The boy, with the resolute nerve of a man,
And a voice which he holds as serene as he can,
Takes quietly from her the letter, and reads:—
"Dear Madam,—My heart in its sympathy bleeds
For the pain that my tidings must bear you: may God
Most tenderly comfort you, under His rod!
"This morning, at daybreak, a terrible charge
Was made on the enemy's centre: such large
And fresh reinforcements were held at his back,
He stoutly and stubbornly met the attack.
"Our cavalry bore themselves splendidly:—far
In front of his line galloped Colonel Dunbar;
Erect in his stirrups,—his sword flashing high,
And the look of a conqueror kindling his eye,
His silvery voice rang aloft through the roar
Of the musketry poured from the opposite shore:
—'Remember the Valley!—remember your wives!
And on to your duty, boys!—on—with your lives!'
"He turned, and he paused, as he uttered the call—
Then reeled in his seat, and fell,—pierced by a ball.
"He lives and he breathes yet:—the surgeons declare,
That the balance is trembling 'twixt hope and despair.
In his blanket he lies, on the hospital floor,—
So calm, you might deem all his agony o'er;
And here, as I write, on his face I can see
An expression whose radiance is startling to me.
His faith is sublime:—he relinquishes life,
And craves but one blessing,—to look on his wife!"
The Chaplain's recital is ended:—no word
From Alice's white, breathless lips has been heard;
Till, rousing herself from her passionless woe,
She simply and quietly says—"I will go."
There are moments of anguish so deadly, so deep—
That numbness seems over the senses to creep,
With interposition, whose timely relief,
Is an anodyne-draught to the madness of grief.
Such mercy is meted to Alice;—her eye
That sees as it saw not, is vacant and dry:
The billows' wild fury sweeps over her soul,
And she bends to the rush with a passive control.
Through the dusk of the night—through the glare of the day,
She urges, unconscious, her desolate way:
One image is ever her vision before,
—That blanketed form on the hospital floor!
Her journey is ended; and yonder she sees
The spot where he lies, looming white through the trees:
Her torpor dissolves with a shuddering start,
And a terrible agony clutches her heart.