Pursuer and pursued! who knows

The why he left the breezy pine,

The fragrant tamarack and vine,

Red rose and precious yellow rose!

Nay, Vasques held the vantage ground

Above him by the wooded steep,

And right nor left no passage lay,

And there was left him but that way,—

The way through blood, or to the deep

And lonesome deserts far profound,