The foe himself recoiled aghast, When, striking where he strongest lay, We swooped his flanking batteries past, And, braving full their murderous blast, Stormed home the towers of Monterey. Our banners on those turrets wave, And there our evening bugles play, Where orange boughs above their grave Keep green the memory of the brave Who fought and fell at Monterey. We are not many--we who pressed Beside the brave who fell that day; But who of us has not confessed He’d rather share their warrior rest Than not have been at Monterey? CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN. 16 THE DEFENSE OF LAWRENCE All night upon the guarded hill, Until the stars were low, Wrapped round as with Jehovah’s will, We waited for the foe; All night the silent sentinels Moved by like gliding ghosts; All night the fancied warning bells Held all men to their posts. We heard the sleeping prairies breathe, The forest’s human moans, The hungry gnashing of the teeth Of wolves on bleaching bones; We marked the roar of rushing fires, The neigh of frightened steeds, The voices as of far-off lyres Among the river reeds. We were but thirty-nine who lay Beside our rifles then; We were but thirty-nine, and they Were twenty hundred men. Our lean limbs shook and reeled about, Our feet were gashed and bare, And all the breezes shredded out Our garments in the air. * * * * * They came: the blessed Sabbath day, That soothed our swollen veins, Like God’s sweet benediction, lay On all the singing plains; The valleys shouted to the sun, The great woods clapped their hands, And joy and glory seemed to run Like rivers through the lands. And then our daughters and our wives, And men whose heads were white, Rose sudden into kingly lives And walked forth to the fight; And we drew aim along our guns And calmed our quickening breath, Then, as is meet for Freedom’s sons, Shook loving hands with Death. And when three hundred of the foe Rode up in scorn and pride, Whoso had watched us then might know That God was on our side; For all at once a mighty thrill Of grandeur through us swept, And strong and swiftly down the hill Like Gideons we leapt. And all throughout that Sabbath day A wall of fire we stood, And held the baffled foe at bay, And streaked the ground with blood. And when the sun was very low They wheeled their stricken flanks, And passed on, wearily and slow, Beyond the river banks.