OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 133 what was literally "the best house in the place," namely, the family mansion of Mr. Featherstone. 15. Goldsmith accordingly rode up to what he supposed was an inn, ordered his horse to be taken to the stable, walked into the parlor, seated himself by the fire, and demanded what he could have for supper. On ordinary occasions he was diffident and even awkward in his manners, but here he was "at ease in his inn," and felt called upon to show his manhood and enact the experienced traveler. 16. His person was by no means calculated to play off his pretensions; for he was short and thick, with a pock-marked face, and an air and carriage by no means of a distinguished cast. The owner of the house, however, soon discovered his whimsical mistake, and, being a man of humor, determined to indulge it, especially as he accidentally learned that this intruding guest was the son of an old acquaintance. Accordingly Goldsmith was "fooled to the top of his bent," and permitted to have full sway throughout the evening. Never was schoolboy more elated. 17. When supper was served, he most condescendingly insisted that the landlord, his wife and daughter, should partake, and ordered a bottle of wine to crown the repast and benefit the house. His last flourish was on going to bed, when he gave especial order to have a hot cake at breakfast. His confusion and dismay, on discovering the next morning that he had been swaggering in this free and easy way in the house of a private gentleman, may be readily conceived. True to his habit of turning the events of his life to literary account, he dramatized this chapter of ludicrous blunders and cross purposes, many years afterward, in his comedy of "She Stoops to Conquer; or, the Mistakes of a Night." 134 THE SUMMONS AND THE LAMENT. LI. THE SUMMONS AND THE LAMENT. PI'вROCH (pi'brok), n., martial music | CUM'BER, n., vexation; trouble. produced by the bagpipe. HEAD'Y, a., rash; impetuous. PLAID (plăd), n., a striped cloth. GEAR, n., dress; furniture. in poetry or music. COR'EI (cor'ray), n., side of the hill where the game lies. FO'RAY, n., a sudden attack. RHYTHM (rithm), n., measure of time SUFFRAGE, n., vote; assent. COR'O-NACH (-nak), n., a dirge. PEN'NON, n., a banner. CU'MU-LA-TIVE, a., heaped up. VAS'SAL, n., a dependent. Pronounce Beattie, Beet'y; Donuil, Don'nil; de-ceased', not deceazed. 1. WE are told by Sir Walter Scott that those persons acquainted with the pipe-music of Scotland affect to discover, in a well-composed pibroch, the imitative sounds of a march, conflict, pursuit, and all the current of a heady fight. To this opinion Dr. Beattie has given his suffrage in the following passage: 2. "A pibroch is a species of tune peculiar, I think, to the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. It is performed on a bagpipe, and differs totally from all other music. Its rhythm is so irregular, and its notes, especially in the quick movement, so mixed and huddled together, that a stranger finds it impossible to reconcile his ear to it, so as to perceive its modulation. 3. "Some of these pibrochs, being intended to represent a battle, begin with a grave motion, resembling a march; then gradually quicken into the onset; run off with noisy confusion and turbulent rapidity, to imitate the conflict and pursuit; then swell into a few flourishes of triumphant joy; and perhaps close with the wild and slow wailings of a funeral procession." 4. In the following admirable poem, Sir Walter Scott seems to have tried to convey, as far as he could by language, an idea of this imitative modulation. The first two stanzas should be delivered in a moderate THE SUMMONS AND THE LAMENT. 135 though animated style. At the third stanza the reader's utterance should increase in rapidity, and then rise louder and louder, and quicker and quicker, with cumulative force, to the conclusion. "Pibroch of Donuil Dhu, pibroch of Donuil, Wake thy wild voice anew, summon Clan Conuil ! "Come from deep glen, and from mountain so rocky; Come every hill-plaid, and true heart that wears one; "Leave untended the herd, the flock without shelter; “Come, as the winds come, when forests are rended; "Fast they come, fast they come, see how they gather! 5. The coronach of the Highlanders, like the ululoo or funeral song of the Irish, was a wild expression of lamentation, poured forth by the mourners over the body of a departed friend. When the words of it were articulate, they expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss the clan would sustain by his death. Sir Walter Scott has given us an exquisite imitation of the coronach in the following lines. They afford an excellent exercise in low vocal pitch, and in a modulation, slow, impressive, and pathetic as a funeral march. "He is gone on the mountain, he is lost to the forest, Like a summer-dried fountain, when our need was the sōrest. “The hand of the reaper takes the ears that are hōary, “Fleet foot on the corei, sage counsel in cumber, Red hand in the foray, how sound is thy slumber! Like the dew on the mountain, like the foam on the river, LII.-JOAN OF ARC. LIN'E-AL, a., being in a direct line; | CHIV'AL-ROUs (shiv-), a., knightly. hereditary. AB'JECT, a., mean; base. DAUPHIN, n., title of the French king's eldest son. SOR'CER-Y, n., magic; witchcraft. tablished religious creed. VITIATE (vish'yate), v. t., to spoil. BILLET, n., a leg of wood cut with a A-POS'TATE, n., one who forsakes his bill or small hatchet. RE-LAPSE', v. i., to fall back. religion. IN-EV'I-TA-BLE, a., not to be shunned. PRE-TER-NAT'U-RAL, a., beyond what MA-LIG'NI-TY, n., malice; spite. is natural. LAG'GARD, a., backward; slow. Pronounce Jo'an in two syllables; Domremy, Dong-re-me'; Orleans, Or-le-ahng'; Troyes, Trō-ah'; Rheims, Răngz; coup-de-main (a rapid, successful attack), koo-demang'; neither, ne'ther or ni'ther; the former mode is preferred. 1. JOAN OF ARC was born, in 1412, in the little village of Domremy, on the borders of Lorraine, in France. Her parents were poor, and maintained themselves by their own labor upon a little land, with a few cattle. Jo'an worked in the field in summer, and in winter she sewed and spun. Small was her stock of learning, for she could neither read nor write; but she would often go apart by herself, in the pasture, as if to talk with God. She was a devout attendant at church, and gave to the poor to the utmost extent of her means; a girl of natural piety, that saw God in forests, and hills, and fountains, but did not the less seek him in places consecrated by religion. 2. Her native land was, at this period, in a distracted state. Paris was occupied by English troops, and the King of England was declared by a strong party the rightful heir of the throne of France. The people of the north of France, seeing in his success the end of strife, favored his cause; but in the south the country people and a part of the nobility stood by the lineal heir, Charles the Seventh, and by the old nǎtionality. Meanwhile the English were extending their power; and the city of Orleans was so closely besieged by them that its fall seemed inevitable. It was a dark day for France. 3. For some time Joan had entertained the belief that she was in communion with the spirits of departed saints; that she saw angelic visions, and heard angelic voices. These voices now whispered to her the duty imposed upon herself of delivering France and restoring its nationality. She found the means of making her way to the presence of the true heir of the throne, Charles the Seventh; and although, as he stood among his courtiers, he at first, in order to test her prophetic gift, maintained that he was not the king, she fell down and embraced his knees, declaring that he was the man. She offered to raise the siege of Orleans, and to conduct Charles to Rheims to be crowned. 4. At this time she was eighteen years old, slender and delicate in shape, with a pleasant countenance, a somewhat pale complexion, eyes rather melancholy than eager, and rich chestnut-brown hair. As the king's affairs were hopeless, he did not refuse what seemed the preternatural aid proffered by Joan. She demanded for herself a particular sword in the church |