Page:Poet Lore, volume 4, 1892.djvu/655

 pendence; scenes from the Seven Years’ War; a series of scenes from the fierce Northern war between the Russians and the Swedes; the battle of Narva; scenes from the Spanish war of succession; the defeat of the Turks at Vienna by the Polish king, Sobieski, and wars of the French with the Spanish and Dutch. I saw the battle of Dunbar, where Cromwell gained victory, and a series of battles down to that of Marston Moor, where ten thousand Royalists were killed. Intermixed with these battles were scenes from the Swedish invasion of Bohemia; then followed scenes of brutality from the Thirty Years’ War, and finally the beheading of Bohemian patriots at Prague and the battle of the White Mountain, of 1620, where the independence of Bohemia was crushed forever.

“How far are we from the earth now?” I inquired.

“About 325,000,000,000 miles,” my friend answered, adding, “But let us speed on; the hour is passing.” And in a moment we rushed on. Again I saw a series of horrible and bloody scenes,—the massacre of the Huguenots, the religious wars of France, the dire deeds of the Duke of Alva, the peasants’ uprisings. Then followed scenes of slaughter from Peru, Mexico, and other American countries to which European avarice brought destruction.

“On, on!” I exclaimed impatiently.

After a short pause I saw Mathias Corvinus defeated by the Bohemians, the Tartars by the Russians, and the fanatical German crusaders conquered by the Hussites. Then followed the fratricidal battle of Lipany, where the Taborites were defeated by their Bohemian brethren in 1434, the bloody victories of the Hussites, the camp of Žižka, and the hero himself dying at Přibyslav in 1424.

Grief overcame my heart for a time, but again I saw numerous victories of the Taborites under Žižka’s leadership, and after a short pause, the horrible spectacle of Huss dying at the stake at Constance in 1415. I could hardly catch sight of the images of all these scenes in flight before me, or listen to my friend’s instructive remarks; the blood began to rush to my head.

“How far are we now?” I inquired.

“About 598,000,000,000 miles,” was the quiet reply. “We have