Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/223

Rh They sent their bayonets home, and then with stubborn courage died. But few were left of that brave band when the dread hour had passed, Still, faint and few, they held their flag above them to the last. But now a cloud of horsemen, like a shadowy avalanche, Sweeps down: as Picton sees them, e'en his cheek is seen to blanch. They were not awed, that little band, but rallied once again. And sent us back a farewell cheer. Then burst from reckless men The anguished cry, 'God help them!' as we saw the feeble flash Of their last defiant volley, when upon them with a crash Burst the gleaming lines of riders,—one by one they disappear. And the chargers' hoofs are trampling on the last of that brave square!