School Reading by Grades: Sixth Year Part 24

=111.= "Montezuma." Cortes repaid this chieftain for his kindness by seizing him in his own house and carrying him to the Spanish quarters, where he kept him as a prisoner. The Aztecs attacked the quarters, and Montezuma, by the direction of Cortes, appeared on the wall to counsel peace. This so exasperated them that they pelted him with stones, and wounded him so that he died four days later.

=118.= "The Lions." Rosa Bonheur, from whose painting this picture has been reproduced, is one of the most famous painters of the nineteenth century, especially of animal life and of landscapes. She was born at Bordeaux, France, in 1828. For nearly fifty years she has been directress of the Free School of Design for Young Girls in Paris. Many of her paintings have received high praise, but the one by which she is best known in this country is "The Horse Fair," in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

=138.= "Sir William Wallace." One of the national heroes of Scotland.

His deeds are commemorated in a once very popular romance by Jane Porter ent.i.tled "The Scottish Chiefs" (1810).

=139.= "Schehallion." A mountain 35 miles northwest of Perth.

Alt.i.tude, 3547 feet.

=140.= "Royal Martyr." King Charles I. of England, beheaded by Parliament, 1649.

"King James." James II., at that time a fugitive from his throne.

"Covenanting traitors." Adherents of the "Solemn League and Covenant"

adopted by the Scottish Parliament in 1638, and by the English Parliament in 1643, for the preservation of the reformed religion in Scotland and the suppression of papacy and prelacy.

=153.= "Burgundy." The limits and character of the region known by this name have varied greatly at different periods of history. The Burgundy here mentioned was the great duchy of that name, the capital of which was Dijon. The Duke of Burgundy at the time of this story was the famous Charles the Bold, who was its ruler from 1467 to 1477.

After his death it pa.s.sed into the control of the king of France.

"Flanders." This country, which now forms the southeastern part of the province of Zealand, Netherlands, was united to Burgundy in 1369.

Upon the death of Charles the Bold it pa.s.sed to Austria; but since that time it has been successively acquired by various other neighboring states.

=154.= "Palisades." Strong long stakes one end of which is set in the ground and the other sharpened.

"Sappers." Builders of fortifications.

=155.= "Quarrels." Square-headed arrows for crossbows.

"Mantelets." Large shields of rope, wood, or metal.

"Mangonels." Engines for throwing stones or javelins.

=156.= "Barbican." See "Castle" in Webster's International Dictionary.

A tower for defending the entrance to a castle.

"Arbalester." A crossbowman.

"Half ell shaft." A shaft or arrow half an ell in length.

=158.= "Fascines" (fas'senz). Bundles of sticks bound together and used for filling ditches or raising batteries.

=160.= "Sir Turk." The Turkish catapult just described.

=163.= "Solway." Solway Firth, an arm of the Irish Sea, extending into Scotland: remarkable for the rapidity of its tides.

=164.= "Graeme" (gram). See page 138.

=165.= "Manoa" (ma no'a). The city ruled by the gilded king, El Dorado. It was said to be built on an island in a lake called Parima, somewhere in the northern part of South America. Beginning about 1530, great numbers of expeditions were made by the Spaniards in search of this fabled city, all of which ended in disappointment and disaster.

=175.= "Naught of strange." Nothing out of the usual order.

=176.= "Lindis." A small stream in Lincolnshire.

"Melick" (mel'ik). Melic gra.s.s, a kind of gra.s.s eaten by cattle.

=177.= "Warping down." Turning aside out of a straight course; moving in zigzag lines.

"Scope." A sea wall, or steep sh.o.r.e.

=178.= "Bairns." Little children.

=179.= "Eygre" (e'g?r). The flood tide moving with great force and swiftness up the river.

=181.= Henry II. of England was born in 1133; died, 1189. He was the first of the Plantagenet line of kings.

=182.= Thomas Becket, born in London, 1118, was the son of a rich merchant, and became a member of the household of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, about 1142. Through the influence of Theobald his interests with the king were advanced, and he became chancellor during the first year of Henry's reign. He was murdered in 1170.

=190.= In 1172 Becket was canonized under the t.i.tle of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and in 1220 his bones were removed to Trinity Chapel, where they became the object of great veneration. For several centuries pilgrimages were made to his shrine from all parts of England. Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" were related by a party of pilgrims who were making this journey, presumably near the close of the fourteenth century. By order of King Henry VIII. the shrine was finally destroyed, and the bones of Becket were scattered and burned.

=200.= "Genera." Plural of _genus_--a name applied to a cla.s.s of objects subdivided into species.

"Hen harriers." Hawks which fly low and hara.s.s fowls or small animals.

=201.= "Gallinae" (gal li'ne). The order of birds which includes domestic fowls, pheasants, quails, grouse, etc.

=205.= The National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was dedicated by President Lincoln, November 19, 1863. It was here that the great battle of Gettysburg was fought, July 1, 2, and 3 of the same year. The cemetery contains the graves of 3580 soldiers, with a central monument, built at a cost of $50,000, and a large number of regimental monuments on the various historic points of the battlefield.

=208.= "Vespasian and his son t.i.tus." Vespasian was emperor of Rome A.D. 70-79. He was succeeded by his son t.i.tus, who died two years later. Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by t.i.tus, acting as his father's general, in the year 70. Both these emperors expended large sums on public works. The Coliseum, although begun by Vespasian in 72, was not finished during his reign. Despite the enormous ma.s.s of the present ruins, it is estimated that they comprise only about one third of the original materials; the remainder have been carried away, destroyed, or used in the construction of other buildings.

=209.= "Orpheus." The sweet musician of Thrace whose music charmed birds and beasts, and caused even rocks and trees to move from their places to listen to the divine melody.

=212.= "The Last Prayer." Jean Leon Gerome, the painter of this picture, is a celebrated French artist, born at Vesoul in 1824. He studied in Italy, and to perfect himself in his art, traveled for some years in Egypt, Turkey, and other eastern countries. As might have been expected, the subjects of many of his paintings are oriental. In 1863, he became professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. His works are very numerous and meritorious.

=213.= The stanza of poetry quoted on this page is from Lord Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."

"Honorius." Honorius was born at Constantinople, A.D. 384, and became emperor of the western empire in 395 at the age of eleven years. He married the daughter of his guardian, Stilicho, in 398. It was during his reign (in 410) that Rome was taken and sacked by Alaric the Goth.

He died in 423.

=216.= "Lyonesse" (li o nes'). A mythical region, said to have extended from Land's End, in Cornwall, to the Scilly Islands. A tradition still exists of the submersion and destruction of this country, probably in the tenth century. King Arthur was said to have been a native of Lyonesse.

=217.= "Camelot." A legendary town in England where Arthur had his palace and court. It is supposed by some to have been near Winchester; others locate it in Wales.

"Merlin." A half-legendary bard and wizard, who is supposed to have lived in the early part of the sixth century. He was the companion and counselor of Arthur, and inst.i.tuted the Round Table at Carduel. The famous prose romance, called the "Romance of Merlin," was written in French by Helie de Borron about the year 1200. It was translated into English about the middle of the fifteenth century.

"Excalibur." The sword which Arthur had received from the Lady of the Lake. It had many miraculous qualities, and the wearer of its scabbard could lose no blood.

=223.= "Das throne." A throne raised upon an elevated platform or das.