Green little vaulter in the sunny grass,

Catching your heart up at the feel of June,
Sole voice that's heard amidst the lazy noon,
When even the bees lag at the summoning brass;
And you, warm little housekeeper, who class
With those who think the candles come too soon,
Loving the fire, and with your tricksome tune
Nick the glad silent moments as they pass;

O sweet and and tiny cousins, that belong,

One to the fields, the other to the hearth,

Both have your sunshine; both, though small, are strong
At
your clear hearts; and both seem given to earth

To ring in thoughtful ears this natural song—

In doors and out, summer and winter, Mirth.-LEIGH HUNT.

We conclude with Shakspere's noble comparison of the honey bees with the members of a commonwealth ::

While that the armed head doth fight abroad,

The advised head defends itself at home:

For government, through high, and low, and lower,
Put into parts, doth keep in one concert,
Congreeing in a full and natural close,
Like music.

Canterbury. Therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavor in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience; for so work the honey bees;
Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts:
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor,

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone.

159.-CONQUEST OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE CRU. SADERS.

THERE is no old chronicler, either French or English, that relates a story better than Ville-Hardoin, or that treats an interesting subject in a more natural and lively manner. His work is, throughout, as authentic as it is interesting. He was not only an ear and eye-witness to the sieges, battles, councils, and the other events he describes with admirable clearness, modesty, and simplicity, but he was also a principal actor in them all, and a chief contriver and manager of many of them. His chronicle possesses this additional interest-it is one of the very earliest and best specimens we possess of French prose.

Geoffroy or Jeffry of Ville-Hardoin, was born about the year 1164. He descended from one of the most illustrious families of Champagne. In the year 1198, when Fouques, or Fulk, the curate of Neuilly, preached the Fourth Crusade, Geoffroy was chief of his ancient family. He was one of the first to take the cross with his prince, the young and brilliant Count Thibaut or Theobald of Champagne, the selected commander-in-chief of this Fourth Crusade. The gallant Thibaut died before the expedition could be got ready to take its departure. But Ville-Hardoin repaired to Venice, on whose maritime resources, and command of other means, and of money, the fate of the expedition mainly depended, and there won the esteem and confidence of the wise and venera

ble Doge, the "blind old Dandolo," who had taken the cross, not with the hope of recovering Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre, but with the confident assurance that he should conquer and annex to his own spirited republic a large portion of the territories occupied and misgoverned by the degenerate and spiritless Greeks. Every obstruction was soon removed, and a powerful Venetian fleet prepared. Soon the champions of the Cross embarked, and sailed for the Hellespont, the Propontis, and the Golden Horn on the Bosphorus.

After the conquest of Constantinople our noble Marshal and Chronicler exerted himself to the utmost, in calming the irritations of rival vanities, in moderating rival claims, and in securing that splendid Eastern throne to the new Emperor Baldwin of Flanders.

The brave chronicler did not live to be an old man. He closed his active career in 1213, when he had only numbered about fortynine years.

Ville-Hardoin's narrative opens with a quaint account of the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly, "that saintly man in France," "in that year of the Incarnation when Innocent III. was Apostle of Rome, and Philip Augustus King of France, and Richard I. King of England." It then describes the success of this preaching, and the godly speed with which great Lords and Barons, and still greater Princes, ran to take the cross. It relates all the obstructions to the departure of the Crusade, the negotiations at Venice and elsewhere, which led to the sailing of the expedition, the adventures encountered on the voyage, and the sieges which were undertaken and the battles which were fought when the troops landed in various parts of Greece. For the present we take up honest Geoffroy when he arrives in sight of the splendid capital of Eastern Europe.

"And so much did the Crusaders run by sea, that they came, on the Eve of my Lord Saint John the Baptist, in the month of June, unto St. Stephen's, a Greek abbey, about three leagues from Constantinople. And they took port there and cast anchor, and thence they plainly saw Constantinople.

"And now let me relate the astonishment of those who had never seen so grand a city: when they saw those lofty walls and

rich towers which surrounded it, and those high palaces, and those high churches, of which there were so many that no man could believe it unless he saw them with his own eyes, and the length and the breadth of the city, which, over all others, was the sovereign, they could not imagine that there should be so rich a place in all the world!

And, be it known, that there were none so bold but quaked at the sight of its amazing strength. And no wonder was it, for never since the world was created had so great a place been taken by so few people as we were. Then landed the Barons, the Counts, and the Doge of Venice; and they held a parliament in the monastery of St. Stephen. There was much counsel taken and given. All the words that were there spoken cannot be written in books, but the substance was this: the Doge of Venice stood up and said:

"My Lords, I know more about the strength of this country than you do, for I have been here before now. You have undertaken the greatest affair and the most perilous that ever people undertook, and therefore will it become us to act sagely. Know ye, that if we march hence by land, the land is long and broad, and our people are few and badly provided with victual. If they spread themselves over the country to seek for food, they will have to encounter a great plenty of armed folk in the country. Let us take what care we will, we must lose some of our own people, and we can ill bear such loss, seeing how few we now are to do that which we have to do. But near unto this place are certain isles inhabited by quiet farmers, and producing corn and other commodities*. Let us then go thither and anchor, and collect the corn, wine, and viands of the isles. And when we have collected these good things, and restored ourselves with food, let us go unto the strong city, and there do that which the Lord has provided shall be done by us; for, certes, the man that has meat makes war better than the man that has none.'

In these opinions the Counts and the Barons all fully agreed: and so they all went back from the monastery of St. Stephen to

* This is the beautiful little group now called by Europeans "Les lles des Princes," or Princes' Islands.

their barks and ships. And there they reposed themselves for that night.

"On the morrow morning, it being the festival of my Lord Saint John, our banners were all spread to the breeze, the glorious gonfalon was hoisted at the mast-head, and the shields of our knights were all suspended over the ships' sides, larboard and starboard, and from stem to stern. Every man looked to his arms and examined them well; and, by my faith, it was fitting that he should do so, seeing what need he would soon have of them! Then our mariners weighed anchor and unfurled all our sails. And this being done, God gave us the very wind we wanted, in order to get to the isles. Thus did we pass by Constantinople; and we passed so near to the walls and towers, that the Greek archers shot into some of our ships and so vast was the multitude of men upon those walls and towers, that it seemed as if there could be

no people in the world except there.

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But anon we altered our course, turning towards those fair isles of which my Lord the Doge of Venice had spoken the evening before."

The fleet was soon at anchor between the Princes' Islands and the ancient city of Chalcedonia, which are separated only by a narrow strait. Some of the Franks landed on the islands, others on the main land in Asia, near Chalcedonia.

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Here," continues Ville-Hardoin, "close on the port of Chalcedonia, was a palace of the reigning Greek Emperor Alexis; and this palace was one of the most beautiful and most delectable in the world, and full of all the delights which charm the heart of man, and which the house of a great prince ought to possess. The great Counts and Barons landed here, and lodged themselves in the palace, and occupied the whole town. Up went many tents and banners. Then were the horses hoisted overboard; and the knights and their men-at-arms landed with their arms, and the mariners remained in the ships.

"The country was beautiful and rich, and plenteous in all good things; and the great heaps of good wheat were stored in the barns; and our people went and helped themselves as they pleased, having, in sooth, much need of bread. Thus sojourned we for two days at Chalcedonia; and on the third day we had a good