All the allies consented to retreat, except the eighty men who came from Mycenæ and the seven hundred Thespians, who declared that they would not desert Leonidas. There were also four hundred Thebans who remained; and thus the whole number that stayed with Leonidas to confront two millions of enemies, were fourteen hundred warriors, besides the slaves or attendants on the three hundred Spartans, whose number is not known, but there was probably at least one to each. Leonidas had two kinsmen in the camp, like himself claiming the blood of Hercules, and he tried to save them by giving them letters and messages to Sparta; but one answered that "he had come to fight, not to carry letters"; and the other, that "his deeds would tell all that Sparta wished to know." Another Spartan named Dienices, when told that the enemy's archers were so numerous that their arrows darkened the sun, replied, "So much the better, we shall fight in the shade." Two of the three hundred had been sent to a neighboring village, suffering severely from a complaint in the eyes. One of them, called Eurytus, put on his armor, and commanded his slave to lead him to his place in the ranks; the other, called Aristodemus, was so overpowered with illness that he allowed himself to be carried away with the retreating allies. It was still early in the day when all were gone, and Leonidas gave the word to his men to take their last meal. "To-night," he said, we shall sup with Pluto." 66 Hitherto, he had stood on the defensive, and had husbanded the lives of his men; but he now desired to make as great a slaughter as possible, so as to inspire the enemy with dread of the Grecian name. He therefore marched out beyond the wall, without waiting to be attacked, and the battle began. The Persian captains went behind their wretched troops and scourged them on to the fight with whips! Poor wretches, they were driven on to be slaughtered, pierced with the Greek spears, hurled into the sea, or trampled into the mud of the morass; but their inexhaustible numbers told at length. The spears of the Greeks broke under hard service, and their swords alone remained; they began to fall, and Leonidas himself was among the first of the slain. Hotter than ever was the fight over his corpse, and two Persian princes, brothers of Xerxes, were there killed; but at length word was brought that Hydarnes was over the pass, and that the few remaining men were thus inclosed on all sides. The Spartans and Thespians made their way to a little hillock within the wall, resolved to let this be the place of their last stand; but the hearts of the Thebans failed them, and they went toward the Persians holding out their hands in entreaty for mercy. Quarter was given them, but they were all branded with the king's mark as untrustworthy deserters. The slaves probably at this time escaped into the mountains; while the small desperate band stood side by side on the hill. still fighting to the last, some with swords, others with daggers, others even with their hands and teeth, till not one living man remained when the sun went down. There was only a mound of slain bristling with arrows. Twenty thousand Persians had died before that handful of men! Xerxes asked Demaratus if there were many more at Sparta like these, and was told there were eight thousand. It must have been with a somewhat failing heart that he invited his courtiers from the fleet to see what he had done to the men who dared oppose him, and showed them the head and arm of Leonidas set up upon a cross; but he took care that all his own slain, except one thousand, should first be put out of sight. The body of the brave king was buried where he fell, as were those of the other dead. Much envied were they by the unhappy Aristodemus, who found himself called by no name but the "Coward," and was shunned by all his fellow-citizens. No one would give him fire or water, and after a year of misery, he redeemed his honor by perishing in the fore-front of the battle of Platæa, which was the last blow that drove the Persians ingloriously from Greece. The Greeks then united in doing honor to the brave warriors who, had they been better supported, might have saved the whole country from invasion. Pillars were set up in the pass to commemorate this great action. One was outside the wall, where most of the fighting had been. It seems to have been in honor of the whole number who had for two days resisted the attacks of the Persians. The inscription was as follows "Here did four thousand men from Pelops' land In honor of the Spartans was another column- That here, obeying her, we fell." On the little hillock of the last resistance was placed the figure of a stone lion, in memory of Leonidas, so fitly named the Lion-like. Lion, pillars, and inscriptions have all long since passed away, even the very spot itself has changed; new soil has been formed, and there are miles of solid ground between Mount Eta and the gulf, so that the Hot Gates no longer exist. But more enduring than stone or brass - nay, than the very battle-field itself-has been the name of Leonidas. Two thousand three hundred years have sped since he braced himself to perish for his country's sake in that narrow, marshy coast-road, under the brow of the wooded crags, with the sea by his side. Since that time how many hearts have glowed, how many arms have been nerved at the remembrance of the Pass of Thermopyla, and the defeat that was worth so much more than a victory! CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. Elocution. The slight changes of pitch occasioned by emphasis, inflection, and pauses, render reading agreeable. A rapid utterance is unpleasant both on account of the difficulty of understanding what is spoken, and the monotony occasioned by the absence of any variations in sound. Monotonous reading may be corrected by cultivating a more deliberate manner of speaking and by strict attention to emphasis and inflection. Point out the inflections used in reading the last paragraph. Language. -Explain the difference in the meaning of the following words: -strong, powerful, vigorous. Composition. -- Select eight or more parts for an analysis of Lessons 98 and 99, and show that their treatment would include all the chief points of "The Battle of Thermopylæ." Give rules for the marks of punctuation employed in the third paragraph. 100. THE RAVEN. rěl'e van çy, fitness; suitable ness. ser'a phim (fim), angels of the highest order. lōre, knowledge; wisdom. sur çēase', cessation; stop. ne pěn' the, an Egyptian drug de eorum, dignity. miēn (meen), look, appearance. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December, And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating, "Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door,Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; That it is, and nothing more." Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, door: Darkness there, and nothing more. |