Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/206

198 He smoked and smoked, eying the while

A huge tree hydra-like in growth—

Moon-tinged—with crook'd boughs rent or lopped—

Itself a haggard forest. "Come"

The Colonel cried, "to talk you're loath;

D've hear? I say he must be stopped,

This Mosby—caged, and hair close cropped."

"Of course; but what's that dangling there"

"Where?" "From the tree—that gallows-bough;

A bit of frayed bark, is it not"

"Ay—or a rope; did we hang last?—

Don't like my neckerchief any how"

He loosened it: "O ay, we'll stop

This Mosby—but that vile jerk and drop!"&#91;23&#93;

By peep of light they feed and ride,

Gaining a grove's green edge at morn,

And mark the Aldie hills upread

And five gigantic horsemen carved

Clear-cut against the sky withdrawn;

Are more behind? an open snare?

Or Mosby's men but watchmen there?