8. What alternative only remains?

9. Explain the meaning of "an appeal to arms and to the God of hosts."

10. Explain "We shall not fight our battles alone."

11. Explain "We have no election."

12. Explain carefully the manner in which the last part of the speech was delivered.

13. What do you think makes this oration so strong?

14. What was the final effect of the oration throughout the colonies?

ADDITIONAL READINGS

LONGFELLOW: Paul Revere's Ride.

BRYANT: Seventy-six.

MCMASTER: The Old Continentals.

READ: The Rising in 1776. Our Defenders.

EMERSON: Conquered.

HAWTHORNE: The Gray Champion.

WEBSTER: Supposed Speech of John Adams.

DARE TO DO RIGHT

Dare to do right! Dare to be true!
You have a work that no other can do;
Do it so bravely, so kindly, so well,
Angels will hasten the story to tell.

Dare to do right! Dare to be true!

Other men's failures can never save you;

Stand by your conscience, your honor, your

faith;

Stand like a hero, and battle till death.

-George L. Taylor.

MAKE WAY FOR LIBERTY

NEXT to the name of William Tell stands that of Arnold von Winkelried'in the great struggle for Swiss liberty. The Swiss people were fighting to free their country from the oppressive rule of Austria. The well-trained Austrian cavalry met those brave Swiss mountaineers in the pass of Sempach, July 9, 1386. As the Austrians were unable to manage their horses to good advantage in the narrow pass, they dismounted and stood shoulder to shoulder, forming a human wall protected by the bristling line of spears pointed toward the Swiss patriots. At a certain moment, when the Swiss had repeatedly failed to break the serried ranks of the Austrian knights, a knight of Unterwalden, Arnold von Winkelried by name, came to the rescue. Consigning his wife and children to the care of his comrades, he rushed toward the Austrian line, and gathering a number of their spears against his breast, he fell pierced through and through, thus opening the way for his patriotcomrades into the ranks of the enemy. The Swiss were victorious, the Austrians were driven from the land, and Switzerland was free!

1Pronounced vin' kěl rēt.
2Pronounced zěm' päk.

3Pronounced oon' ter-väl' děn.

3

MAKE WAY FOR LIBERTY

"Make way for Liberty!" he cried; Made way for Liberty, and died!

In arms the Austrian phalanx stood,
A living wall, a human wood!

A wall, where every conscious stone
Seemed to its kindred thousands grown;
A rampart all assaults to bear,

Till time to dust their frames shall wear;
A wood like that enchanted grove,
In which, with fiends, Rinaldo strove,
Where every silent tree possessed
A spirit prisoned in its breast,

Which the first stroke of coming strife
Would startle into hideous life:

So dense, so still, the Austrians stood,
A living wall, a human wood!

Impregnable their front appears,
All horrent with projected spears,
Whose polished points before them shine,
From flank to flank, one brilliant line,
Bright as the breakers' splendors run
Along the billows to the sun.

Opposed to these, a hovering band
Contended for their native land;

Peasants, whose new-found strength had broke
From manly necks the ignoble yoke,

Carved in the face of a cliff at Lucerne, Switzerland, in commemoration of the heroic sacrifices of the Swiss Guards.

And forged their fetters into swords,
On equal terms to fight their lords;
And what insurgent rage had gained,
In many a mortal fray maintained:
Marshaled once more at Freedom's call,
They come to conquer or to fall,
Where he who conquered, he who fell,
Was deemed a dead, or living, Tell!

And now the work of life and death
Hung on the passing of a breath;
The fire of conflict burned within;
The battle trembled to begin;

Yet, while the Austrians held their ground,
Point for attack was nowhere found;
Where'er the impatient Switzers gazed,
The unbroken line of lances blazed;
That line 't were suicide to meet,
And perish at their tyrant's feet;

How could they rest within their graves,
And leave their homes the homes of slaves?
Would they not feel their children tread
With clanking chains above their head?

It must not be: this day, this hour,
Annihilates the oppressor's power;
All Switzerland is in the field,
She will not fly, she cannot yield;
She must not fall; her better fate
Here gives her an immortal date.

Few were the numbers she could boast,