around them in such a manner as to conceal their dark hulls from the gaze of the curious and interested spectators on the cliffs.

The heavy reports of the cannon were now mingled with the rattling of muskets and pistols, and streaks of fire might be seen, glancing like flashes of lightning through the white clouds, which enshrouded the combatants, and many minutes of painful uncertainty followed, before the deeply interested soldiers, who were gazing at the scene, discovered on whose banners victory had alighted.

We shall follow the combatants into their misty wreath, and display to the reader the events as they occurred.

The fire of the Ariel, was much the most quick and deadly, both because she had suffered less, and her men were less exhausted; and the Cutter stood desperately on to decide the combat, after grappling, hand to hand. Barnstable anticipated her intention, and well understood her commander's reason for adopting this course, but he was not a man to calculate coolly his advantages, when pride and daring invited him to a more severe trial. Accordingly, he met the enemy halfway, and, as the vessels rushed together, the stern of the schooner was secured to the bows of the Cutter, by the joint efforts of both parties. The voice of the English commander was now plainly to be heard, in the uproar, calling to his men to follow him.

66

Away there boarders! repel boarders on the starboard quarter!” shouted Barnstable through his trumpet.

This was the last order that the gallant young sailor gave with this instrument, for, as he spoke, he cast it from him, and seizing his sabre, flew to the spot where the enemy was about to make his most desperate effort. The shouts, execrations, and tauntings of the combatants, now succeeded to the roar of the cannon, which could be used no longer with effect, though the fight was still maintained with spirited discharges of the small arms.

"Sweep him from his decks!" cried the English commander, as he appeared on his own bulwarks surrounded by a dozen of his bravest men; "drive the rebellious dogs into the sea!"

"Away there, marines!" retorted Barnstable, firing his pistol at the advancing enemy; "leave not a man of them to sup his grog again."

The tremendous and close volley that succeeded this order, nearly accomplished the command of Barnstable to the letter, and the commander of the Alacrity, perceiving that he stood

alone, reluctantly fell back on the deck of his own vessel, in order to bring on his men once more.

"Board her! grey beards and boys, idlers and all!" shouted Barnstable, springing in advance of his crew-a powerful arm arrested the movement of the dauntless seaman, and before he had time to recover himself, he was drawn violently back to his vessel by the irresistible grasp of his cockswain. "The fellow's in his flurry," said Tom, "and it wouldn't be wise to go within reach of his flukes; but I'll just step ahead and give him a set with my harpoon.'

Without waiting for a reply, the cockswain reared his tall frame on the bulwarks, and was in the attitude of stepping on board of his enemy, when a sea separated the vessels, and he fell with a heavy dash of the waters into the ocean. As twenty muskets and pistols were discharged at the instant he appeared, the crew of the Ariel supposed his fall to be occasioned by his wounds, and were rendered doubly fierce by the sight, and the cry of their commander.

66

Revenge long Tom! board her."

They threw themselves forward in irresistible numbers, and forced a passage with much bloodshed to the forecastle of the Alacrity. The Englishman was overpowered, but still remained undaunted-he rallied his crew, and bore up most gallantly to the fray. Thrusts of pikes, and blows of sabres were becoming close and deadly, while muskets and pistols, were constantly discharged by those, who were kept at a distance by the pressure of the throng of closer combatants.

A ma

Barnstable led his men, in advance, and became a mark of peculiar vengeance to his enemies, as they slowly yielded before his vigorous assaults. Chance had placed the two commanders on opposite sides of the Cutter's deck, and the victory seemed to incline towards either party, wherever these daring officers directed the struggle in person. But the Englishman, perceiving that the ground he maintained in person, was lost elsewhere, made an effort to restore the battle by changing his position, followed by one or two of his best men. rine, who preceded him, levelled his musket within a few feet of the head of the American commander, and was about to fire, when Merry glided among the combatants, and passed his dirk into the body of the man, who fell at the blow. Shaking his piece, with horrid imprecations, the wounded soldier prepared to deal his vengeance on his youthful assailant, when the fearless boy leaped within its muzzle, and buried his own keen weapon in his heart.

"Hurrah!" shouted the unconscious Barnstable, from the edge of the quarter-deck, where, attended by a few men, he was driving all before him. "Revenge-long Tom and victory!"

86

We have them!" exclaimed the Englishman, "handle your pikes! we have them between two fires."

The battle would probably have terminated very differently from what previous circumstances had indicated, had not a wild looking figure appeared in the Cutter's channels, at that moment, issuing from the sea, and gaining the deck at the same instant. It was long Tom-with his iron visage rendered fierce by his previous discomfiture, and his grizzled locks drenched with the briny element, from which he had risen, looking like Neptune with his trident. Without speaking, he poised his harpoon, and with a powerful effort, pinned the unfortunate Englishman to the mast of his own vessel.

"Starn all!” cried Tom, by a sort of instinct, when the blow was struck; and catching up the musket of the fallen marine, he dealt out terrible and fatal blows with its butt, on all who approached him, utterly disregarding the use of the bayonet or its muzzle. The unfortunate commander of the Alacrity brandished his sword with frantic gestures, while his eyes rolled in horrid wildness, when he writhed for an instant in his passing agonies, and then, as his head dropped lifeless upon his gored breast, he hung against the spar, a spectacle of dismay to his crew. A few of the Englishmen stood, chained to the spot in silent horror at the sight, but most of them fled to their lower deck, or hastened to conceal themselves in the secret parts of the vessel, leaving to the Americans, the undisputed possession of the Alacrity.

LESSON XLIX.

Specimen of the Eloquence of James Otis: extracted from "The Rebels.". -MISS FRANCIS.

ENGLAND may as well dam up the waters of the Nile, with bulrushes, as to fetter the step of freedom, more proud and firm in this youthful land, than where she treads the sequestered glens of Scotland, or couches herself among the magnificent mountains of Switzerland. Arbitrary principles, like those, against which we now contend, have cost one king

of England his life, another his crown-and they may yet cost a third his most flourishing colonies. We are We are two millions-one fifth fighting men. bold and vigorous, and we call no man master. To the nation, from whom we are proud to derive our origin, we ever were, and we ever will be, ready to yield unforced assistance; but it must not, and it never can be extorted.

Some have sneeringly asked, "Are the Americans too poor to pay a few pounds on stamped paper?" No! America, thanks to God and herself, is rich. But the right to take ten pounds, implies the right to take a thousand; and what must be the wealth, that avarice, aided by power, cannot exhaust? True the spectre is now small; but the shadow he casts before him, is huge enough to darken all this fair land. Others, in sentimental style, talk of the immense debt of gratitude, which we owe to England. And what is the amount of this debt? Why, truly, it is the same that the young lion owes to the dam, which has brought it forth on the solitude of the mountain, or left it amid the winds and storms of the desert.

We plunged into the wave, with the great charter of freedom in our teeth, because the faggot and torch were behind us. We have waked this new world from its savage lethargy; forests have been prostrated in our path; towns and cities have grown up suddenly as the flowers of the tropicks, and the fires in our autumnal woods are scarcely more rapid, than the increase of our wealth and population.

And do we owe all this to the kind succour of the mother country? No! we owe it to the tyranny, that drove us from her, to the pelting storms, which invigorated our helpless. infancy.

But perhaps others will say "We ask no money from your gratitude, we only demand that you should pay your own expenses." And who I pray, is to judge of their necessity? Why, the King-(and with all due reverence to his sacred majesty, he understands the real wants of his distant subjects, as little as he does the language of the Choctaws.) Who is to judge concerning the frequency of these demands? The ministry. Who is to judge whether the money is properly expended? The cabinet behind the throne.

In every instance, those who take, are to judge for those who pay; if this system is suffered to go into operation, we shall have reason to esteem it a great privilege, that rain

and dew do not depend upon parliament; otherwise they would soon be taxed and dried.

But thanks to God, there is freedom enough left upon earth to resist such monstrous injustice. The flame of liberty is extinguished in Greece and Rome, but the light of its glowing embers is still bright and strong on the shores of America. Actuated by it sacred influence, we will resist unto death. But we will not countenance anarchy and misrule. The wrongs, that a desperate community have heaped upon their enemies, shal lbe amply and speedily repaired. Still, it may be well for some proud men to remember, that a fire is lighted in these colonies, which one breath of their king may kindle into such fury that the blood of all England cannot extinguish it.

LESSON L.

Passage of the Delaware, and battles of Trenton and Princeton, 1776.-RAMSAY.

On the capture of General Lee, the command of his army devolved on General Sullivan, who, in obedience to the orders formerly given, joined General Washington. About the

same time, an addition was made to his force, by the arrival of a part of the northern army. The Americans now amounted to about seven thousand men, though, during the retreat through the Jerseys, they were seldom equal to half that number.

The two armies were separated from each other, by the river Delaware. The British, in the security of conquest, cantoned their troops in Burlington, Bordenton, Trenton, and other towns of New Jersey, in daily expectation of being enabled to cross into Pennsylvania, by means of ice, which is generally formed about that time. On receiving information of their numbers, and different cantonments, Washington observed, "Now is the time to clip their wings, when they are so spread," Yielding to his native spirit of enterprize, which had hitherto been repressed, he formed the bold design of recrossing the Delaware, and attacking the British posts on its eastern banks.

In the evening of christmas-day, he made arrangements for passing over in three divisions; at M'Konkey's ferry, at