DEATH OF GENERAL GORDON.
["The Fortress of Khartoum was treacherously delivered up to the Mahdi on January 26th, 1885, when General Gordon was slain."—Daily Paper.]
Hush! let no sound of revelry or song
Be heard in all our busy streets to-day,—
For such dark news falls 'mong the surging throng
As sends men sadly pondering on their way.
Sad news that sends a pang of crushing pain
To every honest heart throughout the land.
Khartoum betrayed! her brave defenders slain,
And Gordon fallen by the assassin's hand.
Great, noble Gordon, ever true and brave,
That held this 'leagured city 'gainst the foe,—
And all that man could do, he did to save
The women and their babes from direful woe;
But who can stand against the cunning art,
The cruel, dark device, and darker sin
That traitors use, when with a fiendish heart
They ope' the gates and let the foemen in?
Beloved by all who knew his noble heart,
Or ever felt the warm grasp of his hand,
The loving kindness and the ready part
He took in each good work in every land.
A gentle nature, kind as it was brave,
To help the lowly in their poor estate,
He spent his life to free the fettered slave,
And guide the suffering to a better fate.
O grand career, unsullied to its close!
Its splendour yet shall brighter shine, and tell
In glowing numbers how he faced his foes,
And how by treason dire, great Gordon fell.
With head bowed down we mourn the good man gone,—
And with our sorrow comes a sense of shame,
That in the midst of foes he stood alone,
And died with added glory to his name.
The tale spreads like a black cloud o'er the land;
'Tis like a darkening blight that falls at noon,
When men together meet and wondering stand,
And gaze as though the stricken heart would swoon,—
The flaming sword, the "lightning of the spear,"
Shone in the place where multitudes were slain,
The air is full of wailing, and we hear,
Mingled with prayer, the groan of mortal pain.
George Dalziel.
Again, when the decisive battle was fought under the command of Lord, then Sir Garnet, Wolseley, at Tel-el-Kebir, which practically brought the revolt led by Arabi Pasha to a close, this song appeared: