Page:A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields.djvu/120

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 * A hammer has deliverance wrought;
 * David had pebbles from the shore.
 * Shout for the Cause—the flag advance!
 * Become once more the mighty France!
 * Paw as of old—with lowering horn!
 * Deliver, amid blood and smoke,
 * Your country from the despot's yoke,
 * Your memory from contempt and scorn.

What, know ye not, the Royalists themselves were great In the fierce days of struggle past away? Men relate
 * What courage urged them on.

Valour in those times added a foot to men's height, Witness, O Vendée, if I speak not aright!
 * Witness, thou land Breton!

To conquer a bastion, or to break through a wall, Or spike a whole battery 'mid rain-showers of ball,
 * Often one man has gone!


 * If in this sink still, still men live,
 * If Frenchmen still, still act as slaves,
 * Trumpets and drums be broken,—give
 * Their fragments to the breezes. Graves
 * Of our sires where slumber deep
 * The old race, stir no more, but keep
 * Their shades in closest prison bound:
 * For never could they—would they own
 * Such dastard sons; nor hare nor hound
 * The lion breeds, but whelps alone.