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solved to marry her deliverer only, though he had lost an arm, and was otherwise disfigured by wounds received in the service.

9. In order, therefore, to prevent further solicitations from others, as soon as the officer came to town upon duty, she offered him her hand which he accepted with joy, and their nuptials were accordingly solemnized. But all the lines of her fortune were to be striking. The very day on which they were married, the Russians laid siege to Marienburgh; and the unhappy soldier was immediately ordered to an attack from which he never returned.

10. In the mean time the siege went on with fury, aggravated on one side by obstinacy, on the other by revenge.The war between the two northern powers at that time was truly barbarous: the innocent peasant, and the harmless virgin, often shared the fate of the soldier in arms. Marienburgh was taken by assault; and such was the fury of the assailants, that not only the garrison," but almost all the inhabitants, men, women, and children, were put to the sword. At length, when the carnage was pretty well over, Catharina was found hid in an oven.

11. She had hitherto been poor, but free; she was now to conform to her hard fate, and learn what it was to be a slave. In this situation, however, she behaved with piety and humility; and though misfortunes had abated her vivacity, yet she was cheerful. The fame of her merit and resignation. reached even prince Menzikoff, the Russian general. He desired to see her; was pleased with her appearance; bought her from the soldier, her master; and placed her under the direction of his own sister. Here she was treated with all the respect which her merit deserved; while her beauty every day improved with her good fortune.

12. She had not been long in this situation, when Peter the Great paying the prince a visit, Catharina happened to come in with some dried fruits, which she served round with peculiar modesty. The mighty monarch saw her, and was struck with her beauty. He returned the next day; called for the beautiful slave; asked her several questions; and found the charms of her mind superior even to those of her person.

13. He had been forced, when young, to marry from motives of interest: he was now resolved to marry pursuant to his own inclinations. He immediately inquired into the

Nuptials, marriage.

Siege, the besetting of a place with troops.

Peasant one who lives by rural labor.

d Gar'-ri-son, a body of troops in a fort. e Carnage, slaughter.

fPur-su-ant, done in consequence.

history of the fair Livonian, who was not yet eighteen. He traced her through the vale of obscurity; through the vicissitudes of her fortune; and found her truly great in them all. The meanness of her birth was no obstruction to his design. Thenuptials were solemnized in private; the prince declaring to his courtiers," that virtue was the surest ladder to a throne.

14. We now see Catharina, raised from the low, mud-wall ed cottage, to be Empress of the greatest kingdom upon carth. The poor, solitary wanderer, is now surrounded by thousands who find happiness in her smile. She, who formerly wanted a meal, is now capable of diffusing plenty upon whole nations. To her good fortune she owed a part of this pre-eminence, but to her virtues more. She ever after retained those great qualities which first placed her on a throne; and, while the extraordinary prince, her husband, labored for the reformation of his male subjects, she studied, in her turn, the improvement of her own sex. She altered their dresses; introduced mixed assemblies; instituted an order of female knighthood; promoted piety and virtue; and, at length, when she had greatly filled all the stations of empress, friend, wife, and mother, bravely died without regret,-regretted by all. Goldsmith.

SECTION II.

Execution of Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.

1. QUEEN MARY determined to bring Cranmer, whom she had long detained in prison, to punishment; and in order more fully to satiated her vengeance, she resolved to punish him for heresy, rather than for treason. He was cited by the Pope to stand his trial at Rome; and though he was known to be kept in close custody at Oxford, he was, upon his not appearing, condemned as contumacious. Bonner, bishop of London, and Thirleby, bishop of Ely, were sent to degrade him; and the former executed the melancholy ceremony, with all the joy and exultation which suited his savage nature.

2. The implacables spirit of the Queen, not satisfied with the future misery of Cranmer, which she believed inevitable, and with the execution of that dreadful sentence to which he was condemned, prompted her also to seck the ruin of

a Vi-cis'-si-tudes, regular changes. 6 Court-iers, attendants on courts.

c Arch bishop, a chief bishop. d Satiate, to ill, to satisfy.

e Her'-e-sy, errors in doctrine.
fCon-tu-ma'-cions, obstinate, perverse.
g Im-pla'-ca-ble not to be appcased.

his honor, and the infamy of his name. Persons were em ployed to attack him, not in the way of disputation, against which he was sufficiently armed; but by flattery, insinuation, and address; by representing the dignities to which his cha racter still entitled him, if he would inerit them by a recantation; by giving him hopes of long enjoying those powerful friends, whom his beneficent disposition had attached to him during the course of his prosperity.

3. Overcome by the fond love of life; terrified by the pros pect of those tortures which awaited him; he allowed, in an unguarded hour, the sentiment of nature to prevail over his resolution, and agreed to subscribe to the doctrines of the papal supremacy, and of the real presence. The court, equally perfidious and cruel, was determined that this recantation should avail him nothing; and sent orders that he should be required to acknowledge his errors in church, be fore the whole people; and that he should thence be immediately carried to execution.

4. Cranmer, whether he had received a secret intimation of their design, or had repented of his weakness, surprised the audience by a contrary declaration. He said that he was well apprised of the obedience which he owed to his sovereign and the laws; but that his duty extended no farther then to submit patiently to their commands, and to bear, without resistance, whatever hardships they should impose upon him; that a superior duty, the duty which he owed to his Maker, obliged him to speak truth on all occasions, and not to relinquish, by a base denial, the holy doctrine which the Supreme Being had revealed to mankind; that there was one miscarriage in his life, of which above all others he severely repented, the insincere declaration of faith to which he had the weakness to consent, and which the fear of death alone had extorted from him; that he took this opportunity of atoning for his error by a sincere and open recantation, and was willing to seal with his blood that doctrine, which he firmly believed to be communicated from heaven; and that as his hand had erred by betraying his heart, it should first be punished by a severe and just doom, and should first pay the forfeit of its offenses.

5. He was then led to the stake, amidst the insults of his enemies, and having now summoned up all the force of his mind, he bore their scorn, as well as the torture of his punishment, with singular fortitude. He stretched out his hand, and, without betraying, either by his countenance or motions,

a Pa'-pal, belonging to the Pope. Ap-pri-sed, informed, notified.

e Ex-tort-ed, exacted oppressively.

d Re-cant-a-tion, a retraction of opinion.

the least sign of weakness, or even of feeling, he held it in the flames till it was entirely consumed. His thoughts seemed wholly occupied with reflections on his former faults; and ne called aloud several times, "this hand has offended."

6. Satisfied with that atonement, he then discovered a se renity in his countenance; and when the fire attacked his body, he seemed to be quite insensible of his outward sufferings, and by the force of hope and resolution, to have collected his mind altogether within itself, and to repel the fury of the flames.-He was undoubtedly a man of merit, possessed of learning and capacity, and adorned with candor, sincerity, and beneficence, and all those virtues which were fitted to render him useful and amiable in society.—Hume.

SECTION III.

The Voyage of Life-an Allegory."

I. "LIFE," says Senec, "is a voyage, in the progress of which we are perpetually changing our scenes. We first leave childhood behind us, then youth, then the years of ripened manhood, then the better, or more pleasing part of old age." The perusal of this passage having excited in me a train of reflections on the state of man,-the incessant fluctuation of his wishes, the gradual change of his disposition to all external objects, and the thoughtlessness with which he floats along the stream of time,-I sunk into a slumber amidst my meditations, and, on a sudden, found my ears filled with the tumult of labor, the shouts of alacrity," the shrieks' of alarm, the whistle of winds, and the dash of waters.

2. My astonishment for a time suppressed my curiosity; but soon recovering myself so far as to inquire whither we were going, and what was the cause of such clamor and confusion, I was told that we were launching out into the ocean of life; that we had already passed the straits of infancy, in which multitudes had perished,-some by the weakness and fragility of their vessels, and more by the folly, perverseness. or negligence of those who undertook to steer them,-and that we were now on the main sea, abandoned to the winds and billows, without any other means of security than the care of the pilot, whom it was always in our power to choose, anong great numbers that offered their direction and assist

ance.

3. I then looked around with anxious eagerness; and, first

a Be-nef-i-cence, generosity, goodness. b Al-lo-go-ry, a figurative manner of spe ch

e Fluc-tu-a'-tion, unsteadiness.

d A-lac-ri-ty, cheerfulness, liveliness.

turning my eyes behind me, saw a stream flowing through flowery islands, which every one that sailed along seemed to behold with pleasure; but no sooner touched them, than the current, which though not noisy nor turbulent was yet irresistible, bore him away. Beyond these islands all was darkness; nor could any of the passengers describe the shore at which he first embarked.

a

b

4. Before me, and on each side, was an expanse of waters violently agitated, and covered with so thick a mist, that the most perspicacious eye could see but little way. It appeared to be full of rocks and whirlpools; for many sunk unexpectedly while they were courting the gale with full sails, and insulting those whom they had left behind. So numerous. indeed, were the dangers, and so thick the darkness, that nó caution could confer security. Yet there were many, who by false intelligence betrayed their followers into whirlpools, or by violence pushed those whom they found in their way against the rocks.

5. The current was invariable and insurmountable: but though it was impossible to sail against it, or to return to the place that was once passed, yet it was not so violent as to allow no opportunities for dexterity or courage; since, though none could retreat back from danger, yet they might often avoid it by oblique direction.

e

d

6. It was, however, not very common to steer with much care or prudence; for, by some universal infatuation, every man appeared to think himself safe, though he saw his consorts every moment sinking around him; and no sooner had the waves closed over them, than their fate and their misconduct were forgotten; the voyage was pursued with the same jocund * confidence; every man congratulated himself upon the soundness of his vessel, and believed himself able to stem the whirlpool in which his friend was swallowed, or glide over the rocks on which he was dashed; nor was it often observed that the sight of a wreck made any man change his course. If he turned aside for a moment, he soon forgot the rudder. f and left himself again to the disposal of chance.

7. This negligence did not proceed from indifference, or from weariness of their present condition; for not one of those who thus rushed upon destruction, failed, when he was sinking, to call loudly upon his associates for that help which could not now be given him; and many spent their last moments in cautioning others against the folly, by which they

fr-re-sist' i-hle not to be resisted. Per-spi-ca'-cious, quick sighted.

e Oblique', deviating from a right line. d In-fat u-a-tion, deprivation of reason.

e Joc'und, merry, gay.

Rudder, the instrument by which a ship is steered.

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