Page:Wessex poems and other verses (IA wessexpoemsother00hard).pdf/103

 'Twas hard to realize on This snug side the mute horizon That beyond it hostile armaments might steer, Save from seeing in the porchway a fair woman weep with eyes on A harnessed Volunteer.

In haste he'd flown there To his comely wife alone there, While marching south hard by, to still her fears, For she soon would be a mother, and few messengers were known there In these campaigning years.

'Twas time to be Good-bying, Since the assembly-hour was nighing In royal George's town at six that morn; And betwixt its wharves and this retreat were ten good miles of hieing Ere ring of bugle-horn.