Page 382 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

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READING LESSONS.
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disquietude revolved over us, whilst we gazed on this splendid luminary, uncertain whether it would shed on its country the e ulgence of victory and peace, crowned by liberty ; or whether its bright­ ness would be shadowed by the clouds of disaster and de at.
6. :Here language ils: I dare not, I cannot llow the heroic "rashington in the career of his military g1ory. To ba e the stratagems of the ablest gener­ als, to repel the onset of the bravest and best disci­ plined armies, what had America to place in his hands ?-neither soldiers trained to arms, nor accus­ tomed to subordination ; nor the implements of war, nor the treasures to purchase them. But the genius of the commander nally supplied every de ciency. He introduced order and discipline: inspired love and con dence. lways vigilant to il hostile at­ tempts, he exhausted the resources of the enemy, without su ering them to rce him to action. Ten­ der of the blood of his fellow-soldiers, and never ex­ posing their lives without cause, or prospect of ad­ vantage, humanity was as dear to him as victory ; as his enemies, that fell into his power, always experi­ enced. When a decree of retaliation became neces-
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: sary to restrain their licentious excesses, with what delicacy, without the least abatement of rtitude, did
he save the li of the victim, devoted to atone r the cruelty that had been committed on an American o cer !-not however, till he had compelled the op­ posing general to restrain and disavow outrages, that ac ravate so much the necessary evils of war.
sacred was his respect to the civil authority! bow
e ectual his protection of the property of his follow­ citizens ! When the generous eling of the virtuous and bene cent Louis, whose deplorable te should