DULAC DES ORMEAUX; OR, THE THERMOPYLÆ OF CANADA.
Destruction menaced fair Mount Royal,
And the bravest cheek grew pale
When from the shadowy, awesome forest
Came the blood-curdling tale
That the unsparing, ferocious Iroquois
Would encompass them once more;
Twelve hundred plumed and painted warriors
Would in fury on them pour.
Palisaded around and bastioned,
But war-worn and wasted so,
With the pale shadow of doom upon them,
How shall they foil the dread foe?
Often, when life and its cares seem darkest,
Doth aid and guidance appear,
And the storm and the threatened danger
On the horizon disappear.
Thus saved was the lovely Mount Royal
By as heroic a deed
As e’er blazon’d the page of history;
And it came in their sore need.
Noble, self-sacrificing des Ormeaux,
And sixteen fair youths so brave,
Resolved on a desperate rescue,
Their homes and country to save.
Aye, resolved though to a man they perish,
The rescue should be complete;
And prepared for the awful issue—
’Twas death, but never defeat.
Making their wills, and solemn confession,
In war’s panoply arrayed
They received the holy sacrament,
And solemnly knelt and prayed.
And bidding their well-beloved friends farewell,
As men who to death march away—
(Aye, and so were they, for all, all were slain
In the merciless affray).
And stemming the current of swift St. Anne,
They fearlessly launch away
O’er the sparkling Lake of Two Mountains,
Onward, by night and by day.
And by the pass of the Long Sault Rapid,
In a redoubt deserted, old—
A mere breastwork of logs and abatis,
Covered by moss and mould—
There, with forty Hurons and Algonquins,
They took their intrepid stand,
And waited the approach of the Iroquois,
Who were very near at hand.
The French and their red allies strengthened
Their frail post with earth and sod,
Leaving twenty loopholes for musketoons;
And, commending all to God,
They took post, prepared now and watchful
Under the All-seeing Eye,
To fight heroically for their homes,
And, if need, for them to die.
“Hist! hist!” Dulac des Ormeaux whispered,
“Make ready the musketoons;
Hear the signal hoot of the boding owl,
And the cry of lonely loons!
’Tis the stealthy approach of the Iroquois,
Signaling their reptile advance;
Mon braves, let’s teach them what Frenchmen can do
For love and glory of France!
“Let them come, let them come, now, very near,
Then level the musketoons;
Answer thus the hoot of the boding owl,
And the cry of the lonely loons!
Hand to hand, use the halberd, sword and lance,
Make these reptiles bite the grass,
And strike as the Spartans did of old,
When Leonidas kept the pass!