Page:Poems written during the progress of the abolition question in the United States.djvu/87

 Kneeling amidst his brothers' blood, To offer mockery unto God, As if the High and Holy One Could smile on deeds of murder done!— As if a human sacrifice Were purer in His holy eyes, Though offered up by Christian hands, Than the foul rites of Pagan lands! Sternly, amidst his household band, His carbine grasped within his hand, The white man stood, prepared and still, Waiting the shock of maddened men, Unchained, and fierce as tigers, when The horn winds through their caverned hill. And one was weeping in his sight,— The fairest flower of all the isle,— The bride who seemed but yesternight The image of a smile. And, clinging to her trembling knee, Looked up the form of infancy, With tearful glance in either face, The secret of its fear to trace.

'Ha—stand, or die!' The white man's eye His steady musket gleamed along, As a tall Negro hastened nigh, With fearless step and strong. 'What ho, Toussaint!' A moment more, His shadow crossed the lighted floor. 'Away,' he shouted; 'fly with me,—