THE KAISER'S FEAST.

[Louis, Emperor of Germany, having put his brother, the Palsgrave Rodolphus, under the ban of the Empire in the twelfth century, that unfortunate prince fled to England, where he died in neglect and poverty. "After his decease, his mother Matilda privately invited his children to return to Germany; and by her mediation, during a season of festivity, when Louis kept wassail in the castle of Heidelberg, the family of his brother presented themselves before him in the garb of suppliants, imploring pity and forgiveness. To this appeal the victor softened."-MISS BENGER'S Memoirs of the Queen of Bohemia.]

I.

HE Kaiser feasted in his hall-
The red wine mantled high;
Banners were trembling on the wall
To the peals of minstrelsy:
And many a gleam and sparkle came
From the armour hung around,

As it caught the glance of the torch's flame
Or the hearth with pine-boughs crowned.

2.

Why fell there silence on the chord

Beneath the harper's hand?

And suddenly from that rich board,

Why rose the wassail band?

The strings were hushed-the knights made way

For the queenly mother's tread,

As up the hall, in dark array,

Two fair-haired boys she led.

3.

She led them e'en to the Kaiser's place,

And still before him stood;

Till, with strange wonder, o'er his face
Flushed the proud warrior-blood:
And "Speak, my mother! speak!" he cried,
"Wherefore this mourning vest :
And the clinging children by thy side,
In weeds of sadness drest!"

4.

"Well may a mourning vest be mine,
And theirs, my son, my son!
Look on the features of thy line
In each fair little one!

Though grief awhile within their eyes
Hath tamed the dancing glee,
Yet there thine own quick spirit lies—
Thy brother's children see!

5.

"And where is he, thy brother-where?

He in thy home that grew,

And smiling with his sunny hair,

Ever to greet thee flew ?

How would his arms thy neck entwine,

His fond lips press thy brow!

My son! oh, call these orphans thine !—
Thou hast no brother now!

6.

"What! from their gentle eyes doth nought

Speak of thy childhood's hours,

And smite thee with a tender thought

Of thy dead father's towers?

Kind was thy boyish heart and true,
When reared together there,

Through the old woods like fawns ye flew-
Where is thy brother-where?

7.

"Well didst thou love him then, and he

Still at thy side was seen!

How is it that such things can be
As though they ne'er had been?
Evil was this world's breath, which came
Between the good and brave!

Now must the tears of grief and shame
Be offered to the grave.

8.

"And let them, let them there be poured!
Though all unfelt below-

Thine own wrung heart, to love restored,
Shall soften as they flow.

Oh! death is mighty to make peace;

Now bid his work be done!

So many an inward strife shall cease-
Take, take these babes, my son!"

Mrs. Hemans.

1. Name ten stringed and ten wind instruments.

2. What would you call the wife of an Emperor, King, Prince, Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Lord, Baronet, Knight?

3. Parse: "Evil was this world's breath, which came

Between the good and brave."

A-while', for a time.
Chord, the string of a musical intru-

ment.

Cord, ordinary rope or twisted string.

Min'-strel-sy, music.

Or'-phans, those who have lost one or both parents.

Was'-sail, revelry, a drinking bout.

HOW PEOPLE TRAVELLED TWO

HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

I. PUBLIC carriages had recently been much improved. During the years which immediately followed the Restoration, a diligence ran between London and Oxford in two days. The passengers

slept at Beaconsfield. At length, in the spring of 1669, a great and daring innovation was attempted. It was announced that a vehicle, described as the Flying Coach, would perform the whole journey between sunrise and sunset.

2. This spirited undertaking was solemnly con

sidered and sanctioned by the heads of the University, and appears to have excited the same sort of interest which is excited in our own time by the opening of a new railway. The Vice-Chancellor by a notice affixed in all public places, prescribed the hour and place of departure. The success of the experiment was complete.

3. At six in the morning the carriage began to move from before the ancient front of All Souls' College; and at seven in the evening the adventurous gentlemen who had run the first risk were safely deposited at their inn in London.

4. The emulation of the sister University was moved; and soon a diligence was set up which in one day carried passengers from Cambridge to the capital. At the close of the reign of Charles the Second, flying carriages ran thrice a week from London to the chief towns. But no stage-coach, indeed no stage-wagon, appears to have proceeded farther north than York, or farther west than Exeter.

5. The ordinary day's journey of a flying coach was about fifty miles in the summer; but in winter, when the ways were bad and the nights long, little more than thirty. The Chester coach, the York coach, and the Exeter coach, generally reached London in four days during the fine season, but at Christmas not till the sixth day.

6. The passengers, six in number, were all seated in the carriage. For accidents were so frequent that it would have been most perilous to mount the roof.