And the stern heavy tread, that by the door
Went to and fro, told it the captive's cell.
And he was there; the same, with his high brow,
And soul-disclosing eye;-and he was doomed :-
But on his face a smile seemed gathering,
And the fixed gaze marked that a wakeful dream
Had borne him far away. And now he saw
His father's home, in its old stateliness,
Amid the bending trees; and the bright band
Of his young sisters, with their voices gay,
Echoing there, like some glad melody.
And then another form, bewildering
Each thought, came rising up in peerless grace,
But dimly seen, like forms which sleep creates.
His breath grew quicker, and his only thought
Dwelt upon her, as seen in that last hour,—
Her full dark eye on his, and the closed lip
Just quivering with a tender smile, with which
The proud young thing would veil her parting grief,
And check her trembling voice, that did outsteal,
Like witching tones upborne upon the wind
Of summer night-telling of her high trust.
But suddenly a change was on his face,
And then he paced the room in agony
At one dark thought, 'Twas not that he must die;
But that he should not die a soldier's death:
Alas, and shall she hear it, that bright one
That ever saw him in her dreams, rise up
Like the young eagle to the sun?
And he stood up to die; -the beautiful
And brave-the loved one of a sunny home-
To die as felons die ;-yet proudly calm,
With his high brow unmoved. And the full soul
Beamed in his eye unconquered, and his lip
Was motionless, as is the forest leaf
In the calm prelude to the storm. He died ;
And the stern warriors, to his country foes,
Wept for his fate. And who, that e'er had hopes,
Weeps not for him, meeting such misery
ETHEREAL diadem! whose blended rays
From no meridian splendor won-
Yet burst, full-formed, upon the wondrous gaze,
A frontlet braided by the sun.
Celestial smile! beneath whose beams the dove
Afar the olive branch descried,
And bore the emblem of returning love
Across the water's ebbing tide.
Resplendent arc! whose prism-blended hues
First dwelt above with One alone,-
Till He the holy effluence did diffuse
Around the footstool of His throne.
Sign-manual of God! inscribed on high,
In characters of glowing light-
Where, on the tablet of the vaulted sky,
None but Divinity could write !
OH, lightly, lightly tread
Upon these early ashes, ye that weep
For her that slumbers in the dreamless sleep,
With your kind sorrow, ye
And climbed with her youth's brief but brilliant dell,
'Mid sunlight and fair bloom.
Glad voices whispered round
As from the stars,-bewildering harmonies,-
And visions of sweet beauty filled the skies.
And the wide vernal ground
With hopes like blossoms shone :
Oh, vainly these shall glow, and vainly wreathe
Verdure for the veiled bosom, that may breathe No joy-no answering tone.
Yet weep not for the dead
That in the glory of green youth do fall,
Ere phrenzied passion or foul sin one thrall
Upon their souls hath spread.
Weep not! They are at rest
From misery, and madness, and all strife,
That makes but night of day, and death of life,
In the grave's peaceful breast.
Nor ever more shall come
To them the breath of envy, nor the rankling eye Shall follow them, where side by side they lieDefenceless, noiseless, dumb.
Aye-though their memory's green,
In the fond heart, where love for them was born, With sorrow's silent dews, each eve, each morn, Be freshly kept, unseen—
Yet weep not! They shall soar
As the freed eagle of the skies, that pined,
But pines no more, for his own mountain wind,
And the old ocean-shore.
Rejoice! rejoice! How long
Should the faint spirit wrestle with its clay,
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