CHARLES THE TWELFTH.

I. CHARLES THE TWELFTH, King of Sweden, born in 1682, was fifteen years old when the estates of his kingdom declared him of age to assume the reins of Government. Sweden was at that time the great power of the north of Europe. Provinces which were afterwards acquired by Russia and Germany, formed at the close of the 17th century a part of the kingdom of Sweden.

2. On his ascending the throne the three other potentates of the north, Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, Augustus II., King of Poland-which was then an independent nation-and Frederick IV., of Denmark, formed a secret league for his destruction. With the rapidity of lightning Charles fell upon the Danes.

3. He crossed the Sound, making directly for Copenhagen. On nearing the shore, with sword in hand, he plunged breast-high into the water, and with the musket balls-which henceforth he declared should be his "favourite music "--whistling about his ears, he stormed the Danish camp, and pursued them in headlong flight to the capital. The peasantry received him with enthusiasm, for to the Swedish soldiery plundering had been strictly forbidden, and his defeated adversary humbly sued for peace.

4. Next he crossed the Baltic, and with 8,000 Swedes overthrew a host of 80,000 Russians under the walls of Narva, in Livonia. The Poles were even more unfortunate. Poland he overran in the depth

of winter, dethroned its monarch, establishing a rival, Stanislaus, in his place, and then marched southwards to Silesia. Here he reinstated the suffering Protestants in the possession of their liberties and the churches of which they had been despoiled.

5. Numerous anecdotes are related to his credit. On one occasion two soldiers of his body-guard had robbed a peasant of a can full of milk and beaten the youth who attempted to prevent them. The king hearing the disturbance, rode up and, understanding what had happened, ordered the soldiers to draw lots, and the one to whom the lot fell was executed on the spot. Another time a dragoon was hung offhand for forcibly carrying away a chicken belonging to his host.

6. Such acts of stern justice endeared him to the common people, and are deserving of mention, as in some sort redeeming the character of those days of violence and horror. Peace was concluded with Poland at a place called Altrastadt, in 1706; and here it was that Charles received a visit from the great Duke of Marlborough. A memorable meeting between the most famous general of his time, a member of a nation which had then only recently won for itself the priceless blessing of constitutional freedom, and the "brilliant madman," as he was called, who shot meteor-like across the northern firmament, only to disappear in darkness, and leave not a trace behind him.

7. To pursue his history farther would be an ungrateful task, and not a profitable one. Suffice it to

say that at Pultowa (which is now in Russia) he was totally defeated by the Russians in 1709, and took refuge at Bender, in the Turkish dominions, whence, after several years of exile and many romantic adventures, he returned to his own country, only to fall by a musket shot, while laying siege to the little fortress of Friedrichshall, on the borders of Norway and Sweden, in the thirty-seventh year of his age, and the twenty-second of his reign.

8. It is pleasanter to dwell upon his virtues. He had a vigorous intellect and indomitable courage, an iron will which might be broken, but never bent by obstacles. He was good-natured. He was straightforward. Abstemious in his habits, he was content to fare like the common soldiers, and his drink was nothing but water; unaffectedly religious, twice and thrice a day he would retire to pray in private; with his tall slender person, upright carriage, brown complexion and merry blue eyes, he is an interesting picture amidst so much that is uninteresting if not revolting, one of the many of whom it is safe to say, that they would have been better men under better. circumstances.

C.

Sweden, one of the Northern states of Europe, is the eastern portion of the Scandinavian peninsula, and constitutes with Norway one joint kingdom, having a population of under five millions. In the days of Charles XII. large territories belonged to Sweden, which now form part of the Empire of Russia.

Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, 1672-1725, a man of great originality and genius, and a wise and vigorous, though cruel and despotic, ruler, devoted his life principally to the regeneration of his own country, Russia.

Poland was at the time here referred to an independent kingdom of considerable extent in the centre of Europe.

Denmark, the smallest of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, contains at present a population of less than three million souls.

The Sound is the strait, forty miles long and three miles broad, which leads from the Cattegat into the Baltic Sea.

Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, on the Island of Zealand, in the Sound, is a well-built city, with a fine harbour, a university, a royal palace, a famous museum, and many beautiful public buildings and institutions.

Livonia is now one of the three Baltic provinces of Russia, Courland and Esthonia being the other two.

John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, 1650-1722, a statesman of eminence, and one of the greatest generals of modern times, flourished in the reigns of James II., William III., Anne, and George I. It was in 1704 that he gained the famous victory of Blenheim.

1. Timber, hides, flax, hemp, tallow, amber, are among the exports of the Baltic sea-ports; say what they would severally be useful for. 2. Which do you think is best off-a farm labourer, a navvy, or a factory hand? Give your reasons.

3. Parse: "It is pleasanter to dwell upon his virtues."

NIGHT IN THE ITALIAN ALPS.

How beautiful this night! The balmiest sigh
Which vernal Zephyrs breathe in Evening's ear
Were discord to the speaking quietude

That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven's ebon
vault,

5 Studded with stars unutterably bright,

Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls,

Seems like a canopy which Love has spread To curtain her sleeping world. Yon gentle hills Robed in a garment of untrodden snow ; 10 Yon darksome rocks whence icicles depend, So stainless that their white and glittering spires

Tinge not the moon's pure beam; yon castled steep,

Whose banner hangeth o'er the time-worn tower So idly that wrapt fancy deemeth it 15 A metaphor of peace ;—all form a scene Where musing Solitude might love to lift Her soul above this sphere of earthliness, Where Silence undisturbed might watch aloneSo cold, so bright, so still.

20

The orb of day, In southern climes, o'er ocean's waveless field Sinks sweetly smiling: not the faintest breath Steals o'er the unruffled deep; the clouds of eve