Sept. 22,

1776.

NATHAN HALE.

After the retreat from Long Island, Washington needed information as to the British strength. Captain Nathan Hale, a young man of twenty-one, volunteered to get this. He was taken, inside the enemy's lines, and hanged as a spy, regretting that he had but one life to lose for his country.

T

O drum-beat and heart-beat,

A soldier marches by:

There is color in his cheek,
There is courage in his eye,
Yet to drum-beat and heart-beat
In a moment he must die.

By starlight and moonlight,

He seeks the Briton's camp;

He hears the rustling flag,

And the armèd sentry's tramp;
And the starlight and moonlight

His silent wanderings lamp.

With slow tread and still tread,

He scans the tented line; And he counts the battery guns

By the gaunt and shadowy pine; And his slow tread and still tread Gives no warning sign.

The dark wave, the plumed wave,
It meets his eager glance;
And it sparkles 'neath the stars,
Like the glimmer of a lance—
A dark wave, a plumed wave,
On an emerald expanse.

A sharp clang, a steel clang,
And terror in the sound!

For the sentry, falcon-eyed,

In the camp a spy hath found; With a sharp clang, a steel clang,

The patriot is bound.

With calm brow, steady brow,

He listens to his doom;

In his look there is no fear,

Nor a shadow-trace of gloom;

But with calm brow and steady brow He robes him for the tomb.

In the long night, the still night,
He kneels upon the sod;
And the brutal guards withhold
E'en the solemn Word of God!
In the long night, the still night,
He walks where Christ hath trod.

'Neath the blue morn, the sunny morn, He dies upon the tree;

And he mourns that he can lose

But one life for Liberty;

And in the blue morn, the sunny morn,

His spirit-wings are free.

But his last words, his message-words,

They burn, lest friendly eye Should read how proud and calm A patriot could die,

With his last words, his dying words,

A soldier's battle-cry.

From the Fame-leaf and Angel-leaf,
From monument and urn,

The sad of earth, the glad of heaven,
His tragic fate shall learn ;
And on Fame-leaf and Angel-leaf

The name of HALE shall burn.

FRANCIS MILES FINCH.

Dec. 26,

1776.

BATTLE OF TRENTON.

This is an anonymous contemporary poem on the crossing of the Delaware amid the ice, and the capture of the Hessian Troops in Trenton.

N Christmas-day in seventy-six,

ΟΝ

Our ragged troops with bayonets fixed,
For Trenton marched away.

The Delaware see! the boats below!

The light obscured by hail and snow!
But no signs of dismay.

Our object was the Hessian band,

That dared invade fair freedom's land,

And quarter in that place.

Great Washington he led us on,

Whose streaming flag, in storm or sun,

Had never known disgrace.