Page:Early Reminiscences.djvu/347

 i857-1862 287 and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword " (2 Sam. xxiii. 9 et seq.). He was alone, and doubtless wished for some one " to guard his back," but he held on and fought his fight, " and the Lord wrought a great victory that day " ; and this was through Eleazar. There were many Eleazars in the English Church at the time, often parted from those who felt with them, often with much to discourage them ; nevertheless they fought on till their hand clave to the sword. At the college in the winter we invariably had a performance of one or other of Shakespeare's plays, and I was wont to paint the scenes. Occasionally I took a small part, but only a very small one, on account of my inability to remember a speech of two or three lines. On one occasion we performed " Macbeth," with Locke's delightful witch music. A caldron was improvised of black glazed calico, with a metal tray going half round the interior, on which were placed sundry fireworks, and I in my dress-suit was seated cross-legged in the midst of the caldron. My function was to ignite the fireworks as the witches and their imps danced round the vessel. " Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble " was my catchword for a big display. And a big display was effected by setting fire to a " flower-pot," as a certain explosive and showery firework is called by pyrotechnists. When the first witch sang : " Round about the caldron go ; In the poison'd entrails throw," I sent up a flame of strontian that spread a crimson glow over everything. „ that under the coM stone Days and nights hast thirty-one Swelter'd venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i* the charmed pot." Up started a shoot of green flame. But then came the revolution about the caldron, and my cue for the flower-pot. Now this flower-pot consisted in a saucer of earthenware piled up with combustibles that broke into a column and then a shower of many-coloured sparks, when the fuse at the top had been ignited. The flower-pot was on a ledge