close in,
lads."

Ere his orders could be obeyed, the other two boats had anticipated
his purpose; and Mordaunt Mertoun, eager to distinguish himself above
Cleveland, had with the whole strength he possessed, plunged a half-pike
into the body of the animal. But the leviathan, like a nation whose
resources appear totally exhausted by previous losses and calamities,
collected his whole remaining force for an effort, which proved at once
desperate and successful. The wound, last received had probably reached
through his external defences of blubber, and attained some very
sensitive part of the system; for he roared loud, as he sent to the sky
a mingled sheet of brine and blood, and snapping the strong cable like a
twig, overset Mertoun's boat with a blow of his tail, shot himself, by
a mighty effort, over the bar, upon which the tide had now risen
considerably, and made out to sea, carrying with him a whole grove of
the implements which had been planted in his body, and leaving behind
him, on the waters, a dark red trace of his course.

SCOTT.

[Notes: [1] Waggon.

[2] Oxen.

[3] Such.]

* * * * *

VISION OF BELSHAZZAR.

The King was on his throne.
The Satraps throng'd the hall:
A thousand bright lamps shone
O'er that high festival.
A thousand cups of gold,
In Judah deem'd divine--
Jehovah's vessels hold
The godless heathen's wine!

In that same hour and hall,
The fingers of a hand
Came forth against the wall.
And wrote as if on sand:
The fingers of a man;--
A solitary hand
Along the letters ran,
And traced them like a wand.

The monarch saw, and shook,
And bade no more rejoice;
All bloodless wax'd his look,
And tremulous his voice.
"Let the men of lore appear,
The wisest of the earth,
And expound the words of fear,
Which mar our royal mirth."

Chaldea's seers are good,
But here they have no skill;
And the unknown letters stood
Untold and awful still.
And Babel's men of age
Are wise and deep in lore;
But now they were not sage,
They saw--but knew no more.

A captive in the land,
A stranger and a yout