When closer strand shall lean to strand,
Till meet, beneath saluting flags,
The eagle of our mountain-crags,
The lion of our Motherland!
John Greenleaf Whittier.
The news of the fight at Lexington spread with remarkable rapidity throughout the whole country, and nearly every colony at once took steps for the enlistment and training of a colonial militia. No stronger proof of the electric condition of the country could be offered than the way in which men everywhere rushed to arms.
THE RISING
From "The Wagoner of the Alleghanies"
Out of the North the wild news came,
Far flashing on its wings of flame,
Swift as the boreal light which flies
At midnight through the startled skies.
And there was tumult in the air,
The fife's shrill note, the drum's loud beat,
And through the wild land everywhere
The answering tread of hurrying feet,
While the first oath of Freedom's gun
Came on the blast from Lexington;
And Concord, roused, no longer tame,
Forgot her old baptismal name,
Made bare her patriot arm of power,
And swell'd the discord of the hour.
* * * * *
Within its shade of elm and oak
The church of Berkeley Manor stood;
There Sunday found the rural folk,
And some esteem'd of gentle blood.
In vain their feet with loitering tread
Pass'd mid the graves where rank is naught;
All could not read the lesson taught
In that republic of the dead.
* * * * *