e and fear
inconceivable and indescribable! A mighty and closely packed city of
houses, churches, and palaces, wrapped from limit to limit in flames,
which are fed by a whirling hurricane, is a sight this world will seldom
see.

But this was within the city. To Napoleon, without, the spectacle was
still more sublime and terrific. When the flames had overcome all
obstacles, and had wrapped everything in their red mantle, that great
city looked like a sea of rolling fire, swept by a tempest that drove it
into billows. Huge domes and towers, throwing off sparks like blazing
firebrands, now disappeared in their maddening flow, as they rushed and
broke high over their tops, scattering their spray of fire against the
clouds. The heavens themselves seemed to have caught the conflagration,
and the angry masses that swept it rolled over a bosom of fire.

Napoleon stood and gazed on the scene in silent awe. Though nearly three
miles distant, the windows and walls of his apartment were so hot that
he could scarcely bear his hand against them. Said he, years
afterwards, “It was the spectacle of a sea and billows of fire, a sky
and clouds of flame; mountains of red rolling flames, like immense waves
of the sea, alternately bursting forth and elevating themselves to skies
of fire, and then sinking into the flame below. O, it was the most
grand, the most sublime, and the most terrific sight the world ever
beheld!”

   --JAMES T. HEADLEY.




        ODE TO THE BRAVE


    How sleep the brave who sink to rest,
    By all their country’s wishes blest!
    When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
    Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
    She there shall dress a sweeter sod
    Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod.

    By fairy hands their knell is rung;
    By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
    There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,
    To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
    And Freedom shall awhile repair,
    To dwell a weeping hermit there.
         --WILLIAM COLLINS.

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    If 