FALL OF D'ASSAS.

119

Song should bring back scenes and hours

That we loved -ah, long ago !
Song from baser thoughts should win us;

Song should charm us out of woe;
Song should stir the heart within us,

Like a patriot's friendly blow. Pains and pleasures, all man doeth,

War and peace, and right and wrong, All things that the soul subdueth

Should be vanquished, too, by song.
Song should spur the mind to duty;

Nerve the weak, and stir the strong;
Every deed of truth and beauty,
Should be crow ned by starry song!

Barry Cornwall,

FALL OF D'ASSAS.
Alone through the gloomy forest-shades

A soldier went by night;
No moonbeam pierced the dusky glades,

No star shed guiding light.
Yet on his vigil's midnight round,

The youth all cheerly pass'di;

120

FALL OF D'ASSAS

Uncheck'd hy ought of boding sound

That mutter'd in the blast.
Where were his thoughts that gloomy hour ?

In his far home perchance;
His father's hall, his mother's bower,

'Midst the gay vines of France. Wandering from battles lost and won,

To hear and bless again
The rolling of the wide Garonne,

Or murmur of the Seine.
-Hush! hark !-did stealing steps go by,

Came not faint whispers near ?
No! the wild wind hath many a sigh,

Amidst the foliage sere.
Hark, yet again and from his hand,
What
grasp

hath wrenched the blade ? -Oh! single 'midst a hostile band,

Young soldier ! thou'rt betray'd ! “ Silence !” in under-tones they cry

“No whisper- not a breath!
The sound that warns thy comrades nigh

Shall sentence thee to death."
-Still, at the bayonet's point he stood,

And strong to meet the blow;

A VISION OF PEACE.

121

And shouted, 'midst his rushing blood,

“Arm, arm, Auvergne ! the foe!” The stir, the tramp, the bugle-call

He heard their tumults grow ;
And sent his dying voice through all —
Auvergne, Auvergne ! the foe!

Mrs. Hemans.

A VISION OF PEACE.

Methought I heard a solemn voice proclaim, The voice as of an angel clear and strong,

“ These shedders of men's blood, for ever

more

Their glory hath departed :--God hath said, Even God, the Lord Omnipotent, hath said, There shall be no more war!”

Oh blessed dream! I look through the long vista of the years I see the forms of the meek men of peace, The men with thoughtful eyes, and broad

calm brows, That in their patient lowliness of heart Have been uplifted to the seats of power,

122

A VISION OF PEACE.

And from that eminence have scatter'd down
New light and wider blessings on mankind.
I see them wear the crowns of the world's

love,
Its earnest homage, its enduring faith-
Wear them, vot darkly in sepulchral halls,
But in the open sunshine, 'neath the smile
Of the sweet heaven. I look abroad and

scan

The rich plains of the populous earth ; its

vales,

Its mighty cities; o'er the seas I look,
Lit up with white sails of the merchant

ships, And in the length and breadth of the fair

world, I see no lingering token of the reign Of the destroyer, War.

But to my ear Instead, the burden of a solemn hymn Steals, floating upward from the souls of

men,

Upward and ouward still, from star to star, Through all the spaces of the universe, “There shall be no inore war!”-Oh! blessed dreain!

Westwood.

Oh Thou who once on earth, beneath the

weight of our mortality did'st live and move;

The incarnation of profoundest love; Who on the Cross that love did'st consum

mate, Whose deep and ample fulness could

einbrace The poorest, meanest, of our fallen race, How shall we e'er that boundless debt repay ?

By long loud prayers in gorgeous tem

ples said

By rich oblations on thine altars laid ? Ah no! not thus thou didst appoint the way : When thou wast bowed our human woe

beneath,
Then as a legacy thou didst bequeath
Earths sorrowing children to our ministry ;
And as we do to them we do to thee.

Anne C. Lynch.

CEUR DE LION.

AT THE BIER OF HIS FATHER.

Torches were blazing clear, hymns pealing

deep and slow,