He called the cutter,--no cutter of clothes, But such as royalty kept for those Who happened to need correcting,-- And told him that Richard, before he died, Desired to have a scalpel applied To the traitor there. With professional pride, The cutter began dissecting. Now Bones was born with a genius to flay: He might have ranked, had he lived to-day, As a capital taxidermist: And yet, as he tugged, they heard him say, Of all the backs that ever lay Before him in a professional way, That was of all backs the firmest. Kind reader, allow me to drop a veil In pity; I cannot pursue the tale In the heartless tone of the last strophe. 'Tis done, and again I'll be the same. They triumphed not, if they felt no shame: No muscle quivered, no murmur came, Until the final catastrophe. The captain jested a moment, then He waved his hand and bowed to his men With a single word, "Disbanded," And galloped away with three or four Stout men-at-arms to the nearest shore, Where a gallant array not long before With the king in pride had landed. He coasted around, went up the Rhine, So famous then for robbers and wine, So famous now as a ramble. The wine and the robbers still are there; But they rob you now with a bill of fare, And gentlemen bankers "on the square" Will clean you out, if you gamble. He built him a Schloss on--something-Stein, And became the first of as proud a line As e'er took toll on the river, When barons, perched in their castles high, On the valley would keep a watchful eye, And pounce on travellers with their cry, "The Rhine-dues! down! deliver!" And crack their crowns for any delay In paying down. And that, by the way, About as correctly as I know, Is the origin true of an ancient phrase So frequently heard in modern days, When a gentleman quite reluctantly pays,-- I mean, "To come down with the rhino." A LEGEND OF MARYLAND "AN OWRE TRUE TALE." The framework of modern history is, for the most part, constructed out of the material supplied by national transactions described in official documents and contemporaneous records. Forms of government and their organic changes, the succession of those who have administered them, their legislation, wars, treaties, and the statistics demonstrating their growth or decline,--these are the elements that furnish the outlines of history. They are the dry timbers of a vast old edifice; they impose a dry study upon the antiquary, and are still more dry to his reader.