SONG.
To the tune of Tennyson's "Home they brought her warrior dead."
(General Hill fell in the battle before Petersburg, and was the last man buried with military honours on the eve of the evacuation).
LAY the stern old warrior down,
Deeply in his narrow bed,
Ere the conqueror sack the town,
Ere the foeman o'er him tread.
They who checked the battle-tide—
Hoary warriors weeping said,
"Foremost where the bravest died,
Foremost where his country bled."
Low they laid the Pride of War,
Soldiers sternly round him mourned:
"Glorious was our battle-star,
Glorious when the battle burned."
Loudly crashed the fierce farewell—
This of all his toil the crown:
Falling where his country fell,
Falling by the fallen town.
Turning from the warrior's side,
Spake a chieftain often proved:
"Nobly for our land he died,
Nobly for the land he loved."
A. R.
Exeter Coll., Oxford.
College Rhymes, 1865 (J. and G. Shrimpton, Oxford).