The Stand at Hawk's Peak

"'Twas nobly done!" Aye, nobly done!
      And worthy of the old renown 
Of Plataea and of Marathon—
      To fling the daring gauntlet down, 
To the false leader of a band
      By lying panders stung too well 
To fierce resentments, in a land
      As fair as heaven and false as helL

He came in peace, for worthy ends.
      To give the secrets of that clime
To star-eyed Science, still who lends
      The soul new wings for flights sublime;
His weapons were that magic reed
      Which plucks the planets from the sky,
The prisoned Arielf who leads
      The voyager where no path is nigh;

The wizard's balance, fine and thin,
      That weighs the unfathomable air, 
And that pale child of Hermes' kin,
      Whose pulses the long throbs declare 
Of the great fire-heart of the world;
      With more of strange and weird design, 
Whereby the mysteries are unfurled
      That sleep, thin-veiled, in nature's shrine.

Around him, hardy as the hills.
      His triple score of gallant men,
Through fire and frost and countless ills,
      In savage haunt, or lonely glen,
With toil, and chase, and rifle-shot,
      Kept famine and fierce foes at bay; 
Ha! toy with hungry wolves, but not
      Provoke the wrath of such as they!

Through every heart, their Leader's heart
      Beat like a pulse of molten steel; 
Not sooner would their proud steeds dart
      From shaken rein and roweled heel, 
Than these, on Peril's wildest charge,
      At his low word, or silent sign; 
His brain superb, and spirit large.
      Shone out confest, in storm and shine.

He came in peace, with welcome given.
      To read the wonders of that land, 
Her flowers and floods, and chasms riven
      Through bald sierras, wild and grand. 
But Treachery, choking back her words,
      Roused the red Indian's eyeless wrath. 
And arming all her mongrel hordes.
      Shook chains and death across his path '

Ah, little did the traitor chief
      Who stirred that Mountain Spirit, deem 
That, ere the lengthening days grew brief,
      'T would haunt him like an evil dream! 
And little could he guess how well
      The hand that plucked his golden flowers,
Could hurl defiance down the dell, 
      On all his congregated powers.

There, on the peak "del Gabellân,"
      The Hero's oaken rampart rose, 
Above the towers of San Juan
      Where thronged the legions of his foes. 
There first the sunrise Eagle flew,
      Gold-gleaming, o'er the Land of Gold, 
Full in that mustering army's view,
      And cowered their numbers manifold.

As some gaunt wolf, that on his prey
      Descending with an eager dash,
Finds there the Shepherd's dog at bay, 
      And sees the white teeth foam and gnash,
Reels back, and crouching, circles far, 
      Blood-snufhng, and at last slinks off —
So came, so quailed Don Castro's war, 
      Before that banner's flouting scoff!

'Twas nobly done! against a host
      To hurl their challenge down the hills.
Free hearts, all round them to the coast, 
      Leapt jubilant, with prescient thrills ;
Far flashed the sign to distant lands, 
      Atlantic cheered it with a roar;
And glad Pacific clapped her hands, 
      To hail the coming conqueror!

                -------------

Once more roll out thy signal sheet
      For Freedom, on her eminent hight! 
Our hearts leap up with fiery beat
      To join thee in the moral fight. 
The Prairie wolf shall cower away
      To his swamp lair, thenceforth his grave, 
And rescued Kansas cheer the day
      That saw thy conquering banner wave.