is the sword of Damascus I fought with in Flanders; ' 25 this breastplate, Well I remember the day! once saved my life in a skirmish; 1 St. Gregory the Great (540?-604), Pope, and author of a book, Cura Pastoralis, which was translated by King Alfred the Great. The story of Gregory and the English slaves is thus told by Greene: Years ago, when but a young deacon, Gregory had noted the white bodies, the fair faces, the golden hair of some youths who stood bound in the market-place of Rome. "From what country do these slaves come?" he asked the traders who brought them. "They are English, Angles!" the slave-dealers answered. The deacon's pity veiled itself in poetic humor. "Not Angles, but Angels," he said, "with faces so angel-like!"-History of the English People, p. 54. Gregory wished to go as a missionary to Britain, but was restrained by the Pope. Seven years after his election as Pope (597) he sent St. Augustine with forty monks to Ethelbert, King of Kent, who was baptized with 10,000 of his subjects in the space of a year. 2 The ship which conveyed the Pilgrims from Southampton to Plymouth in 1620. It was a vessel of about 180 tons burden, and was named from the mayflower, which is the English hawthorn. In America the mayflower is the trailing arbutus. 3 Flanders, also called the Low Countries, or Netherlands, an ancient country of Europe extending along the North Sea from the Strait of Dover to the mouth of the Schelde, and including Belgium and parts of Holland and France. Its territory has varied much in extent. 4 A soldier armed with an arquebus, or ancient hand gun; also used loosely of a mus keteer. Had it not been of sheer steel, the forgotten bones of Miles Standish 30 Would at this moment be mould, in their grave in the Flemish morasses." Thereupon answered John Alden, but looked not up from his writing: "Truly the breath of the Lord hath slackened the speed of the bullet; He in his mercy preserved you, to be our shield and our weapon!" Still the Captain continued, unheeding the words of the stripling: "See, how bright they are burnished, as if in an arsenal 35 hanging; That is because I have done it myself, and not left it to others. Serve yourself, would you be well served, is an excellent adage; So I take care of my arms, as you of your pens and your inkhorn. Then, too, there are my soldiers, my great, invincible army, Twelve men, all equipped, having each his rest and his 4 matchlock, Eighteen shillings a month, together with diet and pillage, And, like Cæsar, I know the name of each of my soldiers! ' 40 1 The Bible was the one great book of the Puritans, and its phraseology became unconsciously a part of their thoughts and speech. Cf. the language of Alden with Psalms, xxxiii. 6, 20. 2 In the seventeenth century pens were commonly made of quills and ink-bottles of horn. 3 The support upon which the heavy matchlock was rested while being fired. 4 About four dollars and a half; but money was worth from three to five times as much at that time. 5 Caius Julius Cæsar, born 100 в.с., killed at Rome by Brutus, Cassius, and other conspirators, 44 в.с. Не was not only the first general and statesman of his age, but also, with the exception of Cicero, the greatest orator. He was also an accomplished mathematician, philologist, jurist, and architect, and the author of the famous Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars, mentioned in 1. 70. This he said with a smile, that danced in his eyes, as the sun beams Dance on the waves of the sea, and vanish again in a moment. Alden laughed as he wrote, and still the Captain continued: 45 "Look! you can see from this window my brazen howitzer1 planted High on the roof of the church, a preacher who speaks to the purpose, Steady, straightforward, and strong, with irresistible logic, Orthodox, flashing conviction right into the hearts of the heathen. Now we are ready, I think, for any assault of the Indians: 50 Let them come, if they like, and the sooner they try it the better, Let them come if they like, be it sagamore, sachem, or pow Aspinet, Samoset, Corbitant, Squanto, or Tokamahamon!" Long at the window he stood, and wistfully gazed on the landscape, Washed with a cold gray mist, the vapory breath of the eastwind, 55 Forest and meadow and hill, and the steel-blue rim of the ocean, Lying silent and sad, in the afternoon shadows and sunshine. Over his countenance flitted a shadow like those on the land scape, Gloom intermingled with light; and his voice was subdued with emotion, 1 A short, light cannon designed to throw large projectiles with comparatively small charges. The planting of the howitzer on the meeting-house occurred some time after the time of this poem. The settlement was fortified by five guns mounted on a platform on a neighboring hill. 2 A sachem was chief of a tribe; a sagamore, of a lower rank; and a pow-wow, a medicine man and conjuror. 3 These names were taken by the poet from the early histories of the colony. 60 Tenderness, pity, regret, as after a pause he proceeded: "Yonder there, on the hill by the sea, lies buried Rose Stan dish; Beautiful rose of love, that bloomed for me by the wayside! She was the first to die of all who came in the 'Mayflower!' Green above her is growing the field of wheat we have sown there, Better to hide from the Indian scouts the graves of our people, 65 Lest they should count them and see how many already have perished!" Sadly his face he averted, and strode up and down, and was thoughtful. Fixed to the opposite wall was a shelf of books, and among them Prominent three, distinguished alike for bulk and for binding; Barriffe's "Artillery Guide," and the "Commentaries of Cæsar," 70 Out of the Latin translated by Arthur Goldinge of London, And, as if guarded by these, between them was standing the Bible. Musing a moment before them, Miles Standish paused, as if doubtful Which of the three he should choose for his consolation and comfort, 1 The colonists suffered terribly during the first winter here referred to (1620-21), and about fifty out of a hundred of them died. Dr. Abiel Holmes, in his Annals of America, records how the survivors buried the dead on a hill near the beach and left the graves unmarked, so that the weakness of the colony might not be perceived by the Indians. 2 Colonel William Barriffe's Militarie Discipline; or, The Young Artillery Man, a work containing a system of tactics for gunners, musketeers, and pikemen. The author was a Puritan and added to the title of his book an appropriate passage of ScripturePsalms, cxliv. 1. • Arthur Golding (1536?-1605?), an English writer and friend of Sir Philip Sidney. He is remembered for his translations of Ovid, Cæsar, and De Mornay. |