Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/199

Rh We snatched a hasty breakfast,—we were old campaigners then: That morn, of all our splendid corps, we'd scarce one hundred men; But they were soldiers, tried and true, who'd rather die than yield: The rest were scattered far and wide o'er many a hard-fought field. Our trumpet now rang sharply out, and at a swinging pace "We left the bivouac behind; and soon the eye could trace The columns moving o'er the plain. Oh! 'twas a stirring sight To see two mighty armies there preparing for the fight: To watch the heavy masses, as, with practised, steady wheel. They opened out in slender lines of brightly flashing steel. Our place was on the farther flank, behind some rising ground,