FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32  
33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   >>   >|  
green neck: On every one's forehead There glitters a star, With a hairy train Of light _floating from afar_, And pale or fiery red. Now old Eolus goes To each muttering blast, Scattering blows; And some he binds fast In hollow rocks vast, And others he gags With thick heavy foam. 'Twing them round The sharp rugged crags That are sticking out near,' Growls he, 'for fear They all should rebel, And so play hell.' Those that he bound, Their prison-walls grasp, And through the dark gloom Scream fierce and yell: While all the rest gasp, In rage fruitless and vain. Their shepherd now leaves them To howl and to roar-- Of his presence bereaves them, To feed some young breeze On the violet odour, And to teach it on shore To rock the green trees. But no more can be said Of what was transacted And what was enacted In the heaving abodes Of the great sea-gods." * * * * * THE IMPOSSIBILITIES OF HISTORY. In _The Tablet_ of June 18 is a leading article on the proposed erection of Baron Marochetti's statue of Richard Coeur de Lion. Theology and history are mixed: of course I shall carefully exclude the former. I have tried to trace the statements to their sources; and where I have failed, perhaps some of your readers may be able to help me. "When the physicians told him that they could do nothing more for him, and when his confessor had done his duty faithfully and with all honesty, the stern old soldier commanded his attendants to take him off the bed, and lay him naked on the bare floor. When this was done, he then bade them take a discipline and scourge him with all their might. This was the last command of their royal master; and in this he was obeyed with more zeal than he found displayed when at the head of his troops in Palestine." I find no record that "the stern old soldier," who was then forty-two years of age, and whom the writer oddly calls Richard II., had any reason to complain of want of zeal in his troops. They fought well, and flogged well--if they flogged at all. Richard died of gangrene in the shoulder; and I have the authority of an eminent physician for saying, that gangrene, so near the vital parts, would produce such mental and bodily prostration, that it is highly improbable that the patient, unless in delirium, shoul
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32  
33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Richard

 

troops

 

soldier

 
gangrene
 

flogged

 
bodily
 

mental

 

highly

 

improbable

 
prostration

produce

 

faithfully

 

physician

 

confessor

 

statements

 

delirium

 

carefully

 
exclude
 
sources
 
honesty

patient

 

readers

 
failed
 

physicians

 

reason

 

displayed

 

obeyed

 
complain
 

record

 

writer


Palestine

 

fought

 

master

 

shoulder

 

commanded

 

authority

 

attendants

 
command
 

scourge

 
discipline

eminent

 

HISTORY

 

rugged

 

sticking

 

prison

 

Growls

 

hollow

 

floating

 

glitters

 

forehead