"We'll cross the Tamar 1 land to land,
The Severn1 is no stay-

With one and all, and hand-in-hand,
And who shall bid us nay?

"And when we come to London wall,—

A pleasant sight to view,

--

Come forth! come forth, ye cowards all,
To better men than you!

"Trelawny he's in keep and hold,2
Trelawny he may die;

But here's twenty thousand Cornish bold

Will know the reason why!"

ROBERT STEPHEN HAWKER,

1 Tamar and Severn: rivers of the south of England. The Severn, however, would not be crossed by the Cornish men on their march to London; perhaps the Avon is meant.

2 Keep and hold: dungeon and fortress or stronghold.

THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW.1

OH, that last day in Lucknow fort!
We knew that it was the last;
That the enemy's mines 2 crept surely in,
And the end was coming fast.

To yield to that foe meant worse than death;
And the men and we all worked on;
It was one day more of smoke and roar,
And then it would all be done.

There was one of us, a corporal's wife,
A fair, young, gentle thing,
Wasted with fever in the siege,

And her mind was wandering.

1 The Relief of Lucknow: In 1857 a fearful and wide-spread mutiny broke out among the native troops of India against their English rulers.

On the 1st of July a large number of English including about 130 women and children were besieged in the fort of Lucknow, a town of Northern India, on a tributary of the Ganges.

The garrison was too small to properly defend the place; food began to grow scarce, and fever, small-pox, and cholera carried off many.

For nearly three months the besieged waited for succor. At length, on Sept. 25, General Havelock came to their rescue, though the final relief of the place did not occur until Sir Colin Campbell rescued the garrison nearly a month later.

2 Mines: excavations made by the enemy for the purpose of blowing up the fort.

She lay on the ground, in her Scottish plaid,

And I took her head on my knee;

"When my father comes hame frae the pleugh,”1 she said,

"Oh! then please wauken 2 me."

She slept like a child on her father's floor,

In the flecking3 of wood-bine shade,
When the house-dog sprawls by the open door,
And the mother's wheel is stayed.5

It was smoke and roar and powder-stench,
And hopeless waiting for death;

And the soldier's wife, like a full-tired child,
Seemed scarce to draw her breath.

I sank to sleep; and I had my dream
Of an English village-lane,

And wall and garden; but one wild scream
Brought me back to the roar again.

There Jessie Brown stood listening

Till a sudden gladness broke

All over her face; and she caught my hand
And drew me near and spoke:

"The Hielanders! Oh! dinna ye hear
The slogan far awa?

The McGregor's?8 Oh! I ken9 it weel; 10
It's the grandest o' them a'!

1 Pleugh: plough.

2 Wauken: waken.

8 Flecking: here, dappling or variegating with light and shade.

4 Wheel: spinning-wheel.

6 Hielanders: Highlanders.

5 Stayed: stopped.

7 Slogan: the war-cry.

8 McGregor's: the Highland clan of that name.
9 Ken: know.

10 Weel: well.

1

"God bless thae 1 bonny 2 Hielanders!

We're saved! we're saved!" she cried;
And fell on her knees; and thanks to God
Flowed forth like a full flood-tide.

Along the battery line her cry

Had fallen among the men,

And they started back; — they were there to die;
But was life so near them, then?

They listened for life; the rattling fire
Far off, and the far-off roar,

Were all; and the colonel shook his head,
And they turned to their guns once more.

Then Jessie said, "That slogan's done;
hear them no0,3

But can ye

"The Campbells are comin' " ?4 It's no a dream;
Our succors 5 hae broken through."

We heard the roar and the rattle afar,

6

But the pipes we could not hear;

So the men plied their work of hopeless war,
And knew that the end was near.

It was not long ere it made its way,
A thrilling, ceaseless sound:
It was no noise from the strife afar,
Or the sappers under ground.

1 Thae: those.

2 Bonny handsome, good.

8 Noo: now.

6 Pipes: bag-pipes.

4 "The Campbells are comin'": a famous Scotch tune.

5 Succors: rescuers.

7 Sappers: the enemy's soldiers engaged in making the mines to blow up the fort.

It was the pipers of the Highlanders !

And now they played “Auld Lang Syne.” It came to our men like the voice of God, And they shouted along the line.

And they wept, and shook one another's hands,
And the women sobbed in a crowd;

And every one knelt down where he stood,
And we all thanked God aloud.

That happy day, when we welcomed them,
Our men put Jessie first;

And the general gave her his hand, and cheers
Like a storm from the soldiers burst.

And the pipers' ribbons and tartan 1 streamed,
Marching round and round our line;

And our joyful cheers were broken with tears,
As the pipes played "Auld Lang Syne."

ROBERT TRAIL SPENCE Lowell

1 Tartan: the Scotch plaid.