Historical Sketches, Or Narratives of Striking Events in the Course of Human AffairsPoe & Hitchcock, 1861 - 443 pages |
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Accordingly Africa Anglo-Saxon arms army arrived Augustus Bastile battle Baville became brother Camisards carried Catholic causeway Cavalier Cevennes Charles coast command conquest Cortes crowds Czar death Diet dragonnade Duke Edict of Nantes Edward Emperor enemy England Europe expedition fight fire force fortress France French Godwin governor hands Harold horse hundred inhabitants insurrection King kingdom Kosciuszko labor land Languedoc leave length lettres de cachet liberty Louis Louis XIV ment Mexicans Mexico monarch Montezuma Montrevel Moscow Napoleon nation native negroes night nobles Norman Normandy officers Poland Poles Polish Polish Diet population priests Prince prisoners promised Protestantism Protestants province reached received reign remained retreat Russian Saxon says seized sent ships slave-trade slavery slaves Smolensk Sobieski soldiers Spaniards Spanish spirit thou thousand throne tion Tlascalans took Tostig towers town troops Velasquez vessels Villa Rica village Warsaw whole William wretched young
Popular passages
Page 89 - On the 9th of May 1812 Napoleon departed from Paris, to superintend the war in person. His march through France and part of Germany to Dresden was a continued triumph. Whole nations quitted their homes to throng his path ; rich and poor, nobles and plebeians, friends and enemies, all hurried to have a passing view of the great man, almost looked upon by them as a supernatural being. Kings and princes forsook their capitals to do him homage. The adulation was universal. On the 29th he departed from...
Page 396 - being intensely hot, 400 wretched beings thus crammed into a hold 12 yards in length, 7 in breadth, and only 3J feet in height, speedily began to make an effort to re-issue to the open air. Being thrust back, and striving the more to get out, the after-hatch was forced down on them. Over the other hatchway, in the fore part of the vessel, a wooden grating was fastened. To this, the sole inlet for the air, the suffocating heat of the hold, and perhaps panic from the strangeness of their situation,...
Page 316 - ... wafers. After he had dined, they presented to him three little canes highly ornamented, containing liquid amber, mixed with an herb they call tobacco; and when he had sufficiently viewed and heard the singers, dancers, and buffoons, he took a little of the smoke of one of these canes, and then laid himself down to sleep; and thus his principal meal concluded.
Page 104 - ... to avoid the shot. These miserable wretches — heaped one upon another, and almost suffocated with blood, uttering the most dreadful groans, and invoking death with piercing cries — eagerly besought us to put an end to their torments.
Page 192 - Camp of the Eternal.' Fresh recruits now came in from the country round, among the rest Laporte's nephew, Roland, and a peasant named Catinat, who had been concerned in an assassination perpetrated a few days before — that of the Baron de Saint Comes, a military commander noted for his cruelty to the Huguenots. The young stripling Cavalier, too, shewed his zeal by descending to his native village of Ribaute, and returning to the ' Camp of the Eternal' with eighteen armed youths, whom he had enlisted...
Page 59 - The soldiery employed the time which remained to them after this first care in confessing their sins and receiving the sacrament. In the other army the night was passed in quite a different manner: the Saxons diverted themselves with great noise, and sung their old national songs round their watch-fires, while they emptied the horns of beer and of wine.
Page 145 - And really, whenever they halted for a moment from exhaustion, the winter, laying his heavy and icy hand upon them, was ready to seize upon his prey. In vain did these poor unfortunates, feeling themselves benumbed, raise themselves, and already deprived of the power of speech and plunged into a stupor, proceed a few steps like automatons; their blood freezing in their veins, like water in the current of rivulets, congealed their heart, and then flew back to their head; these dying men then staggered...
Page 117 - The flames, which, with impetuous roar, consumed the edifices between which we were proceeding, spreading beyond the walls, were blown out by the wind, and formed an arch over our heads. We walked on a ground of fire, beneath a fiery sky, and between two walls of fire. The intense heat burned our eyes, which we were nevertheless obliged to keep open and fixed on the danger.
Page 144 - The dull and monotonous sound of our steps, the crackling of the snow, and the feeble groans of the dying, were the only interruptions to the vast and doleful silence. Such of our soldiers as had hitherto been the most persevering, here lost heart entirely.
Page 32 - ... expressions of assent. William then proceeded — " Since my friend consents to assist me, I shall take the liberty of telling him what I would like him to do. The castle of Dover must be fortified, a well of water must be sunk in it, and it must be given up to my soldiers ; moreover, to strengthen the ties between us, you must give me your sister, that I may marry her to one of my chiefs, and you yourself must marry my daughter Adela. I expect also that when you go away, you will leave behind...