McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXXIII · Part 9: History, seasons and home

87. The Attack on Nymegen, by Motley

Goal: Your child reads an exciting passage of history and retells Martin Schenk's night attack.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook or lined paper and a pencil

What's in the book

From Motley's "History of the United Netherlands": the freebooter Martin Schenk bursts into a wedding feast at Nymegen at night with his musketeers, is driven out by the townsmen and garrison, and drowns when his overloaded boat sinks. A note about Motley and Definitions are included.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    The new words are at the end of the lesson, under Definitions. The small number in front of each word is the paragraph or verse where it is used. Read them together before the lesson. A few of them:

    Freebooter, one who plunders.

    Burghers, inhabitants of a town.

    Quay, a wharf.

    Truculent, fierce.

    Ask your child to find two of these words in the lesson and read the sentence each one is in.

  2. About the author

    The book's note says Mr. Motley was born in 1814, at Dorchester, Mass. He graduated at Harvard in 1831, and afterwards lived many years in Europe, writing the histories which have made him famous.

  3. Read it aloud

    Your child reads it aloud. This is history written like a story; read it with energy. Here is Schenk's entrance:

    The great freebooter strode heavily through the ball-room, followed by a party of those terrible musketeers.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhere was the feast? Who came uninvited?

    SayHow had Schenk and his men reached the town?

    SayWhy didn't the rest of his men arrive in time?

    SayHow did Schenk die? How was his body known?

    Let your child look back at the page to find answers.

  5. Tell it back

    Close the book. Your child tells the night's events in order, as a reporter would.

  6. Copywork

    Your child copies this from the book, slowly and neatly, minding every capital letter and mark of punctuation:

    He had just dropped down the river from his castle, with five and twenty barges.

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: morion, freebooter, musketeer, quarter, burghers, garrison, flotilla, marauders, quay, truculent. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

Find the Netherlands on a map. Nymegen (Nijmegen today) is on the river Waal.

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