Then the song would change and the mournful notes of the "Death Hymn of the Girondins,"—"Mourir Pour la Patrie"—would swell in wild yet solemn cadence on the wintry blast:
DEATH HYMN OF THE GIRONDINS.
By the voice of the signal cannon,
France calls her sons their aid to lend;
"Let us go," the soldier cries, "to battle!
'Tis our mother we defend!"
To die on Freedom's Altar—to die on Freedom's Altar!
'Tis the noblest of fates; who to meet it would falter!
We who fall afar from the battle,