FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44  
45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   >>   >|  
e Unto the sergeant's love. EDWARD WENTWORTH HAZEWELL. * * * * * THE PRIVATE OF THE BUFFS;[A] OR, THE BRITISH SOLDIER IN CHINA. ["Some Seiks, and a private of the Buffs, having remained behind with the grog carts, fell into the hands of the Chinese. On the next day they were brought before the authorities and ordered to perform _Kotou_. The Seiks obeyed, but Moyse, the English soldier, declared he would not prostrate himself before any Chinaman alive, and was immediately knocked upon the head, and his body thrown upon a dunghill."--_China Correspondent of the London Times.]_ Last night, among his fellow roughs, He jested, quaffed, and swore; A drunken private of the Buffs, Who never looked before. To-day, beneath the foeman's frown, He stands in Elgin's place, Ambassador from Britain's crown, And type of all her race. Poor, reckless, rude, low-born, untaught, Bewildered, and alone, A heart, with English instinct fraught, He yet can call his own. Ay, tear his body limb from limb, Bring cord or axe or flame, He only knows that not through him Shall England come to shame. Far Kentish hop-fields round him seemed, Like dreams, to come and go; Bright leagues of cherry-blossom gleamed, One sheet of living snow; The smoke above his father's door In gray soft eddyings hung; Must he then watch it rise no more, Doomed by himself so young? Yes, honor calls!--with strength like steel He put the vision by; Let dusky Indians whine and kneel, An English lad must die. And thus, with eyes that would not shrink, With knee to man unbent, Unfaltering on its dreadful brink, To his red grave he went. Vain mightiest fleets of iron framed, Vain those all-shattering guns, Unless proud England keep untamed The strong heart of her sons; So let his name through Europe ring,-- A man of mean estate, Who died, as firm as Sparta's king, Because his soul was great. [Footnote A: The "Buffs" are the East Kent Regiment.] SIR FRANCIS HASTINGS DOYLE. THE TURK IN ARMENIA. FROM "THE PURPLE EAST." What profits it, O England, to prevail In camp and mart and council, and bestrew With argosies thy oceans, and renew With tribute levied on each golden gale Thy treasuries, if thou canst hear the wail Of women martyred by the turb
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44  
45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
English
 
England
 
private
 
mightiest
 

dreadful

 

fleets

 

shrink

 

Unfaltering

 

unbent

 

eddyings


Doomed

 

strength

 

Indians

 

framed

 

vision

 

Europe

 

bestrew

 
council
 
argosies
 

oceans


prevail

 

PURPLE

 
profits
 

tribute

 

levied

 

martyred

 
golden
 

treasuries

 

ARMENIA

 
estate

strong

 
shattering
 

Unless

 

untamed

 
Regiment
 

FRANCIS

 

HASTINGS

 

Sparta

 

Because

 

Footnote


prostrate

 
declared
 
Chinaman
 

immediately

 

soldier

 

perform

 

ordered

 

obeyed

 

knocked

 
fellow