Troops of sworded gladiators, Dacian captives, fought and bled, And the lists were strewn with wretches lying on their bucklers dead; And in the arena Christian saints and martyrs, old and gray, Were trampled in the dust, and torn by savage beasts of prey. Sick of this, I turned and looking out the arches in the street, I beheld a mighty multitude, a crowd with hurrying feet; Nobles with their flowing togas, simple artisans bedight In their holyday attire and badges, maids with eyes of light, Waving hands to lovers distant, and the little children clung To their mother’s gowns, and nurses held aloft their infants young, And afar and pouring through the city gates a long array, And in front, in his triumphal car, the hero of the day; And his coursers champed their frosted bits and pranced, but all in vain, Braced he stood, with streaming robe, and checked them with a tightened rein; And a mournful group of kingly captives, dusty, drooping low, Followed, fettered to his chariot, gracing his triumphal show; Augurs and soothsayers, flamen, tribunes, lictors bearing rods, And gray-bearded priests, with olive boughs and statues of the gods, Shaking from their brazen censers clouds of incense to the skies, Leading lowing steers, in wreaths and garlands decked, to sacrifice. Sacred nymphs from temples near, in spotless white, and vestal throngs Followed solemn, dancing mystic dances, singing choral songs. Cohorts of the Roman soldiers conquering legions marched behind, With their burnished armor shining and their banners on the wind; And, with distance faint, the brattling drums, the trumpet’s mighty blast, And the clarion rung and sounded like an echo from the Past. All at once the glorious vision melted, faded in the air, Like a desert exhalation, leaving all its ruin bare. And, in place of glory and the beauty of the olden day, I beheld the Queen of Cities wasted, fallen in decay. * * * * * THE MISSIONARY, SUNLIGHT. BY CAROLINE C——. “Her presence makes thick darkness light— Hope’s rainbow spreadeth o’er her path; Through her, weak souls are filled with might, And Mercy triumphs over Wrath.” A sweet Sister of Charity, a faithful, never-wearying missionary, is the beautiful Sunlight, daughter of the proud monarch who reigns supremely over the broad dominions of the “upper blue!”