FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105  
106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   >>   >|  
eye Can map its confines and its courses; Yet on life's map who can espy Where hides his foe--where he shall die?" So Herman said, and his resources Resigned unto his horse's. All night the steed instinctive travelled-- His weary rider wept for him-- Through unseen gulfs the whirlwind ravelled, Up moonlit beds of streamlets gravelled, Till halting every bleeding limb, He stands by something dim, And will not stir till morning breaks. "What is't I see, low clustering there, Beyond those broadening bays and lakes, That yonder point familiar makes?-- Is it New Amstel, lowly fair, And this the Delaware?" VIII.--THE ECHO. Lord Herman hugged his horse with pride; He raised his horn and blew so loudly, That more than echoes back replied: Horns answered louder; horsemen cried, And muskets banged, as if avowedly On Stuyvesant's errand proudly! "Die, traitor; fleer! though thou 'scape Our ambush on thy devil's racer, Caught here upon this marshy cape, Thy bones the muskrat's brood shall scrape, The sturgeon suck--Death thy embracer!" So shouts each sanguine chaser. To die in sight of Amstel's walls, And gallant Joost to die beside him?-- O foolish blast, such fate that calls! O river that the heart appalls! Dear Joost may live. And _they_ bestride him? "By hell! none else shall ride him! "My steed, thy limbs like mine are sore! Few years are left us ere the billows Roll over both. Come but once more, And to the bottom or the shore, Bear me and thee to happy pillows, Or 'neath the water willows!" He strokes old Joost. He bends him low. He winds his horn and laughs derision. One spring!--they've cleared the bog and sloe, And down the ebb tide buoyant go-- That stately tide. So like a vision Of home, to Norse and Frisian, Where full a league spread Maas and Rhine, And in the marsh the rice-birds twitter; The long cranes pasture and the kine Loom lofty in the misty shine Of dawn and reedy islands glitter: Yet death all where is bitter. Ere out of range a volley peals, But greed too great made aye a blunder. His horse Lord Herman's self conceals, Yet once his horse and he go under, And rise again. No wound h
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105  
106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Herman

 

Amstel

 

bottom

 
willows
 
strokes
 

pillows

 

appalls

 

gallant

 
foolish
 

bestride


billows
 

buoyant

 

bitter

 

volley

 

glitter

 

islands

 

conceals

 

blunder

 
vision
 

stately


cleared

 

laughs

 

derision

 

spring

 

twitter

 

pasture

 

cranes

 

Frisian

 

league

 

spread


stands

 

gravelled

 
halting
 

bleeding

 

morning

 

breaks

 

broadening

 
yonder
 
familiar
 

Beyond


clustering

 
streamlets
 

resources

 

Resigned

 
confines
 
courses
 

unseen

 

whirlwind

 

ravelled

 

moonlit