LI. THE DOWNFALL OF POLAND. H sacred Truth thy triumph ceased awhile, And Hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile, When leagued Oppression poured to Northern wars Her whiskered pandours and her fierce hussars; Waved her dread standard to the breeze of morn, Pealed her loud drum and twanged her trumpet-horn; Tumultuous horror brooded o'er her van, Presaging wrath to Poland-and to man! Warsaw's last champion from her heights surveyed, "O heaven!" he cried, "my bleeding country save! Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear- The sun went down, nor ceased the carnage there; Ye that at Marathon and Leuctra bled! Friends of the world! restore your swords to man; Fight in his sacred cause, and lead the van! Yet for Sarmatia's tears of blood atone, And make her arm puissant as your own! Oh! once again to Freedom's cause return The PATRIOT TELL-the BRUCE OF BANNOCKBURN! LII. THE ENGINEER'S MURDER. HENRY MORFORD. YES ES, I once committed a murder, outside the realms of law, That I s'pose the body of people would not heed the worth of a straw; But I think I should sleep the sounder, sometimes, when the night winds wail, If I never remembered "murder," or never told over the tale. No matter the road I was running,-'twas in one of the Middle States; So many years since, that I wonder why the sorrow never abates. I was young, and hasty, and savage, as youth is apt to be, And my hand,—well, my hand, you will fancy was a trifle too ready and free. I was in my caboose just at evening, say 'tween Holden and Fiddler's Run, Round a curve, and running,—say forty, or it may have been fifty, who knows,— Did I stop? Not much! I just opened the throttle-valve, by a mite, Have I never got over it? No, sir! and I never shall till I die! I may have done many more murders, and it is likely I have on the whole; And what is the worst of my sorrow,—don't make the one grand mistake! But the dog that was doing his duty so nobly,-I grieve for him; LIII.-VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. BYRON. lamps shone o'er that high festival. THE king was on his throne, the Satraps thronged the hall; a thousand bright A thousand cups of gold, in Judah deemed divine-Jehovah's vessels hold the godless Heathen's wine! In that same hour and hall, the fingers of a hand came forth against the wall, and wrote as if on sand: the fingers of a man ;-a solitary hand along the letters ran, and traced them like a wand. The monarch saw, and shook, and bade no more rejoice; all bloodless waxed his look, and tremulous his voice. "Let the men of lore appear, the wisest of the earth; and expound the words of fear, which mar our royal mirth." Chaldæa's seers are good, but here they have no skill; and the unknown letters stood untold and awful still. And Babel's men of age are wise and deep in lore; but now they were not sage, they saw-but knew no more. A Captive in the land, a stranger and a youth, he heard the king's command, he saw that writing's truth. The lamps around were bright, the prophecy in view; he read it on that night,—the morrow proved it true. "Belshazzar's grave is made--his kingdom passed away-he, in the balance weighed, is light and worthless clay. The shroud, his robe of state-his canopy, the stone; the Mede is at his gate—the Persian on his throne !" LOOKED upon his brow ;-no sign I saw him once before; he rode Of guilt or fear was there; He stood as proud by that death-shrine, As even o'er despair He had a power; in his eye There was a quenchless energy A spirit that could dare Upon a coal-black steed, And tens of thousands thronged the road, His helm, his breastplate, were of gold, The deadliest form that death could take, The sun shone on his sparkling mail, And dare it for the daring's sake. He stood, the fetters on his hand He raised them haughtily; And danced his snow-plume in the gale. But now he stood, chained and alone; And had that grasp been on the brand, The plume, the helm, the charger gone ; It could not wave on high With freer pride than it waved now : The sword, that had defied The rack, the chain, the axe, the wheel, And never king or conqueror's brow And, worst of all, his own red steel! Wore higher look than his did now. He bent beneath the headsman's stroke With an uncovered eye; A wild shout from the numbers broke, It was a people's loud acclaim, Rome's wail above her only son, LV. THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. H. KIRKE WHITE. WHEN marshalled on the nightly plain, The glittering host bestud the sky, One star alone of all the train, Can fix the sinner's wandering eye. Hark! hark!-to God the chorus breaks, But one alone the Saviour speaks- Once on the raging seas I rode ; The storm was loud-the night was dark— The wind, that tossed my foundering bark. Deep horrors then my vitals froze- It was the Star of Bethlehem ! It was my guide-my light-my all! Now, safely moored, my perils o'er, For ever, and for evermore, The Star-the Star of Bethlehem ! LVI. THE SOLDIER'S DREAM. UR bugles sang truce--for the night-cloud had lowered, When reposing that night on my pallet of straw, And thrice, ere the morning, I dreamt it again. Methought, from the battle-field's dreadful array, To the home of my fathers, that welcomed me back! I flew to the pleasant fields, traversed so oft In life's morning march, when my bosom was young ; I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft, Then pledged we the wine-cup; and fondly I swore And my wife sobbed aloud in her fulness of heart : "Stay! stay with us!-rest! thou art weary and worn!" But sorrow returned with the dawning of morn, LVII. BRUCE TO HIS ARMY. BURNS. COTS! wha ha'e wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Now's the day and now's the hour! See the front of battle lour! See, approach proud Edward's power-Edward!-chains and slavery! Wha will be a traitor knave? Wha can fill a coward's grave? Wha sae base as be-a slave? Traitor! coward! turn and flee! Wha, for Scotland's king and law, freedom's sword will strongly draw, Freeman stand, or Freeman fa'? Caledonian !-on wi me! By oppression's woes and pains! by your sons in servile chains! We will drain our dearest veins, but they shall--they shall be free! Lay the proud usurpers low! Tyrants fall in every foe! Liberty's in every blow! Forward!-let us do or die! LVIII.-ELIZA. DARWIN. OW stood Eliza on the wood-crowned height, Sought with bold eye, amid the bloody strife, And one fair girl amid the loud alarm Dyes her white veil, her ivory bosom stains. 66 'Ah, me!" she cried, and, sinking on the ground, Kissed her dear babes, regardless of the wound; 66 Oh, cease not yet to beat, thou vital urn! Wait, gushing life, oh, wait my love's return; Hoarse barks the wolf, the vulture screams from far! The angel, Pity, shuns the walds of war ! Oh, spare, ye war-hounds, spare their tender age! From tent to tent the impatient Warrior flies, |