Edger. Ay, that will we. I have the writings prepared, squire. [Hands them. While the Squire is reading, Edgerstone examines very

close the desk.]

Sq. Sign here, I suppose. [Signs.]

Edger. Now, if you will advance me that small sum you mentioned.

Sq. [Opening his desk and taking out money.] Oh, how much it costs to serve one's country! Well, I will get glory enough to pay up before the session is through.

Edger. Taking the money.] That is right.

Sq. I will take a receipt, if you please.

Edger. Would it not be best to dispense with that?— you know it might be shown to your disadvantage, if it was discovered. Besides, you know it is illegal to expend money in buying votes; and so a receipt is good for nothing.

Sq. Yes, yes. Look to it that you are honest.
Edger. You will see shortly.

SCENE IV. A private room.

[Enter Jonathan and Millwood,]

[Exeunt.]

Jona. Be you the gentleman who sent some verses to cousin July?

Mill. Yes, and what of it? Has she consented to an interview?

Jona. She sends them back, and says she can't understand them all.

Mill. What does she not understand?

Jona. Take them and read along; I'll tell you when you come to it.

Mill. [Reads.]

Oh, who is so cruel, so heedless, so gay,
To quench in despair the soul's only ray,
Whatever the raptures or woes that enthrall,
And o'er it to shed lone midnight's dark pall?

Your image in beauty o'er my fancy is stealing,
Each thought is a gush of emotion

Jona. She wants to know how a thought can be a gush of emotion.

Mill. Oh, poetic license allows as much as that. [Reads.]
Could I kneel where that beauty its form is revealing,
I auspicate there the soul's deep devotion.

Jona. She wants to know what you mean by "auspicating the soul's devotion." She says there is no such word as auspicate, and, if there were, the line would be all nonsense.

Mill. Well, what poet is there now-a-days that does no.

have a line of nonsense, now and then? Horace says that Homer sometimes nods. [Reads on.]

As the moon's witching beams of the sun were withdrawn,
Were parted forever from man's longing view,

So my being is quenched in darkness forlorn,

If parted, dear Julia, from you.

Then grant me one smile from those lips so divine,
One love look that soul cannot belie;

Or, if fate deals too hardly with sorrows like mine,
Grant me one moment of sadness- -a sigh.

Jona. She says she shan't hinder you from sighing, if you like it.

Mill. How she misunderstands me! I wanted her to sigh. Has she consented to an interview?

Jona. On one condition.

Mill. Oh! what is that? Pray what is it?

Jona. You know uncle Tim has said you should not see her; and, if you meet her, you must be blindfolded.

Mill. Oh, glorious! My poetry has softened her heart a little, after all. When and where shall I meet the sweet creature?

Jona. She says, this afternoon, by the old crab-apple tree in the garden.

Mill. Blindfolded. Yes, I consent to anything, if I can be near her, and know that she is thinking of my unworthy self. I will certainly be there.

SCENE V. Room in the Squire's house.

[Enter Squire and Jonathan.]

[Exeunt.]

Sq. Well, Jonathan, have you got most wonted here ? Jona. Why, pretty considerable, I guess. There are so many funny chaps about I have n't been homesick a bit. Sq. What do you mean?

Jona. There is Billy Millwood; he acts like a crazy terrapin with a coal of fire on his back.

Sq. What is he crazy about?

Jona. Don't you think he is in love with our July?

Sq. You don't believe he cares anything about the girl, do you? I was informed that he was a hair-brained youth, capable of nothing but gambling and dissipation.

Jona. And who told you so?

Sq. Lawyer Gizzlestone.

Jona. And he is another cute chap. I tell you what, uncle Tim, if I do say it, it won't answer to trust too much to what he says.

Sq. Why, Jonathan? [Much alarmed.] What do you mean by that?

Jona. Oh, not much.

Sq. Speak out, boy.

Jona. Millwood is no more dissipated than our old lame turkey.

Sq. How do you know that?

Jona. I had pretty considerable of a chat with him, yesterday, about college matters, and sich. He said he staid alone from one week's end to another. Now, no one would do so that was dissipated.

Sq. Then Weaslestone has deceived me.

Jona. And I guess this is not the only thing he has played the Indian about, neither. I heard him laughing about some old fool that thought he was going to Congress.

Sq. Who told you about that?

Jona. Nobody; but I guessed he meant you.

Sq. You beat all nature, Jonathan, for guessing! I could swear you were a Yankee, if I did not know that you come from Vermont. It may be he has wheedled me, after all. Here, Jonathan, tell Ben to harness old Dobbin. [Exit Jonathan.] I'll go and talk with parson Tousey. He is something of a man in the political way, [putting on coat, &c.] and knows all about this Gaggledown, too. Why did I not think of him before? I'll not see my two hundred again, I'm afraid.

SCENE VI. In a garden.

[Enter Edgerstone, leading Millwood, blindfolded.]

[Exit.]

Mill. Have we got near to the crab-apple tree? Edger. It is just here. No need to touch it. There, she is coming.

[Enter Jonathan, muffled in a long cloak.]

Mill. Oh, that I should live to see such an hour as this! Here I am, Julia. [Kneeling on one knee.] May I press your hand? Jona. [Disguising his voice.] Yes, if it will do you any good. Mill. [Taking hold of Jonathan's hand, and throwing it from him.] That is not Julia's hand! [Tearing off the bandage. The others laughing heartily.] Well, this is a joke in earnest! There, I might have known that Julia would have never consented to such a meeting as this! [Enter Squire.] Oh, distraction! here is the squire himself. Squire Wiggins, I trust you will pardon this intrusion. Indeed, I have been deceived, or I should never have been here.

Sq. It seems, Mr. Millwood, that we have both been

deceived, and by a villain who has the effrontery to call himself a gentleman. Mr. Edgelesshone, or by what other name you are called, I have found you out at last!

Edger. As you have no further need of my services, I shall withdraw. [Offers to go.]

Sq. [Stepping before him.] Not in such haste, if you please. An officer is approaching, to take you to jail on charge of breaking open my desk and removing sundry bonds and papers. You were going to get me into Congress. You will find a situation for yourself, at any rate, for the next two years, in the state penitentiary. Mr. Millwood, we have misunderstood one another. Upon inquiry, I find I can respect you as a man and a scholar. I do not hereafter expressly prohibit your seeing Julia. [Enter officer, and arrests Edgerstone-Jonathan goes behind Edgerstone as he is led off. Now he has got it!

[Exeunt.]

GUSTAVUS VASA.

H. BROOKS.

SCENE. Mountains of Dalecarlia.

[Enter Gustavus as a peasant; Sivard and Dalecarlians following.] Gustavus. Ye men of Sweden, wherefore are ye come? See ye not, yonder, how the locusts swarm,

To drink the fountains of your honor up,

And leave your hills a desert? - Wretched men!
Why came ye forth? Is this a time for sport?
Or are ye met with song and jovial feast,

To welcome your new guests, your Danish visitants?
To stretch your supple necks beneath their feet,
And fawning lick the dust? Go, go, my countrymen,
Each to your several mansions! trim them out,
Cull all the tedious earnings of your toil,
To purchase bondage!-O, Swedes! Swedes!
Heavens! are ye men, and will ye suffer this?
There was a time, my friends,

a glorious time!

When, had a single man of your forefathers
Upon the frontier met a host in arms,

His courage scarce had turned; himself had stood,
Alone had stood, the bulwark of his country!

Come, come ye on, then! Here I take my stand!
Here, on the brink, the very verge of liberty;
Although contention rise upon the clouds,

Mix heaven with earth, and roll the ruin onward,
Here will I fix, and breast me to the shock,
Till I or Denmark fall!

Sivard. And who art thou,

That thus wouldst swallow all the glory up

That should redeem the times? Behold this breast!
The sword has tilled it; and the stripes of slaves

Shall ne'er trace honor here; shall never blot

The fair inscription.

Never shall the cords

Of Danish insolence bind down these arms,

That bore my royal master from the field.

[grief!·

Gus. Ha! Say you, brother? Were you there — oh, Where liberty and Stenon fell together?

Siv. Yes, I was there! A bloody field it was,
Where conquest gasped, and wanted breath to tell
Its o'er-toiled triumph. There our bleeding king,
There Stenon on this bosom made his bed,
And, rolling back his dying eyes upon me,
Soldier, he cried, if e'er it be thy lot

To see my gallant cousin, great Gustavus,

Tell him-for once, that I have fought like him,
And would like him have

Conquered!

Gus. Oh, Danes! Danes!

You shall weep blood for this! Shall they not, brother?
Yes, we will deal our might with thrifty vengeance,

A life for every blow, and, when we fall,

There shall be weight in 't; like the tottering towers,
That draw contiguous ruin.

Siv. Brave, brave man!

My soul admires thee.

By my father's spirit,

I would not barter such a death as this

For immortality! Nor we alone

Here be the trusty gleanings of that field

Where last we fought for freedom; here's rich poverty,
Though wrapped in rags,-my fifty brave companions;

Who through the force of fifteen thousand foes

Bore off their king, and saved his great remains.
Gus. Why, captain,

We could but die alone,-
My fellow laborers too
Shall we not strike for 't?

with these we'll conquer.

What say ye, friends?

Siv. Death! Victory or death!
All. No bonds! no bonds!

Arn. Spoke like yourselves. — Ye men of Dalecarlia,