2.  The dying and the dead lie low;
     For them, no more shall rise
   The evening moon, nor midnight stars,
     Nor day light’s soft surprise: 
   They will not wake to tenderest call,
     Nor see again each home,
   Where waiting hearts shall throb and break,
     When this day’s tidings come.

3.  Two soldiers, lying as they fell
     Upon the reddened clay—­
   In daytime, foes; at night, in peace
     Breathing their lives away! 
   Brave hearts had stirred each manly breast;
     Fate only, made them foes;
   And lying, dying, side by side,
     A softened feeling rose.

4.  “Our time is short,” one faint voice said;
     “To-day we’ve done our best
   On different sides:  what matters now? 
     To-morrow we shall rest! 
   Life lies behind.  I might not care
     For only my own sake;
   But far away are other hearts,
     That this day’s work will break.

5.  “Among New Hampshire’s snowy hills,
     There pray for me to-night
   A woman, and a little girl
     With hair like golden light;”
   And at the thought, broke forth, at last,
     The cry of anguish wild,
   That would not longer be repressed
     “O God, my wife, my child!”

6.  “And,” said the other dying man,
     “Across the Georgia plain,
   There watch and wait for me loved ones
     I ne’er shall see again: 
   A little girl, with dark, bright eyes,
     Each day waits at the door;
   Her father’s step, her father’s kiss,
     Will never greet her more.

7.  “To-day we sought each other’s lives: 
     Death levels all that now;
   For soon before God’s mercy seat
     Together we shall bow. 
   Forgive each other while we may;
     Life’s but a weary game,
   And, right or wrong, the morning sun
     Will find us, dead, the same.”

8.  The dying lips the pardon breathe;
     The dying hands entwine;
   The last ray fades, and over all
     The stars from heaven shine;
   And the little girl with golden hair,
     And one with dark eyes bright,
   On Hampshire’s hills, and Georgia’s plain,
     Were fatherless that night!

Definitions.—­l.  Sod’den, soaked.  Phan’ta-sy, specter-like ap-pearance.  Blent, mingled together. 2.  Ti’dings, news. 5.  An’guish, deep distress.  Re-pressed’, kept back. 8.  Par’don, forgiveness.  En-twine’, clasp together.

Exercise.—­What do the first two stanzas describe?  What does the third?  What did one soldier say to the other?  Where was his home?  What friends had he there?  Where was the home of the other soldier?  Who waited for him?  Did they forgive each other?

LXXXIII.  THE ATTACK ON NYMWEGEN. (233)

From “The History of the United Netherlands,” by John Lothrop Motley, who was born in 1814, at Dorchester, Mass.  He graduated at Harvard in 1831, and afterwards lived many years In Europe, writing the histories which made him famous.  He died in 1877.