Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/354

 34 8 CRADLE AND GRAVE.

Told all the solemn story o er Of ambush, combat, and mishap.

No loving kisses on the cheek,

No mother s breath the soft air stirred ;

His last good-bye the angels keep, For only they that message heard.

No cannon boomed to tell the news, No banner flung its shifting shade ;

An empire slipped from out the hand Low on the tangled grasses laid.

&quot;The prince is dead ! the empire falls !&quot;

What matter? Still the world goes on ; But when we read &quot; At Chiselhurst A widow mourns her only son,&quot;

Then ev ry where throb mother-hearts, As Rachel s grief they understand,

And pray for her whose darting fell Asleep unkissed in Zulu-land. -

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