Page:The Fall of the Alamo.djvu/218

 Thou sayest true: what greater bliss can be Than this: from Life's most radiant joy to leap With glowing cheeks, and with enraptured heart, Into the deepest ecstasy of Death, Of Death for Country, Right and Liberty. This is no foretaste: this is Heaven itself. I should not love thee, could I not with thee Feel e'en the least vibration of thy glee! Still, let us not give way to passionate joy, But peacefully collect our thoughts like some Long intimate through earnest contemplation With all the prospects of their future journey. Pilgrims for Canaan, we have now attained The Sinai of our lives, whence we may trace The road we traveled o'er from out the bondage Of Egypt through the desert's dreary waste, And where as well we are allowed a glimpse Into the haze-dimmed "Promised Land" before us Where so one summit links the Past and Presence And Future of our lives, it is well meet To linger here awhile in meditation. And with the truth here plucked for keepsake-flower. Take leave forever from our late abode. And were then, while we turn to go, a tear To fall from out our eye upon that flower, That costly dew would heighten but its bloom.