Page:Poems Sigourney 1827.pdf/92

92 anxiously watching the river on the night when those supplies arrived, which rescued his tribe from destruction. These were conveyed in a large canoe from Saybrook, under cover of darkness, by an enterprising man, of the name of Leffingwell, to whom Uncas, as a proof of his gratitude, gave a large tract of land, comprising nearly the whole town of Norwich.

The monarch sat on his rocky throne, Before him the waters lay,— His guards were the shapeless columns of stone, Their lofty helmets with moss o'ergrown, And their spears of the bracken gray.

His lamps were the fickle stars that beam'd    Through the veil of their midnight shroud, And the redd'ning flashes that fitfully gleam'd When the distant fires of the war-dance stream'd Where his foes in frantic revel scream'd    'Neath their canopy of cloud.

Say! why was his glance so restless and keen As it fell on the waveless tide? And why, mid the gloom of that silent scene Did the sigh heave his warlike bosom's screen And bow that front of pride?

Behind him his leaguer'd forces lay Withering in Famine's blight, And he knew with the blush of the morning ray That Philip would summon his fierce array, On the core of the warrior's heart to prey, And quench a nation's light.