The following is a better specimen, there being fewer liberties in the rendering:—

EXCELSIOR.

The shades of night were falling fast,

As through an Alpine village passed

A youth, who bore, mid snow and ice,

A banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath

Flashed like a falchion from its sheath;

And like a silver clarion rung