Weep when the dreary autumn rain is falling, And sobbing winds are strewing o’er the lea A wealth of golden leaves and pale dead flowers, And think of me. And when thy day of life is slowly waning Into the mystic light of the eternity, Call back the dreamy years of life’s glad morning, And think of me. DULAC DES ORMEAUX; OR, THE THERMOPYLÆ OF CANADA. Destruction menaced fair Mount Royal, And the bravest cheek grew pale When from the shadowy, awesome forest Came the blood-curdling tale That the unsparing, ferocious Iroquois Would encompass them once more; Twelve hundred plumed and painted warriors Would in fury on them pour. Palisaded around and bastioned, But war-worn and wasted so, With the pale shadow of doom upon them, How shall they foil the dread foe? Often, when life and its cares seem darkest, Doth aid and guidance appear, And the storm and the threatened danger On the horizon disappear. Thus saved was the lovely Mount Royal By as heroic a deed As e’er blazon’d the page of history; And it came in their sore need. Noble, self-sacrificing des Ormeaux, And sixteen fair youths so brave, Resolved on a desperate rescue, Their homes and country to save. Aye, resolved though to a man they perish, The rescue should be complete; And prepared for the awful issue-- ’Twas death, but never defeat. Making their wills, and solemn confession, In war’s panoply arrayed They received the holy sacrament, And solemnly knelt and prayed. And bidding their well-beloved friends farewell, As men who to death march away-- (Aye, and so were they, for all, all were slain In the merciless affray). And stemming the current of swift St. Anne, They fearlessly launch away O’er the sparkling Lake of Two Mountains, Onward, by night and by day. And by the pass of the Long Sault Rapid, In a redoubt deserted, old-- A mere breastwork of logs and abatis, Covered by moss and mould-- There, with forty Hurons and Algonquins, They took their intrepid stand, And waited the approach of the Iroquois, Who were very near at hand. The French and their red allies strengthened Their frail post with earth and sod, Leaving twenty loopholes for musketoons; And, commending all to God, They took post, prepared now and watchful Under the All-seeing Eye, To fight heroically for their homes, And, if need, for them to die.