Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/38

IN WAR TIME Tore them from their weeping matrons, fired their souls with Bourbon whiskey,

Till they battered down Brown's castle with their ladders and machines;

And Old Brown,

Osawatomie Brown,

Received three bayonet stabs, and a cut on his brave old crown.

Tallyho! the old Virginia gentry gather to the baying!

In they rushed and killed the game, shooting lustily away;

And whene'er they slew a rebel, those who came too late for slaying,

Not to lose a share of glory, fired their bullets in his clay;

And Old Brown,

Osawatomie Brown,

Saw his sons fall dead beside him, and between them laid him down.

How the conquerors wore their laurels; how they hastened on the trial;

How Old Brown was placed, half dying, on the Charlestown court-house floor;

How he spoke his grand oration, in the scorn of all denial;

What the brave old madman told them,—these are known the country o'er.

Osawatomie Brown,"

Said the judge, "and all such rebels!" with his most judicial frown.

But, Virginians, don't do it! for I tell you that the flagon,

Filled with blood of Old Brown's offspring, was first poured by Southern hands;

And each drop from Old Brown's life-veins, like the red gore of the dragon, 8