Fools! your doublets shone with gold, and your hearts were gay and bold, When you kissed your lily hands to your lemans to-day; And to-morrow shall the fox, from her chambers in the rocks, Lead forth her tawny cubs to howl above the prey. Where be your tongues that late mocked at heaven and hell and fate, And the fingers that once were so busy with your blades, Your perfumed satin clothes, your catches and your oaths, Your stage-plays and your sonnets, your diamonds and your spades ? Down, down, for ever down with the mitre and the crown, With the Belial of the Court and the Mammon of the Pope; There is woe in Oxford halls: there is wail in Durham's Stalls: The Jesuit smites his bosom: the Bishop rends his cope. And She of the seven hills shall mourn her children's ills, sword; And the Kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear What the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word. Lord Macaulay. THE BURIAL OF THE MINNISINK. ON sunny slope and beechen swell, Far upward in the mellow light Rose the blue hills. One cloud of white, In the warm blush of evening shone; By which the Indian's soul awakes. But soon a funeral hymn was heard Where the soft breath of evening stirred The tall, gray forest; and a band Of stern in heart, and strong in hand, Came winding down beside the wave, To lay the red chief in his grave. They sang, that by his native bowers He stood, in the last moon of flowers, And thirty snows had not yet shed Their glory on the warrior's head; But, as the summer fruit decays, So died he in those naked days. A dark cloak of the roebuck's skin Covered the warrior, and within Its heavy folds the weapons, made For the hard toils of war, were laid; The cuirass, woven of plaited reeds, And the broad belt of shells and beads. Before, a dark-haired virgin train Stripped of his proud and martial dress, They buried the dark chief-they freed H. W. Longfellow. 'HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT TO AIX.' I. I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he; I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three ; Good speed!' cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew ; 'Speed!' echoed the wall to us galloping through; Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, And into the midnight we galloped abreast. II. Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit, III. "Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half-chime, IV. At Aershot, up leaped of a sudden the sun, V. And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back VI. By Hasselt, Dirck groaned; and cried Joris 'Stay spur! 'Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault 's not in her, 'We'll remember at Aix'—for one heard the quick wheeze Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering knees, And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank, As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank. VII. So, we were left galloping, Joris and I, Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky; 'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff; And Gallop,' gasped Joris, 'for Aix is in sight! VIII. 'How they'll greet us!'-and all in a moment his roan IX. Then I cast loose my buffcoat, each holster let fall, X. And all I remember is, friends flocking round As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground; Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent. R. Browning. |