Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/241

 Hereat he paused; his better heart

Strove strongly then; prompted a worthier part

Than coldly to endure his doom.

Speak out? Ay, speak, and for the brave,

Who else no voice or proxy have;

Frankly their spokesman here become,

And the flushed North from her own victory save.

That inspiration overrode—

Hardly it quelled the galling load

Of personal ill. The inner feud

He, self-contained, a while withstood;

They waiting. In his troubled eye

Shadows from clouds unseen they spy;

They could not mark within his breast

The pang which pleading thought oppressed:

He spoke, nor felt the bitterness die.

"My word is given—it ties my sword;

Even were banners still abroad,

Never could I strive in arms again

While you, as fit, that pledge retain.

Our cause I followed, stood in field and gate—

All's over now, and now I follow Fate.

But this is naught. A People call—

A desolted land, and all