pavement of Paris, and their blood ran like a river through the streets.

12. When many of the loftiest heads in the kingdom had been cut off, the people fixed their eyes on the head that wore a crown. "Off with the king's head too!" cried they. So they dragged the poor harmless king before the National Convention, and he was forthwith sentenced to the guillotine.

13. As the poor king mounted the steps of the scaffold, he gazed round at the fierce and cruel multitude. It seemed all like a dream, that they, his born subjects, should be waiting there to see him die. Then he looked at the guillotine, and beheld it stained with the blood of the thousand victims who had been dragged thither before him.

14. There stood a holy priest beside him on the scaffold. Other priests, in those dreadful times, had abjured their God; but here was one who held fast his faith. Other subjects had betrayed their king, but here was one who revered him most upon the scaffold.

15. He whispered consolation to the unhappy king, and pointed heavenward. The victim calmly laid his head upon the block. "Son of St. Louis," said the priest, "ascend to heaven!"

16. Down came the axe of the guillotine, and the head that had worn a crown was severed from the body! The blood of a kingly race gushed out upon the scaffold. Thus the crimes and misused power of many kings had brought vengeance on their innocent descendants.

QUESTIONS.-1. What of Louis XVI.? 2. What of Marie Antoinette? 3. When did the American revolution begin? What of the French people? 5. How do the French appear when anything remarkable is going on? 6. What was done in 1789? What of the Bastile? 7. What of the destruction of this old castle? 8. What were people obliged to wear upon their heads? 9. What was common in Paris at this time? 10. Why was the guillotine invented? 11. What use was made of it? 13. Describe the execution of Louis XVI.

CHAP. CXXII.-EUROPE continued.

THE RISE OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.

1. THE day of the king's execution was the 21st of January, 1793. Not many months afterwards, the queen was likewise beheaded. France was now ruled by a succession of bloody monsters, who, one day, were sending crowds to the guillotine, and the next, day, were sent thither themselves. This anarchy was what the French called a Republic.

2. In the meantime, war was breaking out on all sides. Austria, Prussia, England, Holland, Spain, and Russia, sent armies against France. The French raised a million of men, and bade defiance to all Europe.

3. In the French army there was a young lieutenant of artillery, named Napoleon Buonaparte. When the war began, he was an unknown and friendless youth. But he distinguished himself in every battle and every siege, till, in a very few years, the whole world had heard of Buonaparte.

4. When he was only twenty-six years old, he conquered Italy. The next year he compelled the emperor of Austria to make peace. In 1798 he invaded Egypt, and fought many battles in the sandy deserts, and among the pyramids.

5. The French were now tired of being governed by men whose only engine of government was the guillotine. They wanted a ruler who would deserve their obedience by his sagacity and energy, and not merely compel them to obedience by the fear of having their heads cut off.

6. Napoleon Buonaparte was such a man. He was not a good man, nor a truly wise one. He was a selfish and ambitious despot. But perhaps he was a more suitable ruler for such a people as the French, than if he had been a different man.

7. He saw that the French were now so excited that it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to restrain them. He thought it better that they should make war on foreigners, than slaughter each other, and with the sword, rather than with the guillotine. So, partly because he could not help it, but chiefly because he was ambitious, Napoleon Buonaparte became a mighty conqueror.

QUESTIONS.-1 When was Louis XVI. beheaded? Describe the French republic. 2. What countries now went to war with France? 3. What of Napoleon Buonaparte? 4. What acts did Napoleon perform? 5. What of the French people at this time? 6. What of Napoleon? were his thoughts upon the French? What did he become?

7. What

CHAP. CXXIII.-EUROPE continued.

THE FALL OF BUONAPARTE.

1. IN 1802, Buonaparte was elected consul of the French republic, for life. Two years afterwards, he was proclaimed emperor, by the name of Napoleon. He had now more power than any of the ancient kings.

2. I cannot follow this great captain in his marches all over Europe, nor even number the victories which he won. Wherever he went, monarchs humbled themselves before him. He drove them from their thrones, and placed his own brothers and chief officers there instead. He gave away royal diadems like playthings. He was called the Man of Destiny, because fate seemed to have ordained that he should always be victorious.

3. But, in 1812, the spell of his success began to be broken. He invaded Russia with a vast army, and penetrated to the city of Moscow. The Russians set the city on fire. Winter was coming on, and the French soldiers had nowhere to shelter themselves.

4. They retreated towards Poland. On their way thither they fought many battles with the Russians, and the weather was so bitter cold, that the bodies of the slain were frozen stiff. The snow was crimsoned with their blood.

5. Before they reached the frontiers of Poland, threefourths of the army were destroyed. The emperor Napoleon

fled homeward in a sledge, and returned to Paris. He soon raised new armies, and was ready to take the field again.

6. But all the nations of Europe were now allied against him, and, after a few more battles, he was driven from Germany into France. The enemy followed him. They compelled him to surrender the imperial crown of France in exchange for the sovereignty of the little island of Elba, in the Mediterranean.

7. Napoleon went to Elba, and remained there almost a year. But in March, 1815, he suddenly landed again on the French coast. He was almost alone when he set his foot on the shore. But there were a multitude of his grim old veterans throughout the country. These shouted for joy, and trampled on the white flag of the Bourbon king, who had succeeded him. In a few days Napoleon's banner again waved triumphant all over France.

8. The nations of Europe now mustered their armies once more. They were led by the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon marched into Flanders, or Belgium, to meet them. He was followed by almost every young Frenchman that could shoulder a musket.

The

9. The Emperor Napoleon's last battle was fought at Waterloo, on the 18th of June, 1815. There he was utterly overthrown, and France was overthrown with him. warlike emperor was sent to die on the island of St. Helena, and the Bourbon king was again established on the throne of Louis the Sixteenth.