Balkan range, and in front down to the valley.
Though these slopes are not of a very regular
form, they constitute an amphitheatre, with
a series of steps; all of which are now covered
with fortifications and batteries. There is a
citadel well built of stone on a little tableland
to the north-east of the town; which it
commands as well as the road from Razgrad.
According to all military authorities, Schumla
is a very strong position for an army; but,
like most great military works, it requires
too large a garrison to render it impregnable.
To man it completely a whole army is
necessary.

Beyond Schumla the road to Constantinople
—rising towards the summit of the Balkan,
now up steep slopes, now through rugged
defiles—becomes very difficult. Most of the hills
are covered with trees, which are clotted with
numerous kinds of creepers. Torrents, dry in
summer but impetuous in winter, are met with
at almost every step. The road, if road it can
be called, is obstructed by loose stones, and
travellers have been alarmed for their safety
even on horseback. However, waggons have
been taken across, and Sultan Mahmoud once
performed the journey with a considerable
suite.

From Schumla to Aidos the distance is
reckoned at sixteen hours. Many streams
and torrents have to be traversed. Several
Turkish villages occur on the way, and one or
two Bulgarian villages. The extreme summit
of the Balkan, which—although so well
marked at a distance, is passed almost without
being noticed—is met with about halfway.
The road crosses the Mad river and the
Intelligent river; otherwise the greater and
lesser Kantschik. "We are now properly
speaking in Roumelia, although the Bulgarian
population still continues mixed with Greeks.
The direct road to Constantinople from Aidos
is by Kirkilisé; but native travellers vary
their route almost at every journey, giving
as a reason the unsettled state of the country
and the danger of falling into ambuscades.

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER XLIII.

That the Merry Monarch might be very
merry indeed in the merry times when his
people were suffering under pestilence and
fire, he drank and gambled and flung away
among his favourites the money which the
Parliament had voted for the war. The
consequence of this was, that the stout-hearted
English sailors were merrily starving of want
and dying in the streets; while the Dutch,
under their admirals DE WITT and DE RUYTER,
came into the River Thames, and even up the
River Medway as far as Upnor, burned the
guard-ships, silenced the weak batteries, and
did what they would to the English coast for
six whole weeks. Most of the English ships
that could have prevented them had neither
powder nor shot on board; in this merry
reign, public officers made themselves as
merry as the King did with the public
money; and when it was entrusted to them
to spend in national defences or preparations,
they put it into their own pockets with the
merriest grace in the world.

Lord Clarendon had, by this time, run as
long a course as is usually allotted to the
unscrupulous ministers of bad kings. He
was impeached by his political opponents,
but unsuccessfully. The King then
commanded him to withdraw from England and
retire to France, which he did, after defending
himself in writing. He was no great loss at
home, and died abroad some seven years
afterwards.

There then came into power a ministry
called the Cabal Ministry, because it was
composed of LORD  CLIFFORD, the EARL OF
ARLINGTON, the DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (a
great rascal, formerly Earl of Rochester, and
the King's most powerful favourite), LORD
ASHLEY, and the DUKE OF LAUDERDALE;
C. A. B, A. L. As the French were making
conquests in Flanders, the first Cabal
proceeding was to make a treaty with the Dutch
for uniting with Spain to oppose the French.
It was no sooner made than the Merry
Monarch, who always wanted to get money
without being accountable to a Parliament
for his expenditure, apologised to the King
of France for having had anything to do with
it, and concluded a secret treaty with him,
making himself his infamous pensioner to
the amount of two millions of livres down,
and three millions more a year; and engaging
to desert that very Spain, to make war
against those very Dutch, and to declare
himself a Catholic when a convenient time should
arrive. This religious King had lately been
crying to his Catholic brother on the subject
of his strong desire to be a Catholic; and
now he merrily concluded this treasonable
conspiracy against the country he governed,
by undertaking to become one as soon as he
safely could. For all of which, though he
had had ten merry heads instead of one, he
richly deserved to lose them by the headsman's
axe.

As his one merry head might have been far
from safe if these things had been known, they
were kept very quiet, and war was declared
by France and England against the Dutch.
But, a very uncommon man, afterwards most
important to English history and to the
religion and liberty of this land, arose among
them, and for many long years defeated the
whole projects of France. This was William
Of Nassau, Prince of Orange, son of the
last Prince of Orange of the same name, who
married the daughter of Charles the First of
England. He was a young man at this
time, only just of age; but he was brave,
cool, intrepid and wise. His father had
been so detested that, upon his death, the
Dutch had abolished the authority to which