Well they knew that Boyd was advancing
With two thousand to crush their line;
But they stood like a wall, and as silent,
In that trying, momentous time.
Aye, for the moment before the battle
Far more dreadfully tries men’s souls
Than when thousands are falling about them,
And its madd’ning din round them rolls!
Then, too, it was an event momentous
For this fair Canada of ours—
So much on the stern issue depended,
So much on two desperate hours.
Nigh and nigher, wilder and higher,
To blaring trump and rolling drum,
Covering their front with a skirmish line,
On in war’s wild clamor they come!
“Fire not a shot till the word is given!
Let the proud foe draw very near;
Then, like an avalanche, sweep their blue ranks—
Remain steady, and have no fear!”
Thus Morrison cried to his thin red line,
Silently awaiting the word;
Though the foe had opened with clamorous roar,
Not a man in that firm line stirred.
At last the British the signal receive,
And a mighty blow is given;
A devastating rush of iron hail
Through the foeman’s ranks is driven.
And, oh! how that red line volleyed and flamed
Cool and steady, they fired low,
And crash after crash, in tumultuous din,
Fell on the suffering foe!
And for two consuming and fatal hours,
They struggled ’mid smoke and flame,
Till the earth was strewn with the gallant dead,
Where Boyd hurled his thousands in vain.
Then ruined and beaten, and punished sore,
He fled from defeat away;
Victory perched on our banners once more
On that ever-remembered day.
Canadian and British valor prevailed,
And down through the annals of time
Their heroic deeds we commemorate,
In hist’ry as jewels to shine.
O sunny land of the dear Maple Leaf,
In union abiding and free
Under the Old Flag of a thousand years,
Floating o’er us from sea to sea!
SUMMER TWILIGHT.
I sit at the dear twilight hour
Where the lilies and roses sleep,
And the thoughts that come unto me
Are oh! so calm and so sweet.
I list the sound of a footfall
I know will come unto me
At the golden glow of sunset,
When shadows steal o’er the sea,