Page 385 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

38 THIRD BOOK OF
their children, their posterity to the latest time, the rewards of their dangers and their toils. La Fay­ ette had watched, and laboured, and ught, and bled, not r himself, not r his mily, not, i the rst in­
stance, even r his country.
3. In the legendary tales of chivalry we read of tournaments at which a reign and unknown knight suddenly presents himself, armed in complete steel, and, with the visor down, enters the ring to contend with the assembled owers of knighthood r the prize of honour, to be awardedby the hand ofbeauty; bears it in triumph away, and disappears om the astonished multitude of competitors and spectators of the feats of arms.
4. _But where in the rolls of history, where in the ctions of romance, where, but in the li of La Fay­ ette, has been seen the noble stranger, ying, with the tribute of his name; his rank, his a uence, his ease, his domestic bliss, his treasure, his blood, to the relief of a su ering and distant land, in the hour of her deepest calamity-baring his bosom to her es; and not at the transient pageantry of a tournament,
but r a succession of ve years sharing a11 the vi­ cissitudes of her rtunes; always eager to appear at the post of danger-tempering the glow of youth l ardour with the cold caution of a veteran command­ er; bold and daring in action; prompt in execution; rapid in pursuit; fertile in expedients; unattainable in retreat; often exposed, but never surprised, never disconcerted; eluding his enemy when within his ncied grasp; bearing upon him with irresistible sway when of rce to cope with him in the con ict of arms? And what is this but the diary of La Fayette, om the day of his ra11ying the scattered