LESSON XLVI. DEATH AND SLEEP: AN ALLEGORY. 1. As the two angels, Death and Sleep, joined in brotherly love, were on their journey through the world, they came one evening to a hill on which they sat down, and viewed the cottages which filled the neighboring hamlet. A mournful silence reigned around, broken only by the vesper-bell which sounded from the distant village. 2. Here reclining in a sad and quiet embrace, the angels waited for the coming on of night; and when darkness had settled upon the earth, the Angel of Sleep arose, and, with noiseless hand, strewed around the invisible seeds of slumber. These were soon wafted by the evening breeze to the silent habitations of the tired husbandmen; and all, from the grayhaired sire to the infant in the cradle, were hushed in sweet and refreshing sleep. The sick forgot their pain; the mourners, their grief; and the poor and toil-worn, their cares and labors. 3. Having performed his accustomed task, the good genius again reclined by the side of his stern brother. "When the morning dawns," he exclaimed with joyous innocence, "how many will praise me as their friend and benefactor! O, what joy thus secretly to do good! How happy we are to be the unseen messengers of the Good Spirit! How beautiful is our silent vocation! !" 4. As the Angel of Sleep thus spake, his brother and companion gazed upon him with silent melancholy; and a tear, such as spirits weep, stood in his large, dark eye. "Alas!" he exclaimed, "that I can not, like thee, enjoy the happiness of being an object of benediction and gratitude! All mankind call me their enemy, and consider me the destroyer of their joys." 5. "O my brother," replied the Angel of Sleep, "will not every good man, on his awakening from the slumber of the tomb, greet thee, too, as his friend, and bless thee with a thankful heart'? Are we not, indeed, the sons and messengers of one beneficent Father'?" As he thus spake, the eyes of the Angel of Death sparkled with joy, and the two kindred spirits embraced each other with tender affection. Krummacher. WORD ANALYSIS AND DEFINITIONS. Al'le go ry (all, other; egory, discourse), a composition having another meaning than the literal import; a parable or fable. Ben e fac'tor (bene, well; factor, one who makes or does), a well-doer; one who confers a benefit. Ben e dic ́tion (bene, well; diction, speaking), a blessing. LESSON XLVII. THE INSURRECTION OF WAT TYLER. 1. During the reign of Richard the Second in England, the war with France being unsettled, the government wanted money to provide for the expenses that might arise out of it. Accordingly, a certain tax, called the Poll-tax, which had originated in the last reign, was ordered to be levied on the people. 2. This was a tax on every person in the kingdom, male and female, above the age of fourteen. I have no need to repeat that the common people of England had long been suffering under great oppression. They were still the mere slaves of the lords of the land on which they lived, and were on most occasions harshly and unjustly treated. 3. But they had begun, by this time, to think very seriously of not bearing quite so much, and probably were emboldened by the French insurrection which had occurred a short time previously. The people of Essex rose against the Poll-tax, and, being severely handled by the government officers, killed some of them. 4. At this very time one of the tax-collectors, going his rounds from house to house, at Dartford, in Kent, came to the cottage of one Wat, a tiler by trade, and claimed the tax upon his daughter. Her mother, who was at home, declared that she was under the age of fourteen; upon which, the collector (as other collectors had done in different parts of England) behaved in a very cruel and savage manner. Wat, the tiler, who was at work not far off, greatly incensed at the conduct of the collector, ran to the spot, and struck him dead at a blow. 5. Instantly the people of that town uprose as one man. They made Wat Tyler their leader; they joined with the people of Essex, who were in arms under a priest called Jack Straw. They took out of Maidstone prison another priest named John Ball, and, gathering in numbers as they went along, advanced in a great, confused army of poor men, to Blackheath. 6. The rioters, after entering London and doing a great deal of damage in that city, went to Mile End, to the number of sixty thousand, and the king met them there; and to him the rioters peaceably proposed four conditions: First, that neither they nor their children, nor any coming after them, should any more be slaves; secondly, that the rent of land should be fixed. at a certain price in money instead of being paid in service; thirdly, that they should have liberty to buy and sell in all markets and public places, like other free men; fourthly, that they should be pardoned for past offenses. 7. There was certainly nothing very unreasonable in these proposals. The young king deceitfully pretended to think so, and kept thirty clerks up all night, writing out a charter accordingly. Now, Wat Tyler himself wanted more than this. He wanted the entire abolition of the forest laws. He was not at Mile End with the rest; but, while that meeting was being held, he broke into the Tower of London, and slew the archbishop and the treasurer, for whose heads the people had cried out loudly the day before. 8. So Wat and his men still continued armed, and rode about the city. Next morning the king, with a small train of some sixty gentlemen, among whom was Walworth, the mayor, rode into Smithfield, and saw Wat and his people at a little distance. Says Wat to his men, "There is the king. I will go and speak with him, and tell him what we want." Straightway Wat rode up to him, and began to talk. “King," says Wat, “dost thou see all my men there?" "Ay," says the king. "Why?" "Because," says Wat, "they are all at my command, and have sworn to do whatever I bid them." I think that he 9. Some declared afterward, that, as Wat said this, he laid his hand on the bridle of the king's horse. Others declared that he was seen to grasp his own dagger. just spoke to the king like a rough, angry man, as he was, and did nothing more. At any rate, he was expecting no attack, and preparing for no resistance, when Walworth, the mayor, did the cowardly deed of drawing a short sword and stabbing him in the throat. 10. He dropped from his horse, and one of the king's attendants speedily dispatched him. So fell Wat Tyler. Fawners and flatterers made a mighty triumph of it, and set up a cry which will occasionally find an echo to this day. But Wat was a hard-working man who had suffered much, and had been foully outraged; and it is probable that he was a man of a much higher nature and a much braver spirit than any of the parasites who exulted then, or have exulted since, over his defeat. "Child's History of England," by Charles Dickens. ANALYSIS. In what reign and why the poll-tax was levied. tax was. What the pollWho resisted the poll-tax. Why Wat Tyler killed the tax-collector. The immediate effect of this. What the rioters did in London. What they proposed to the king. How the king received them. What was done at London by Wat Tyler. Account of the interview between Wat and the king. How and by whom Wat Tyler was killed. What followed. Character of Wat Tyler. LESSON XLVIII. DEATH OF WAT TYLER. WAT TYLER, JOHN BALL, HOB CARTER, PIERS, ETC. How these nobles, Piers. So far triumphant are we. Shrink at the first resistance ! To seize the king, and so to end resistance. Ball. It was well judged; fain would I spare the shedding Of human blood. Gain we that royal puppet, And all will follow fairly; deprived of him, The nobles lose their pretext, nor will dare Enter HERALD. Herald. Richard the Second, by the grace of God, Of England, Ireland, France, and Scotland, king, Would parley with Wat Tyler. Tyler. Let him know Wat Tyler is in Smithfield. (Exit HERALD.) I will parley |