His bannered millions meet; While rock, and glen, and cave, and coast, He heard the imperial echoes ring,- He stood - fleet, army, treasure, gone · But wave and wind swept ruthless on, For they were monarchs there; And Xerxes, in a single bark, Where late his thousand ships were dark Must all their fury dare. What a revenge, a trophy, this, For thee, immortal Salamis ! Miss Jewsbury. Beneath it rung the battle shout, Shall sweep the clouds no more. Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, No more shall feel the victor's tread, O, better that her shattered hulk The lightning and the gale! CCXIX. CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. HALF a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. Rode the six hundred. "Forward, the Light Brigade!" Was there a man dismayed? O. W. Holmes. Not though the soldier knew Cannon to right of them, Cannon in front of them Volleyed and thundered: Stormed at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Rode the six hundred. Flashed all their sabres bare, All the world wondered: Plunged in the battery smoke, Right through the line they broke Cossack and Russian Reeled from the sabre stroke, Shattered and sundered; Then they rode back, but not- Cannon to right of them, Cannon behind them, Volleyed and thundered: Stormed at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell, They that had fought so well, Came through the jaws of hell, All that was left of them, When can their glory fade? Noble six hundred! CCXX. ARNOLD WINKELREID. AKE way for liberty!" "MAKE he cried; But every freeman was a host, And felt as though himself were he, On whose sole arm hung victory. It did depend on one indeed; Unmarked he stood among the throng, Till you might see, with sudden grace, Tell where the bolt would strike, and how. A. Tennyson. But 't was no sooner thought than done, - Swift to the breach his comrades fly: Rout, ruin, panic, scattered all: An earthquake could not overthrow |