Lift through the free blue heavens thine arrowy crest ! Let the great rocks their solitude regain ! No Delphian lyres now break thy noontide rest With their full chords :-but silent be the strain ! Thou hast a mightier voice to speak th' Eternal's reign! THE FESTAL HOUR. WHEN are the lessons given That shake the startled earth ?-When wakes the foe, High hopes o'erthrown ?—It is, when lands rejoice, Fear ye the festal hour! The trumpet peal'd, ere yet the song was done, The marble shrines were crown'd: And lyres were strung, and bright libations pour'd, Through Rome a triumph pass'd. Rich in her sun-god's mantling beams went by With shout and trumpet-blast. *The sword of Harmodius. An empire's gems their starry splendour shed And many a Dryad's bower Had lent the laurels, which, in waving play, O'er his own porch, meantime, the cypress hung, A sound of lyre and song, In the still night, went floating o'er the Nile, And lamps were shining o'er the red wine's foam, 'Twas Antony that bade The joyous chords ring out !—but strains arose Sounds, by no mortal made,† Shook Alexandria through her streets that night, Bright midst its vineyards lay The fair Campanian city, with its towers Joy was around it as the glowing sky, A cloud came o'er the face Of Italy's rich heaven !-Its crystal blue Paulus Æmilius, one of whose sons died a few days before, and another shortly after, his triumph on the conquest of Macedon, when Perseus, king of that country, was led in chains. + See the description given by Plutarch, in his life of Antony, of the supernatural sounds heard in the streets of Alexandria, the night before Antony's death. Herculaneum, of which it is related, that all the inhabitants were assembled in the theatres, when the shower of ashes, which covered the city, descended Was changed, and deepen'd to a wrathful hue As with the wings of death!-in all his power Such things have been of And where the palms to spicy winds are waving, Turn we to other climes ! Far in the Druid-Isle a feast was spread, Were chanted to the harp; and yellow mead But ere the giant-fane Cast its broad shadows on the robe of even, Flash'd the keen Saxon dagger!-Blood was streaming, For they return'd no more! They that went forth at morn, with reckless heart, And the bright spears and bucklers of the walls, Fear ye the festal hour! Aye, tremble when the cup of joy o'erflows ! And the rich myrtle's flower Have veil'd the sword!-Red wines have sparkled fast With fatal perfume, through the revel's bower. * Stonehenge, said by some traditions to have been erected to the memory of Ambrosius, an early British king; and by others mentioned as a monumental record of the massacre of British chiefs here alluded to. L Twine the young glowing wreath! 1 SONG OF THE BATTLE OF MORGARTEN. "IN the year 1315, Switzerland was invaded by Duke Leopold of Austria, with a formidable army. It is well attested, that this prince repeatedly declared he would trample the audacious rustics under his feet; and that he had procured a large stock of cordage, for the purpose of binding their chiefs, and putting them to death. The 15th of October, 1315, dawned. The sun darted its first rays on the shields and armour of the advancing host; and this being the first army ever known to have attempted the frontiers of the cantons, the Swiss viewed its long line with various emotions. Montfort de Tettnang led the cavalry into the narrow pass, and soon filled the whole space between the mountain (Mount Sattel) and the lake. The fifty men on the eminence (above Morgarten) raised a sudden shout, and rolled down heaps of rocks and stones among the crowded ranks. The confederates on the mountain, perceiving the impression made by this attack, rushed down in close array, and fell upon the flank of the disordered column. With massy clubs they dashed in pieces the armour of the enemy, and dealt their blows and thrusts with long pikes. The narrowness of the defile admitted of no evolutions, and a slight frost having injured the road, the horses were impeded in all their motions; many leaped into the lake; all were startled; and at last the whole column gave way, and fell suddenly back on the infantry; and these last, as the nature of the country did not allow them to open their files, were run over by the fugitives, and many of them trampled to death. general rout ensued, and Duke Leopold was, with much difficulty, rescued by a peasant, who led him to Winterthur, where the historian of the times saw him arrive in the evening, pale, sullen, and dismayed."-PLANTA's History of the Helvetic Confederacy. THE wine-month* shone in its golden prime, But a deeper sound, through the Switzer's clime, *Wine-month-the German name for October. A Song of the Battle of Morgarten. A sound, through vaulted cave, And a trumpet, pealing wild and far, And through the forest glooms And the winds were tossing knightly plumes, In Hasli's* wilds there was gleaming steel, And the Schreckhorn's + rocks, with a savage peal, Up midst the Righi snows The stormy march was heard, With the charger's tramp, whence fire-sparks rose, But a band, the noblest band of all, They came, with heavy chains, But amidst his Alp-domains, The herdsman's arm is strong! The sun was reddening the clouds of morn But on the misty height, Where the mountain-people stood, There was stillness, as of night, When storms at distance brood. Hasli, a wild district in the canton of Berne. Schreckhorn, the peak of terror, a mountain in the canton of Berne. 147 |