CARMEN BELLICOSUM.
By GUY HUMPHREY McMASTER.
In their ragged regimentals
Stood the old Continentals,
Yielding not,
When the grenadiers were lunging,
And like hail fell the plunging
Cannon shot;
When the files
Of the isles
From the smoky night-encampment bore the banner of the rampant
Unicorn,
And grummer, grummer, grummer rolled the roll of the drummer,
Through the morn!
Then with eyes to the front all,
And with guns horizontal
Stood our sires;
And the balls whistled deadly,
And in streams flashing redly
Blazed the fires;
As the roar
On the shore,
Swept the strong battle breakers o'er the green sodded acres
Of the plain;
And louder, louder, louder cracked the black gunpowder,
Cracking amain!
Now like smiths at their forges
Worked the red Saint George's
Cannoneers;
And the "villainous saltpetre"
Rung a fierce, discordant metre
Round their ears;
As the swift
Storm drift,
With hot, sweeping anger, came the horse guard's clangor
On our flanks.
Then higher, higher, higher burned the old-fashioned fire
Through the ranks!
Then the old-fashioned colonel
Galloped through the white, infernal
Powder cloud;
And his broad sword was swinging,
And his brazen throat was ringing
Trumpet loud.
Then the blue
Bullets flew
And the trooper jackets redden at the touch of the leaden
Rifle breath;
And rounder, rounder, rounder roared the iron six-pounder
Hurling death!
