s army by Sardanapalus. Two
million men are put into motion by the moving of the Assyrian flag-staff
in the hand of the king, who takes his station on a mount conspicuous to
all the army. This flag-staff, though "tall as a mast"--Mr Atherstone
does not venture to go on to say with Milton, "hewn on Norwegian hills,"
or "of some tall ammiral," though the readers' minds supply the
deficiency--this mast was, we are told, for "_two strong men_ a task;"
but it must have been so for twenty. To have had the least chance of
being all at once seen by two million of men, it could not have been
less than fifty feet high--and if Sardanapalus waved the royal standard
of Assyria round his head, Samson or O'Doherty must have been a joke to
him. However, we shall suppose he did; and what was the result? Such
shouts arose that the solid walls of Nineveh were shook, "and the firm
ground made tremble." But this was not all.

"At his height,
A speck scarce visible, the eagle heard,
And felt his strong wing falter: terror-struck,
Fluttering and wildly screaming, down he sank--
Down through the quivering air: another shout,--
His talons droop--his sunny eye grows dark--
His strengthless pennons fail--plump down he falls,
Even like a stone. Amid the far-off hills,
With eye of fire, and shaggy mane uprear'd,
The sleeping lion in his den sprang up;
Listen'd awhile--then laid his monstrous mouth
Close to the floor, and breathed hot roarings out
In fierce reply."

What think ye of that, John Audubon, Charles Buonaparte, J. Prideaux
Selby, James Wilson, Sir William Jardine, and ye other European and
American ornithologists? Pray, Mr Atherstone, did you ever see an
eagle--a speck in the sky? Never again suffer yourself, oh, dear sir! to
believe old women's tales of men on earth shooting eagles with their
mouths; because the thing is impossible, even had their mouthpieces had
percussion-locks--had they been crammed with ammunition to the muzzle.
Had a stray sparrow been fluttering in the air, he would certainly have
got a fright, and probably a fall--nor would there have been any hope
for a tom-tit. But an eagle--an eagle ever so many thousand feet
aloft--poo, poo!--he would merely have muted on the roaring multitude,
and given Sardanapalus an additional epaulette. Why, had a string of
wild-geese at the time been warping their way on the wind, they would
merely have sh