What was it that passed like an ominous breath—
Like a shiver of fear, or a touch of death?

What was it? The valley is peaceful still,
And the leaves are afire' on top of the hill.
It was not a sound-nor thing of sense-
But a pain, like the pang of the short suspense
That thrills the being of those who see
At their feet the gulf of Eternity!

The air of the valley has felt the chill:
The workers pause at the door of the mill;
The housewife, keen to the shivering air,
Arrests her foot on the cottage stair,
Instinctive taught by the mother-love,
And thinks of the sleeping ones above.
Why start the listeners? Why does the course
Of the mill stream widen? Is it a horse-
Hark to the sound of his hoofs, they say-
That gallops so wildly Williamsburg way?

Ah! what was that like a human shriek
From the winding valley? Will nobody speak?
Will nobody answer those women who cry
As the awful warnings thunder by?

Whence came they? Listen! And now they hear
The sound of the galloping horse-hoofs near:
They watch the trend of the vale, and see
The rider who thunders so menacingly,
With waving arms and warning scream

To the house-filled banks of the valley stream.

He draws no rein, but he shakes the street

15

20

25

With a shout and the ring of the galloping 30

feet;

5

10

15

And this the cry he flings to the wind:
"To the hills for your lives! The flood is behind!"
He cries and is gone; but they know the worst-
The breast of the Williamsburg dam has burst!
The basin that nourished their happy homes
Is changed to a demon-It comes! it comes!

A monster in aspect with shaggy front
Of shattered dwellings, to take the brunt

Of the homes they shatter-white-maned and hoarse,
The merciless terror fills the course

Of the narrow valley, and rushing raves,
With Death on the first of its hissing waves,
Till cottage and street and crowded mill
Are crumbled and crushed.

But onward still,

In front of the roaring flood is heard
The galloping horse and the warning word.
Thank God! the brave man's life is spared!
From Williamsburg town he nobly dared
To race with the flood and take the road
In front of the terrible swath' it mowed.
For miles it thundered and crashed behind,
But he looked ahead with a steadfast mind;
"They must be warned!" was all he said,
As away on his terrible ride he sped.

When heroes are called for, bring the crown
To this Yankee rider: send him down
On the stream of time with the Curtius old;"
His deed as the Roman's was brave and bold,
And the tale can as noble a thrill awake,
For he offered his life for the people's sake.

5

SCARCELY had the Arabs become firmly settled in Spain when they commenced a brilliant career. Adopting what had now become the established policy of the Commanders of the Faithful in Asia,' the Emirs' of Cordova distinguished themselves as patrons of learning, and set an example of refinement strongly contrasting with the condition of the native European princes. Cor dova, under their administration, at its highest point of prosperity, boasted of more than two hundred thousand houses and more than a million of inhabitants. After 10 sunset, a man might walk through it in a straight line for ten miles by the light of the public lamps. Seven hundred years after this time there was not so much as one public lamp in London. Its streets were solidly paved. In Paris, centuries subsequently, whoever stepped 15 over his threshold on a rainy day stepped up to his ankles in mud. Other cities, as Granada, Seville, Toledo, considered themselves rivals of Cordova. The palaces of the caliphs were magnificently decorated. Those sovereigns might well look down with supercilious con-20 tempt on the dwellings of the rulers of Germany, France, and England, which were scarcely better than stableschimneyless, windowless, and with a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape, like the wigwams of certain Indians. The Spanish Mohammedans had brought with 25 them all the luxuries and prodigalities of Asia. Their

residences stood forth against the clear blue sky, or were embosomed in woods. They had polished marble balconies, overhanging orange gardens; courts with cascades of water; shady retreats provocative of slumber in the heat of the day; retiring rooms vaulted with. stained glass, speckled with gold, over which streams of water were made to gush; the floors and walls were of exquisite mosaic. Here, a fountain of quicksilver shot up in a glistening spray, the glittering particles falling with a tranquil sound like fairy-bells; there, apartments" into which cool air was drawn from the flower gardens in summer, by means of ventilating towers, and in winter through earthen pipes, or caleducts, embedded in the walls- the hypocaust," in the vaults below, breathing forth volumes of warm and perfumed air through these 15 hidden passages. The walls were not covered with wainscot, but adorned with arabesques, and paintings of ag ricultural scenes and views of Paradise. From the ceilings, corniced with fretted gold, great chandeliers hung, one of which, it is said, was so large that it contained eighteen hundred and four lamps. Clusters of frail marble columns surprised the beholder with the vast weights they bore. In the boudoirs of the sultanas they were sometimes of verd antique, and incrusted with lapislazuli. The furniture was of sandal and citron wood, 25 inlaid with mother-of-pearl, ivory, silver, or relieved with gold and precious malachite. In orderly confusion were arranged vases of rock crystal, Chinese porcelains, and tables of exquisite mosaic. The winter apartments were hung with rich tapestry; the floors were covered with 3 embroidered Persian carpets. Pillows and couches of elegant forms were scattered about the rooms, perfumed with frankincense. It was the intention of the Saracen architect, by excluding the view of the external land

scape, to concentrate attention on his work; and since the representation of the human form was religiously forbidden, and that source of decoration denied, his imagination ran riot with the complicated arabesques he introduced, and sought every opportunity of replacing. the prohibited works of art by the trophies and rarities of the garden. For this reason, the Arabs never produced artists; religion turned them from the beautiful, and made them soldiers, philosophers, and men of affairs. Splendid flowers and rare exotics ornamented the court- 10 yards and even the inner chambers. Great care was taken to make due provision for the cleanliness, occupation, and amusement of the inmates. Through pipes of metal, water, both warm and cold, to suit the season of the year, ran into baths of marble; in niches, where the 15 current of air could be artificially directed, hung dripping alcarrazas. There were whispering galleries for the amusement of the women; labyrinths and marble play courts for the children; for the master himself, grand libraries. The caliph Alhakem's was so large 20 that the catalogue alone filled forty volumes. He had also apartments for the transcribing, binding, and ornamenting of books. A taste for caligraphy" and the possession of splendidly illuminated manuscripts seems to have anticipated in the caliphs, both of Asia and Spain, the taste for statuary and paintings among the later popes of Rome.

25

Such were the palace and gardens of Zehra, in which Abderrahman III." honored his favorite sultana. The edifice had twelve hundred columns of Greek, Italian, 30 Spanish, and African marble. Its hall of audience was incrusted with gold and pearls. The ladies of the harem12 were the most beautiful that could be found. To that establishment alone sixty-three hundred persons were at