And he has bared his shining blade,
And springs he on the shaggy foe;
Dreadful the strife, but briefly played ;-
The desert-king lies low:
His long and loud death-howl is made;
And there must end the show.
And when the multitude were calm,
The favorite freed-man took the palm.
"Kneel down, Rome's emperor beside !"
He knelt, that dark man;-o'er his brow
Was thrown a wreath in crimson died;
And fair words gild it now:
"Thou art the bravest youth that ever tried
To lay a lion low;
And from our presence forth thou go'st
To lead the Dacians of our host."
Then flushed his cheek, but not with pride,
And grieved and gloomily spake he:
"My cabin stands where blithely glide
Proud Danube's waters to the sea:
I have a young and blooming bride,
And I have children three :-
No Roman wealth or rank can give
Such joy as in their arms to live.
My wife sits at the cabin door,
With throbbing heart and swollen eyes;
While tears her cheek are coursing o'er,
She speaks of sundered ties.
She bids my tender babes deplore
The death their father dies;
She tells these jewels of my home,
I bleed to please the rout of Rome.
"I cannot let those cherubs stray
Without their sire's protecting care;
And I would chase the griefs away
Which cloud my wedded fair."
The monarch spoke; the guards obey:
And gates unclosed are:
He's gone!-No golden bribes divide
The Dacian from his babes and bride.
THE Kaiser's* hand from all his foes
Had won him glory and repose:
Richly through his rejoicing land
Were felt the blessings of his hand;
And when at eve he sought his rest,
A myriad hearts his slumbers blessed.
In midnight's hush a tempest broke ;-
Throughout his realm its myriads woke ;
And by the lightning's rapid flash,
And 'mid the thunder's bellowing crash,
In faith to heaven their prayers they spake,
For Christ's and for the Kaiser's sake.
But with a start, and with a pang,
Up from his couch the Kaiser sprang;
What! feareth he who never feared
When bloody deaths through hosts careered?
What! can the tempest's passing sound
That heart of battles thus confound?
No! no! but in its deepest deep
It wakes a cry no more to sleep;
And there! and there! in wrath begin
The pangs-the power of secret sin.
A blow is dealt, a strife is stirred,-
Without, the storm may pass unheard!
And, therefore, from his palace door
He passed into the loud uproar;
In wildest wind, and blackest night,
He passed away in sudden flight:
'Mid lightning, rain, and thunder's roll,
He went, a fire within his soul.
The Kaiser went in storm and night,
But ne'er returned in peace and light;
Astonished thousands asked his lot,
Love sought and sought, but found him not;
But conscience did what conscience would,
And sealed its errand-blood for blood!
136. ALBUQUERQUE.
A STORM was on the deep;
And lightning, in its wrath,
Called the darkness from its sleep,
In the fierce tornado's path:
The ocean waves went up among
The thunder-spirit's choir,
Recoiling as the death-note rung
From their canopy of fire.
"Awake! awake!-behold
Death throned among the clouds ! The sands of life are told
The waves must be our shrouds." Thus spake the chief, while, clinging round, The shrieking concourse stood, Waiting the sulphurous bolt to sound Their requiem for the flood.
Stern Albuquerque that hour
Showed horror on his brow,
While conscience, in her power,
Made his haughty heart to bow;
Hot lightning blackened many a corse,
And cleft his bending mast,
While bounding like a reinless horse,
On went the proud ship fast.
Pressed down with guilty fear,
He knew his turn might be-
Another bolt fell near,
And burst upon the sea;---
When from a mother's bosom blest,
He snatched her infant care,
And clasping it before his breast,
Defied the lightning's glare.
"Now strike!—I stand prepared ;
Hurl down, proud Heaven, thy worst!
For innocence is bared
Before a bosom cursed!"
RUFUS DAWES.-JONATHAN LAWRENCE.
He stood the tempest fell asleep-
The hurricane passed o'er,-
His arms that keep the mighty deep
Showed mercy, and forbore!
In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale
Are around and above, if thy footing should fail,—
If thine eye should grow dim, and thy caution depart,-
"Look aloft," and be firm, and be fearless of heart.
If the friend who embraced in prosperity's glow,
With a smile for each joy, and a tear for each woe,
Should betray thee when sorrows like clouds are arrayed,
"Look aloft," to the friendship which never shall fade.
Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine eye,
Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly,-
Then turn, and, through tears of repentant regret,
"Look aloft" to the sun that is never to set.
Should they who are nearest and dearest thy heart,—
Thy relations and friends-in sorrow depart,-
"Look aloft," from the darkness and dust of the tomb,
To that soil where affection is ever in bloom.
And oh, when Death comes, in terrors, to cast
His fears on the future, his pall on the past,-
In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart,
And a smile in thine eye, "look aloft," and depart.
O THOU, vast Ocean! ever-sounding Sea!
Thou symbol of a dread immensity!
Thou thing that windest round the solid world
Like a huge animal, which downward hurled
From the black clouds, lies weltering and alone,
Lashing and writhing till its strength be gone!
Thy voice is like the thunder, and thy sleep
Is as a giant's slumber, loud and deep.
Thou speakest in the east and in the west
At once, and on thy heavily laden breast
Fleets come and go, and shapes that have no life
Or motion, yet are moved, and meet in strife.
The earth hath naught of this: no chance nor change
Ruffles its surface, and no spirits dare
Give answer to the tempest-waken air;
But o'er its wastes the weakly tenants range
At will, and wound its bosom as they go.
Ever the same, it hath no ebb, no flow;
But to their stated rounds the seasons come,
And pass, like visions, to their viewless home,
And come again and vanish; the young spring
Looks ever bright with leaves and blossoming,
And winter always winds his sullen horn
When the wild autumn, with a look forlorn,
Dies in his stormy manhood; and the skies
Weep, and flowers sicken when the summer flies.
Thou only, terrible Ocean! hast a power,
A will, a voice, and in thy wrathful hour,
When thou dost lift thine anger to the clouds,
A fearful and magnificent beauty shrouds
Thy broad, green forehead. If thy waves be driven
Backwards and forwards, by the shifting wind,
How quickly dost thou thy great strength unbind,
And stretch thine arms, and war at once with heaven!
Thou trackless and immeasurable Main!
On thee no record ever lived again
To meet the hand that writ it: line nor lead
Hath ever fathomed thy profoundest deeps,
Where, haply, the huge monster swells and sleeps,
King of his watery limit, who, 'tis said,
Can move the mighty Ocean into storm-
Oh! wonderful thou art, great element;
And fearful in thy spleeny humors bent,
And lovely in repose: thy summer form
Is beautiful, and when thy silver waves
Make music in earth's dark and winding caves,
I love to wander on thy pebbled beach
Marking the sunlight at the evening hour,
And hearken to the thoughts thy waters teach-
"Eternity, eternity, and power.'
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