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24
BALLAD.
[_]
[The occurrence here related took place near the village of Gressenig, about a league from Stollberg, during the retreat of the French army, under Dumouriez.]
1
The tide of war had turned at last,As the ocean backward flows;
The army of Gaul was retiring fast,
From the might of her Austrian foes.
2
There was a young and lovely bride,Mid the ranks of those that fled;
She followed the steps and she fought by the side
Of him she had lately wed.
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3
She had left her home in that fertile soil,Where the vine and the olive grow;
For fields of blood, and to share in the toil
That her lover must undergo.
4
Alas! that love which had nerved her heart,To war and its daring deeds,
Could not to her tender frame impart
The strength a soldier needs.
5
Now lingered that youth with his bride in the rear,For her limbs began to fail;
And the hue of her cheek, tho' unchanged by fear,
With weariness grew pale.
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6
He looked on her features in fond despair,As he held her to his breast;
And her drooping head, as they tarried there,
Sunk in his arms to rest.
7
From that hurried sleep, when she woke again,Far from her anxious sight,
The distant bands of her countrymen
Had vanished in their flight.
8
Then, together they left the beaten track,And sought the forest shade:
She wished from that host—not a soldier back,
While her own stood by to aid.
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9
Hid from the search of pursuers there,For days and nights they sped;
The fruits of the forest their only fare,
The leaves their only bed.
10
Fondly they thought that those paths might guideOnce more to their native land:
Vain hope! what sees that startled bride?
Why grasps she her lover's hand?
11
'Tis the levelled gun of a foeman near,Half hid by the copsewood screen.—
She clung, as a shield, to that breast so dear,
And the fatal flash was seen!
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12
They fell—their hearts' blood stained the spotWhere yon lonely cypress grows;
Their bodies pierced by that single shot,
In a single grave repose.
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