Like the moan of a fawn when the hounds are nigh
And she sinks to the ground with a shuddering thrill,
And lies at his feet all cold and still.
With the mighty strength of his stern despair,
Like a lion roused in his guarded lair,
The youth has rended his bonds apart―
The bride is snatched to his throbbing heart!
With a bound he clears the savage crew,
And plunges on toward the bark canoe.
He nears the bank a fiendish scream
From the baffled foes rings o'er the stream:
He springs to the barque; -away, away !
It is lost from sight in the flashing spray!
A FEVER Scorched my body, fired my brain! Like lava, in Vesuvius, boiled my blood
Within the glowing caverns of my heart.
I raged with thirst, and begged a cold clear draught
Of fountain water. 'Twas with tears denied.
I drank a nauseous febrifuge, and slept;
But rested not harassed with horrid dreams
Of burning deserts, and of dusty plains-
Mountains disgorging flames forests on fire-
Steam, sunshine, smoke, and boiling lakes —
Hills of hot sand, and glowing stones that seemed
Embers and ashes of a burnt up world!
Thirst raged within me. I sought the deepest vale,
And called on all the rocks and caves for water;-
I climbed a mountain, and from cliff to cliff
Pursued a flying cloud, howling for water:
I crushed the withered herbs, and gnawed dry roots,
Still crying, Water! water!- while the cliffs and caves,
In horrid mockery, re-echoed "Water!"
The baked plain gaped for moisture,
And from its arid breast heaved smoke, that seemed
The breath of furnace - fierce, volcanic fire,
Or hot monsoon, that raises Syrian sands
To clouds. Amid the forests we espied
"Thou art a traitor to the realm!
Lord of a lawless band!
The bold in speech, the fierce in broil,
The troubler of our land!
Thy castles and thy rebel towers
Are forfeit to the crown;
And thou beneath the Norman ax
Shall end thy base renown!
"Deign'st thou no word to bar thy doom,
Thou with strange madness fired?
Hath reason quite forsook thy breast?"
Plantagenet inquired.
Sir Bernard turned him toward the king,
And blenched not in his pride;
My reason failed, most gracious liege,
The year Prince Henry died."
Quick, at that name, a cloud of woe
Passed o'er the monarch's brow;
Touched was that bleeding chord of love,
To which the mightiest bow.
And backward swept the tide of years;
Again his first-born moved
The fair, the graceful, the sublime,
The erring, yet beloved.
And ever, cherished by his side,
One chosen friend was near,
To share in boyhood's ardent sport,
Or youth's untamed career;
With him the merry chase he sought,
Beneath the dewy morn,
With him in knightly tourney rode
This Bernardine du Born.
Then in the mourning father's soul
Each trace of ire grew dim,
And what his buried idol loved
Seemed cleansed of guilt to him;
And faintly through his tears he spoke,
"God send his grace to thee!
And, for the dear sake of the dead,
Go forth, unscathed and free."
THE Kaiser's hand from all his foes
Had won him glory and repose;
Richly through his rejoicing land
Were felt the blessings of his hand;
And when at eve he sought his rest,
A myriad hearts his slumbers blessed.
In midnight's hush a tempest broke ;-
Throughout his realm its myriads woke⚫
And by the lightning's rapid flash,
And 'mid the thunder's bellowing crash,
In faith to heaven their prayers they spake,
For Christ's and for the Kaiser's sake.
But with a start, and with a pang,
Up from his couch the Kaiser sprang;
What! feareth he who never feared
When bloody deaths through hosts careered?
What! can the tempest's passing sound
That heart of battles thus confound?
The Kaiser went in storm and night,
But ne'er returned in peace and light;
Astonished thousands asked his lot,
Love sought, and sought, but found him not
But conscience did what conscience would,
And sealed its errand - blood for blood!
THE AMERICAN PATRIOT'S SONG.
HARK! hear ye the sounds that the winds on their pinions
Exultingly roll from the shore to the sea,
With a voice that resounds through her boundless dominions? 'Tis Columbia calls on her sons to be free!
Behold on yon summits, where heaven has throned her,
How she starts from her proud inaccessible seat;
With nature's impregnable ramparts around her,
And the cataract's thunder and foam at her feet!
In the breeze of her mountains her loose locks are shaken,
While the soul-stirring notes of her warrior-song
From the rock to the valley reëcho—“Awaken,
Awaken, ye hearts that have slumbered too long!"
Yes, despots! too long did your tyranny hold us,
In a vassalage vile, ere its weakness was known;
Till we learned that the links of the chain that controlled us
Were forged by the fears of its captives alone.
That spell is destroyed, and no longer availing,
Despised as detested
-pause well ere ye dare
To cope with a people whose spirit and feeling
Are roused by remembrance and steeled by despair.
Go, tame the wild torrent, or stem with a straw
The proud surges that sweep o'er the strand that confines
But presume not again to give freemen a law,
Nor think with the chains they have broken to bind them.
To hearts that the spirit of liberty flushes,
Resistance is idle, and numbers a dream;
They burst from control, as the mountain-stream rushes
From its fetters of ice, in the warmth of the beam.
I SAW him on the battle-eve,
When, like a king, he bore him
Proud hosts in glittering helm and greave,
And prouder chiefs before him:
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