O'erturned his infant's bed he found, He called his child-no voice replied; "Hell-hound! by thee my child's devoured!" He plunged in Gelert's side. His suppliant, as to earth he fell, Aroused by Gelert's dying yell, Concealed beneath a mangled heap, Nor scratch had he, nor harm, nor dread, Ah, what was then Llewellyn's pain! Vain, vain was all Llewellyn's wo; The frantic deed which laid thee low, 91 16 GOOD RETURNED FOR EVIL. And now a gallant tomb they raise, Here never could the spearman pass, Here oft the tear-besprinkled grass And here he hung his horn and spear, GOOD RETURNED FOR EVIL. At Faenza, in Italy, during the barbarous ages, one man conceiving deadly hatred against another, lay in wait for him, and being of a more powerful frame of body, beat him sorely, and pulled out his eyes. The other, now blind, and unable to gain his bread, retired to a monastery, where he devoted himself to such acts of charity as he was able to perform. Some years afterwards, the man who had deprived him of his eyesight fell ill of a grievous malady, and it was found necessary, for his cure, that he should be carried to the same monastery. His conscience made him fear that the man whose eyes he had put out would now revenge himself for that injury, by pulling out his eyes in return. On the contrary, the blind man requested permission of his superior to wait upon the sick man during his illness; he asked this favour as carnestly as if something very important depended on it. Having obtained leave, he gave himself up entirely to the service of the sick man; he watched by his bedside all night, and during the day he did everything he could to relieve his pains and promote his recovery. By these means a cure was effected. Wo may readily imagine what the feelings of the sick man would be, when he found that he was mainly indebted for his life to one whom he had formerly treated with so much cruelty. ADVENTURE AT SEA. The religious body of Friends, sometimes called Quakers, are distinguished from other sects by their never engaging in war, or resisting any kind of violence that may be offered to them. In the reign of Charles II., an English merchantvessel, trading between London and Venice, was commanded by a Quaker; the mate, whose name was Thomas Lurting, was of the same persuasion; but the rest of the crew, four in number, belonged to other Christian sects. The vessel, in one of its voyagcs homeward from Venice, was taken by Turkish pirates, ten of whom came on board of it, in order to carry it to Africa, where these men were accustomed to sell their prisoners as slaves. The second night afterwards, when the Turkish captain was sleeping below with several of his men, Thomas Lurting persuaded the rest, one after another, to go into different cabins, that they might shelter themselves from the rain, which was falling heavily. When he found them all asleep, ho gathered their arms together into one place, and said to his men, "Now, we have the Turks entirely in our command: let us not, however, hurt any of them; we shall only keep them below until we reach Majorca." Majorca being an island of the Spaniards, he calculated upon being safe there, and upon soon being enabled to return to England. In the morning, a Turk coming to the cabin-door, was allowed to go on deck, where he was greatly surprised to find the vessel once more in the hands of the English crew, and not far from Majorca. Going below, he told the rest, who were quite confounded by the news. With tears in their eyes, they intreated that they might not be sold to the Spaniards, whom they knew to be very cruel masters. The master and mate promised that their lives and liberties should be safe, and took measures to keep them concealed while the vessel should remain in port at Majorca. Turks were very much pleased with this kindness, so different from the treatment they had designed for the English. The While the vessel lay in the harbour, the master of another English ship came on board, and to him they confided their sceret, telling him that they would not sell their Turkish prisoners, but land them, if possible, on some part of the African coast. The stranger laughed at them for their generosity, and told them that they might get two hundred pieces of gold for each man; to which they replied, that they would not sell them for the whole island. Their visitor, contrary to his promise, divulged the secret, and a resolution was formed amongst the Spaniards to seize the Turks. The two Quakers, hearing what was designed, instantly set sail, and, by the aid of their prisoners, they succeeded in escaping pursuit. For nine days they cruised about the Mediterranean, uncertain what course to take to get quit of their prisoners, but determined not to land them in any Christian country. On one occasion the Turks made an attempt to regain the command of the vessel, but were quictly put down by the master and mate. The English crew then began to grumble at the danger to which they were exposed by their superiors, who, they said, preferred the lives of Turks to their own. The vessel was also all this time undergoing the risk of being recaptured by some other Turkish rovers. Still the master and inate adhered to their resolution of avoiding bloodshed and the guilt of slavery. At length, having approached the coast of Barbary, it came to be debated how they were to set the Turks on shore. To have given them the boat for this purpose would have been dangerous, for they might have returned in it with arms, and taken the vessel. If sent with a portion of the crew, they might rise upon these men, and throw them into the sca. If sent in two detachments, that first landed might have raised the natives, and attacked the boat on its second arrival. At length Lurting offered to take the whole ashore at once, with the aid of two men and a boy. The captain consented to this arrangement, which was carried into effect without any accident. The Turks, on being set down on the beach, were so much reconciled to their generous captors, as to ask them to go along to a neighbouring village, where they promised to treat them liberally; but Lurting thought it more prudent to return immediately. Favourable winds brought the vessel quickly to England, where the story of the captured Turks was already known. So great an interest did the forbearing conduct of the Quakers excite, that the king, the Duke of York, and several noblemen, came on board at Greenwich to see the men who could act so extraordinary a part. The king took much the same view of the case which the English captain at Majorca had taken. To Thomas Lurting he said, "You should have brought the Turks to me;" to which the mate only made the mild reply, "I thought it better for them to be in their own country. STORY OF UBERTO. Genoa, a city on the Mediterranean, was once remarkable as a place of commerce. It was usually governed by a body of nobles; but on one occasion the nobles lost their power, and the city was managed for some time by a set of men elected by the people. The leading man in this popular government was Uberto, who, though originally poor, had risen by his talents and industry to be one of the most considerable merchants. At length, by a violent effort, the nobles put down the popular government. They used their victory with rigour, in order to prevent any other attempt being made in future to thrust them out of power. Uberto was seized as a traitor, and the nobles thought they used him very gently when they only decreed that he should be banished for ever from Genoa, and deprived of all his property. To hear this sentence, he was brought before the new chief magistrate Adorno, a nobleman not void of generous feeling, but rendered proud by his sense of high rank, and fierce in consequence of the late broils. Indignant at Uberto, he passed the sentence in very insolent terms, saying, "You-you-the son of a base mechanic, who have dared to trample on the nobles of Genoa-you, by their clemency, are only doomed to shrink again into the nothing from which you sprang." Uberto bowed respectfully to the court, but said to Adorno that perhaps he might hereafter find cause to repent the language he had used. He then set sail for Naples, where it chanced that some merchants were in his debt. |