he head of the gigantic Swede with matchless
violence.

This heaven-directed blow decided the battle. The ponderous pericranium
of General Jan Risingh sank upon his breast, his knees tottered under
him, a death-like torpor seized upon his frame, and he tumbled to the
earth with such violence that old Pluto started with affright, lest he
should have broken through the roof of his infernal palace.

His fall was the signal of defeat and victory: the Swedes gave way, the
Dutch pressed forward; the former took to their heels, the latter hotly
pursued. Some entered with them, pell-mell, through the sally-port;
others stormed the bastion, and others scrambled over the curtain. Thus
in a little while the fortress of Fort Christina, which, like another
Troy, had stood a siege of full ten hours, was carried by assault
without the loss of a single man on either side. Victory, in the
likeness of a gigantic ox-fly, sat perched upon the cocked hat of the
gallant Stuyvesant, and it was declared by all the writers whom he hired
to write the history of his expedition that on this memorable day he
gained a sufficient quantity of glory to immortalize a dozen of the
greatest heroes in Christendom!

FOOTNOTES:

[242-1] This is a narrow strait in East River, between Manhattan and
Long Island. It is dangerous by reason of numerous rocks, shelves, and
whirlpools. These have received sundry appellations, such as the
Gridiron, Frying-pan, Hog's Back, Pot, etc.

[Illustration]

THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR

_By_ ROBERT SOUTHEY

NOTE.--The great naval hero of England is Horatio, Viscount Nelson,
who was born in September, 1758, in a country village of Norfolk.
Under the guardianship of his uncle, Captain Suckling, he entered
the navy as a midshipman when he was but twelve years old, and he
was promoted rapidly. By the time war broke out with France in 1793
he had risen so high that he was made commander of the sixty-four
gun ship _Agamemnon_. In 1797 he was made rear-admiral, and he
received other honors for conspicuous gallantry in action. In an
unsuccessful attack on Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe,
Nelson lost his right arm. The first of his very great achievements
was the destruction of the French fleet in the Battle of Aboukir
Bay, in 1798; the last was the famous Battle of Trafalgar, the
account of which we quote from Southey's _Life of Nelson_. He had