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power both in Church and State. In King Edgar's reign, from 959 to 975, the Saxon kingly power in England rose to its highest pitch. During one of his journeys through the land, he is said to have been rowed up the river Dee by eight tributary princes.

Shortly after, however, the Danes reappeared on our coasts, and everything began to fall into confusion and misery. The only plan adopted to keep the invaders off, was the giving them large sums of money, which were raised by a tax called the Dane-geld. All was, however, in vain; and in 1002, King Ethelred ordered a general massacre of the Danes. Amongst the slain was the sister of the King of Denmark. The angry monarch came over the next year, and forcing the now wearied and exhausted Saxons to submit, was proclaimed king at London, 1013. Some efforts were made by the nation to rally once more their forces, but they were totally conquered at the great battle of Assington, in Essex, where the flower of the English nobility perished.

In the year 1017, Knut or Canute the Dane, son of Sweyn, became sole king of England. He was one of the greatest kings of that age, assuming the title of King of England, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. It is said that the first regular standing army since the departure of the Romans was formed at this time. After a reign of twenty years, his sons Harold I. and Hardicanute succeeded; but in 1041, after twenty-five years of Danish rule, the Saxon line was restored in the person of Edward the Confessor. This monarch repealed the Dane-geld, and conciliated the Danes, so that the long warfare and bitter hatred between them and the Saxons at last came to an end, and the two peoples

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gradually became one English nation. It was this king who rebuilt Westminster Abbey, in which he was himself buried.

EXERCISES.-I. Define,-Mentioned, superior, estuary, possession, resistance, victorious, and tributary. 2. Name the best and greatest of the Anglo-Saxon kings. 3. Write all you know of Alfred the Great.

THE LAST OF THE FLOCK.

Sturdy, stout and strong.

WORDSWORTH.

Dwindled, gradually became less.
Wether, a young male sheep.
Essay, to try to do.

Reckless, heedless of conse-
quences.

Ewe, a female sheep.
Precious, of great value.

In distant countries have I been,
And yet I have not often seen
A healthy man, a man full grown,
Weep in the public roads alone.
But such an one, on English ground,
And in the broad highway I met;
Along the broad highway he came,
His cheeks with tears were wet;
Sturdy he seemed, though he was sad,
And in his arms a lamb he had.
He saw me, and he turned aside,
As if he wished himself to hide;
Then with his coat he made essay
To drive those briny tears away.

I followed him, and said: "My friend,
What ails you?—wherefore weep you so?"
—66
"Shame on me, sir! this lusty lamb,
He makes my tears to flow;

To-day I fetched him from the rock-
IIe is the last of all my flock.

When I was young, a single man,
And after youthful follies ran,

Though little given to care and thought
Yet, so it was, an ewe I bought;
And other sheep from her I raised,
As healthy sheep as you might see;
And then I married, and was rich
As I could wish to be;

Of sheep I numbered a full score,
And every year increased my store.
"Year after year my stock it grew,
And from this one, this single ewe,
Full fifty comely sheep I raised,
As sweet a flock as ever grazed.
Upon the mountain did they feed,
They throve as we at home did thrive:
-This lusty lamb of all my store
Is all that is alive;

And now I care not if we die,
And perish all of poverty.

"Six children, sir, had I to feed;
Hard labour in a time of need!
My pride was tamed, and in our grief
I of the parish asked relief.

They said I was a wealthy man,
My sheep upon the mountain fed,
And it was fit that thence I took
Whereof to buy us bread.

'Do this; how can we give to you,'
They cried, 'what to the poor is due?'
"I sold a sheep, as they had said,
And bought my little children bread;

And they were healthy with their food,
-For me, it never did me good.
A woeful time it was for me,
To see the end of all my gains,-
The pretty flock which I had reared
With all my care and pains,—
To see it melt like snow away,
For me it was a woeful day!

"Another still! and still another ! A little lamb, and then its mother! It was a vein that never stopped,

Like blood-drops from my heart they dropped,
Till thirty were not left alive.

They dwindled, dwindled, one by one;
And I may say that, many a time
I wished they all were gone,—
Reckless of what might come at last,
Were but the bitter struggle past!

"To wicked deeds I was inclined,
And wicked fancies crossed my mind;
And every man I chanced to see.
I thought he knew some ill of me.
No peace, no comfort, could I find,
No ease, within doors, or without;
And crazily and wearily

I went my work about,—

Bent oftentimes to flee from home,

And hide my head where wild beasts roam.

"Sir, 'twas a precious flock to me,

As dear as my own children be;

For daily with my growing store,

I loved my children more and more.
Alas! it was an evil time!

God cursed me in my sore distress ;-
I prayed, yet every day I thought
I loved my children less;

And every week, and every day,
My flock it seemed to melt away.

"They dwindled, sir; sad sight to see!
From ten to five, from five to three,-
A lamb, a wether, and an ewe,—

And then at last from three to two :-
And of my fifty, yesterday

I had but only one;

-And here it lies upon my arm,

Alas! and I have none;

To-day I fetched it from the rock,
It is the last of all my flock."

NOTE. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, the chief of modern natural poets, was born, lived, and died in the lake district of Cumberland and Westmoreland. His poems are full of simple beauty; outward things being made to suggest an inner life or soul. Born 1770; died 1850.

EXERCISES.-I. Narrate the story (facts only) upon which the poem is founded. 2. Give the "argument" of the first and second stanzas (see example, page 32). 3. Paraphrase the first stanza.

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