Not though the soldier knew Theirs but to do and die, Into the valley of Death 3. Cannon to right of them, Volleyed and thundered; Rode the six hundred. 4. Flashed all their sabers bare, All the world wondered: Plunged in the battery smoke, Cossack and Russian Shattered and sundered. Then they rode back, but not- 5. Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volleyed and thundered; They that had fought so well 6. When can their glory fade? Alfred Tennyson. FOR PREPARATION.-I. "Balaklava "-find it on the Black Sea. When was this "charge"? What nations were ranged against the Russians? What military object had they in capturing Sevastopol? Who had “blundered "? II. League (leeg), vŏl'-leyed (-lid), dis-māyed', văl'-ley, sa'-bers. III. Explain the meaning given by rs in theirs; why the change of y to i-why fought instead of fight. IV. Explain "Light Brigade; "—"they broke the Russian line; "half a league." Correct "Cannon to right of 'em." V. "Charging an army "--why a whole army? (They rode, unsupported, into the ranks of the enemy, and thus exposed themselves to the attack of the entire Russian army. See LXVI., § 2.) "Jaws of Death" (personification). Mark the feet in the first stanza. Does the rhythm seem appropriate for the description of galloping horses? What passages de scribe well the soldiers' obedience to command? What moral traits did the soldiers of the Light Brigade exhibit? What nation is proud of their deed? LXVI. THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. 1. The whole brigade scarcely made one effective regiment, according to the numbers of Continental armies, and yet it was more than we could spare. As they rushed toward the front, the Russians opened on them from the guns in the redoubt on the right, with volleys of musketry and rifles. They swept proudly past, glittering in the morning sun in all the pride and splendor of war. 2. We could scarcely believe the evidence of our senses! Surely that handful of men are not going to charge an army in position! Alas! it was but too true. Their desperate valor knew no bounds, and far indeed was it removed from its so-called better part-discretion. 3. They advanced in two lines, quickening their pace as they closed toward the enemy. A more fearful spectacle was never witnessed than by those who beheld these heroes rushing to the arms of death. At the distance of twelve hundred yards the whole line of the enemy belched forth from thirty iron mouths a flood of smoke and flame, through which hissed the deadly balls. Their flight was marked by instant gaps in our ranks, by dead men and horses, by steeds flying wounded or riderless across the plain. 4. The first line is broken!—it is joined by the second! -they never halt, or check their speed an instant. With diminished ranks-thinned by those thirty guns, which the Russians had laid with the most deadly accuracywith a halo of flashing steel above their heads, and with a cheer which was many a noble fellow's death cry, they flew into the smoke of the batteries; but, ere they were lost from view, the plain was strewed with their bodies, and with the carcasses of horses. 5. They were exposed to an oblique fire from the batteries on the hills on both sides, as well as to a direct fire of musketry. Through the clouds of smoke we could see their sabers flashing as they rode up to the guns and dashed between them, cutting down the gunners as they stood. 6. To our delight, we saw them returning after breaking through a column of Russian infantry, and scattering them like chaff, when the flank fire of the battery on the hill swept them down, scattered and broken as they were. Wounded men and dismounted troopers flying toward us told the sad tale. Demigods could not have done what they had failed to do. 7. At the very moment when they were about to retreat, an enormous mass of lancers was hurled on their flank. Colonel Shewell, of the Eighth Hussars, saw the danger, and rode his few men straight at them, cutting his way through with fearful loss. The other regiments turned, and engaged in a desperate encounter. With courage too great almost for credence, they were breaking their way through the columns which enveloped them, when there took place an act of atrocity without parallel in the modern warfare of civilized nations. 8. The Russian gunners, when the storm of cavalry passed, returned to their guns. They saw their own cavalry mingled with the troopers who had just ridden over them; and, to the eternal disgrace of the Russian name, the miscreants poured a murderous volley of grape and canister on the mass of struggling men and horses, mingling friend and foe in one common ruin! It was as much as our heavy cavalry brigade could do to cover the retreat of the miserable remnants of the band of heroes as they returned to the place they had so lately quitted. At thirtyfive minutes past eleven not a British soldier, except the dead and dying, was left in front of the Russian guns. W. H. Russell. FOR PREPARATION.-I. W. H. Russell (correspondent of London Times). At what time of day do you infer this contest took place? (§ 8.) II. Re-doubt' (-dout'), splèn'-dor, be-lieve', wound'-ed (woond'-), strewed (strud), ob-lïque' (-leek'), strāight (strāt), păr'-al-lel. III.. "So-called" (explain use of hyphen). Explain use of dash before "discretion" (2). 66 IV. Regiment, demigods, atrocity, difference between "bodies" and carcasses," miscreants, grape and canister." 66 V. "More than we could spare"-for this purpose, or for death? Why "Alas!" (2)? For a newspaper correspondent's article, what do you think of its style? Rearrange the first sentence of 6th paragraph, so as to make it perfectly clear who were swept down by the "flank fire," and also make the sentence more forcible through contrasted clauses. Can you find any statements or comparisons which are exaggerated for effect? LXVII.-WINTER. 1. Orphan Hours, the Year is dead! For the Year is but asleep. 2. As an earthquake rocks a corse Solemn Hours, wail aloud |