LAKE CHAMPLAIN AND ITS SurroundiNGS THE CHARTER OAK, HARtford. WASHINGTON'S HOME AT MT. VERNON SHORE OF LAKE GEORGE. THE OLD NORTH CHURCH, BOSTON ETHAN ALLEN'S ENTRANCE, Ticonderoga THE OLD STATE HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA THE BENEDICT ARNOLD MANSION THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC. LIBBY PRISON, RICHMOND 41 53 75 84 97 117 156 168 189 . 217 275 293 VINELAND AND THE VIKINGS. THE year 1000 A.D. was one of strange history. Its advent threw the people of Europe into a state of mortal terror. Ten centuries had passed since the birth of Christ. The world was about to come to an end. Such was the general belief. How it was to reach its end,-whether by fire, water, or some other agent of ruin,-the prophets of disaster did not say, nor did people trouble themselves to learn. Destruction was coming upon them, that was enough to know; how to provide against it was the one thing to be considered. Some hastened to the churches; others to the taverns. Here prayers went up; there wine went down. The petitions of the pious were matched by the ribaldry of the profligate. Some made their wills; others wasted their wealth in revelry, eager to get all the pleasure out of life that remained for them. Many freely gave away their property, hoping, by ridding themselves of the goods of this earth, to establish a claim to the goods of Heaven, with little regard to the fate of those whom they loaded with their discarded wealth. It was an era of ignorance and superstition. Christendom went insane over an idea. When the |