The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme :: :: University of Virginia Library

Full many knight puts lance in rest
Against a foeman fair in front,
Expecting there to fight his best
And there to find the battle's brunt,
Nor doubts that yet a fiercer foe
Behind him comes at charging speed,
Who levels spear to lay him low
Before he does a valiant deed.

So Downing rode from day to day
With loaded gun and sharpened steel
To seek adventure far away
And shiver skulls for others' weal,
Nor guessed that, had he bided home,
And calmly dozed in elbow-chair
His dourest enemies had come
To wage him bitter battle there.

Without a fear the hero went;
He held that Shiloh dwelt secure;
He trusted angel-pinions bent
Above his child and kept her sure;
And all his knightly spirit leaned
A-front to spy the sooty wings
Of fallen angel, imp and fiend,
And hear their frightful challengings.

118

For lately woful tidings ran
That lofty potentates of sin
Had entered Salem with their clan
And built anew their state therein;
Proposing thence to clamor down
(Believe the story those who will)
And scourge with burnings Boston town
And drive our flag from Bunker Hill.