The calm, that cometh after all,
Looked sweetly down at shut of day,
When friend and foe commingling lay
Like leaves of forest as they fall,
Afar the sombre mountains frowned,

Here tall pines wheeled their shadows round,
Like long, slim fingers of a hand

That sadly pointed out the dead.

Like some broad shield high overhead
The great white moon led on and on
As leading to the Better land.

You might have heard the cricket's trill,
Or night-birds calling from the hill,
The place was so profoundly still.

The mighty chief at last was down,
The broken breast of brass and pride;
The hair all dust, the brow a-frown,
And proud mute lips compressed in hate
To foes, yet all content with fate;
While, circled round him thick, the foe
Had folded hands in dust, and died.
His tomahawk lay at his side,
All blood, beside his broken bow.
One arm stretched out as over-bold,
One hand half-doubled hid in dust,
And clutched the earth, as if to hold
His hunting grounds still in his trust.

Here tall grass bowed its tasselled head,
In dewy tears above the dead,
And there they lay in crooked fern,
That waved and wept above by turn;
And further on, by sombre trees,
They lay, wild heroes of wildest deeds,
In shrouds alone of weeping weeds,
Bound in a never-to-be-broken peace.

Joaquin Miller.

CCC.

UNION AND LIBERTY.

FIRST VOICE.

FLAG of the heroes who left us their glory,

Borne through their battle-fields' thunder and flame, Blazoned in song and illumined in story,

Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame!

ALL.

Up with our banner bright,
Sprinkled with starry light;

Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore,
While through the sounding sky

Loud rings the Nation's cry,

UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE !

SECOND VOICE.

Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation,
Pride of her children and honored afar.
Let the wide beams of thy full constellation,
Scatter each cloud that would darken a star!

ALL.

Up with our banner bright,
Sprinkled with starry light, etc.

THIRD VOICE.

Empire unsceptred! What foe shall assail thee,
Bearing the standard of Liberty's van?
Think not the God of thy fathers shall fail thee,
Striving with men for the birthright of man!

ALL.

Up with our banner bright,

Sprinkled with starry light, etc.

FOURTH VOICE.

Yet if, by madness and treachery blighted,

Dawns the dark hour when the sword thou must draw, Then with the arms of thy millions united,

Smite the bold traitors to Freedom and Law!

ALL.

Up with our banner bright,
Sprinkled with starry light, etc.

FIFTH VOICE.

LORD OF THE UNIVERSE! Shield us and guide us,
Trusting thee always through shadow and sun!

Thou hast united us: who shall divide us?
Keep us, oh, keep us, the MANY IN ONE!

ALL.

Up with our banner bright,
Sprinkled with starry light, etc.

O. W. Holmes.

UP

CCCI.

SHERIDAN'S RIDE.

P from the South at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald in haste to the chieftain's door,
The terrible grumble and rumble and roar,
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.

And wider still those billows of war
Thundered along the horizon's bar,
And louder yet into Winchester rolled
The roar of that red sea uncontrolled,
Making the blood of the listener cold
As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.

But there is a road from Winchester town,

A good, broad highway leading down;

And there through the flush of the morning light,
A steed, as black as the steeds of night,
Was seen to pass as with eagle flight;
As if he knew the terrible need

He stretched away with his utmost speed;
Hill rose and fell but his heart was gay,
With Sheridan fifteen miles away.

Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering south,
The dust, like the smoke from the cannon's mouth,
Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster,
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster;

The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battle-field calls;

Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away.

Under his spurning feet, the road
Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed,

And the landscape sped away behind

Like an ocean flying before the wind;

And the steed, like a barque fed with furnace ire,
Swept on with his wild eyes full of fire.

But lo! he is nearing his heart's desire

He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray,
With Sheridan only five miles away.

The first that the General saw were the groups
Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops;
What was done - what to do -

-a glance told him both,

Then striking his spurs with a terrible oath,

He dashed down the line 'mid a storm of huzzas,

And the wave of retreat, checked its course there because

The sight of the master compelled it to pause.

With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;

By the flash of his eye, and his red nostril's play,

He seemed to the whole great army to say: "I have brought you Sheridan all the way From Winchester down to save the day!"

Hurrah, hurrah, for Sheridan!

Hurrah, hurrah, for horse and man!
And when their statues are placed on high
Under the dome of the Union sky,
The American soldiers' Temple of Fame,
There with the glorious General's name
Be it said in letters both bold and bright;
"Here is the steed that saved the day
By carrying Sheridan into the fight,
From Winchester

twenty miles away!"

T. B. Read.

СССІІ.

THE EXECUTION OF MONTROSE..

COME hither, Evan Cameron! Come, stand beside knee:

my

I hear the river roaring down towards the wintry sea; There's shouting on the mountain-side, there's war within the

blast,

Old faces look upon me, old forms go trooping by ;

I hear the pibroch wailing amidst the din of fight,

And my dim spirit wakes again upon the verge of night.

'Twas I that led the Highland host through wild Lochaber's

snows,

What time the plaided clans came down to battle with Montrose. I've told thee how the Southrons fell beneath the broad clay

more,

And how we smote the Campbell clan by Inverlochy's shore. I've told thee how we swept Dundee, and tamed the Lindsay's

pride;

But never have I told thee yet how the Great Marquis died!

A traitor sold him to his foes,

Oh, deed of deathless shame! I charge thee, boy, if e'er thou meet with one of Assynt's

name,