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The prophet spoke, the thunder rolled!
Along the pathway of the sun
Sailed vapory mountains, wild and dun.

"Yet there is time," the prophet saidHe raised his staff; the storm was stayed. "King! be the word of freedom given; What art thou, man, to war with Heaven?"

There came no word. The thunder broke!
Like a huge city's final smoke,

Thick, lurid, stifling, mixed with flame,
Through court and hall the vapors came.

Loose as the stubble in the field,
Wide flew the men of spear and shield;
Scattered like foam along the wave,
Flew the proud pageant, prince and slave;
Or, in the chains of terror bound,

Lay, corpse-like, on the smoldering ground.
"Speak, king! the wrath is but begun -
Still dumb?- then, Heaven, thy will be done!"

Echoed from earth a hollow roar,

Like ocean on the midnight shore;
A sheet of lightning o'er them wheeled,
The solid ground beneath them reeled;
In dust sank roof and battlement;
Like webs the giant walls were rent;
Red, broad, before his startled gaze,
The monarch saw his Egypt blaze.

Still swelled the plaguea— the flame grew pale;

Burst from the clouds the charge of hail;

With arrowy keenness, iron weight,

Down poured the ministers of fate;

The seventh plague of Egypt is referred to.

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Till man and cattle, crushed, congealed,
Covered with death the boundless field.

Still swelled the plague, uprose the blast,
The avenger, fit to be the last;

On ocean, river, forest, vale,
Thundered at once the mighty gale.

Before the whirlwind flew the tree,
Beneath the whirlwind roared the sea;
A thousand ships were on the wave

Where are they?— Ask that foaming grave!
Down go the hope, the pride of years,
Down go the myriad mariners;

The riches of Earth's richest zone,
Gone! like a flash of lightning, gone!

And, lo! that first fierce triumph o'er,
Swells Ocean on the shrinking shore;
Still onward, onward, dark and wide,
Engulfs the land the furious tide.
Then bowed thy spirit, stubborn king,
Thou serpent, reft of fang and sting;
Humbled before the prophet's knee,
He groaned, "Be injured Israel free."

To heaven the sage upraised his wand
Back rolled the deluge from the land;
Back to its caverns sank the gale;
Fled from the noon the vapors pale;
Broad burned again the joyous sun:
The hour of wrath and death was done.

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[In reading the following beautiful specimen of rhetorical dialogue the reader must personate four characters; the chief, boatman, lady and lord; and vary his voice so as to express the emotions, which prompted the language of the several speakers. See Personation, Plain and Rhetorical Dialogue, p. 62.]

1.

A CHIEFTAIN to the Highlands bound,
Cries, "Boatman, do not tarry!
And I'll give thee a silver pound,
To row us o'er the ferry."

2. "Now who be ye, would cross Lochgyle,
This dark and stormy water?"

"Oh, I'm the chief of Ulva's isle,
And this, Lord Ullin's daughter.

3." And fast before her father's men

Three days we've fled together,
For should he find us in the glen,

My blood would stain the heather."

4. "His horsemen hard behind us ride;
Should they our steps discover,
Then who would cheer my bonny bride
When they have slain her lover?"

5. Out spoke the hardy Highland wight,
"I'll go, my chief; I'm ready;
It is not for your silver bright,
But for your winsome lady.

• Lochgyle, (lok-gile' ;) a lake in the Highlands, or north part of Scotland. b Heather (Scotch phrase ;) a shrub of many species. Bonny, (Scotch phrase ;) pretty, handsome Win'some, (Scotch phrase ;) cheerful, merry.

6. "And by my word! the bonny bird
In danger shall not tarry;

So, though the waves are raging white,
I'll row you o'er the ferry."

7. By this the storm grew loud apace,
The water wraith was shrieking,

And in the scowl of heaven each face
Grew dark as they were speaking.

8. But still as wilder blew the wind,
And as the night grew drearer,
Adown the glen rode armed men,
Their trampling sounded nearer.

9. "O, haste thee, haste!" the lady cries,
"Though tempests round us gather,
I'll meet the raging of the skies,
But not an angry father."

10. The boat has left a stormy land,
A stormy sea before her,

When, O! too strong for human hand,
The tempest gathered o'er her.

11. And still they rowed amidst the roar
Of waters fast prevailing;

Lord Ullin reached that fatal shore,

His wrath was changed to wailing.

12. For sore dismayed, through storm and shade, His child he did discover;

One lovely hand she stretched for aid,
And one was round her lover.

13. "Come back! come back!" he cried in grief, Across the stormy water:

"And I'll forgive your Highland chief,
My daughter! O my daughter!"

Wraith, (Scotch phrase ;) the evil spirit of the waters.

14. 'T was vain: the loud waves lashed the shore,

Return or aid preventing ;

The waters wild went o'er his child,

And he was left lamenting.

LESSON LXXXVII.

A SCENE IN THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS."

MELLEN.

1. We first came to the verge of the precipice, from which the water takes its leap upon a platform that projects with the rock many feet over the chasm. Here we gazed into the dell and the basin into which the stream pours itself from the beetling cliff. But the prospect from this point is far less thrilling than from below; and we accordingly began our descent.

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2. Winding round the crags, and following a foot-path between the overhanging trees, we gradually, and with some difficulty, descended so far as to have a fine view of the station which we had just left. The scene here is magnificent beyond description. Far under the blackened canopy of everlasting rock, that shoots above to an alarming extent over the abyss, the eye glances round a vast and regular amphitheater, which seems to be the wild assembling-place of all the spirits of the storms; so rugged, so deep, so secluded, and yet so threatening does it appear!

3. Down from the midst of the cliff that over-arches this wonderful excavation, and dividing in the midst of the gloom that seems to settle within it, comes the foaming torrent, splendidly relieved upon the black surface of the enduring walls, and throwing its wreaths of mist along the frowning ceiling. Following the guide that had brought us thus far down the chasm, we passed into the amphitheater, and moving

a Catskill mountains; a range of mountains in New York, extending along the Hud. son, 3804 feet above the sea.

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