Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/238

 But missives from the Senators ran;

Not that they now would gaze upon a swordless foe,

And power made powerless and brought low:

Reasons of state, 'tis claimed, require the man.

Demurring not, promptly he comes

By ways which show the blackened homes,

And—last—the seat no more his own,

But Honor's; patriot grave-yards fill

The forfeit slopes of that patrician hill,

And fling a shroud on Arlington.

The oaks ancestral all are low;

No more from the porch his glance shall go

Ranging the varied landscape o'er,

Far as the looming Dome—no more.

One look he gives, then turns aside,

Solace he summons from his pride:

"So be it! They await me now

Who wrought this stinging overthrow;

They wait me; not as on the day

Of Pope's impelled retreat in disarray—

By me impelled—when toward yon Dome

The clouds of war came rolling home"

The burst, the bitterness was spent,

The heart-burst bitterly turbulent,

And on he fared.