frame, his natural human will shuddered and revolted at the execution
of this frightful doom, and it was not until hours had passed, and he
had wrestled mightily in prayer, that he learned to contemplate it
calmly. Then great consolations were vouchsafed him; his crown
glittered bright before him; the passage to death was shown him as
short, though terrible, the hereafter, long, long and glorious, even
glory forever and ever. Above all he was shown the cross; and, O, how
inexpressibly dear was the Lord who hung there; and how sweet was that
most beautiful of all the promises, "God himself shall wipe away all
tears."

It needs not to tell how his furious jailors burst in upon his
solitude. How they dragged him to the arena. How, when the blindness
from the intolerable sunlight had passed, he beheld the crowded rank
on rank of eager spectators, and heard the shout which greeted a fresh
victim. He looked upward to the clear, blue sky, where soft, lovely
clouds floated here and there, and he inhaled the sweet, elastic air.
There was the usual offer of reprieve, pardon, life, at the cost of a
single act of idolatry. There was heard at the same instant, the
savage roar of the hungry lion, now kept near in waiting for his prey.
There was the shout of triumph when that last offer was refused,
calmly, contemptuously. Then he quickly found himself alone in the
vast arena. Other victims had been there before him. He saw the
blood, hastily and slightly covered--he looked round once more; alas!
there was no human eye to pity, and no hand to spare. With a bound the
mighty beast was in the arena, and close upon him.

It was soon over. This was the conclusion of the day's spectacle, and
plebeian and patrician Romans were on their way homeward, talking of
this and that, merrily, carelessly; and the so lately crowded
Amphitheatre was solitary and deserted. But the sun, with his mighty
eye, looked down upon the guilty spot, and his hot beam drank up a
portion of the fresh blood, and the winds of heaven sighed round it,
and the clouds came and cast their shadows over it; and centuries have
passed since then, and still the sun and winds and clouds have gone
about it, day after day, and still the eye of God beholds, and its
dumb walls and crumbling arches cry aloud for vengeance.

GAME-BIRDS OF AMERICA.--NO. X.

THE RAIL. (_Rallus._ LINNAEUS.)

Taken altogether, the generic characters of the several kinds of Rail
may be stated