CHAPTER XXXVI.
“How yet resolves the Governor of the town?
This is the latest parle we will admit.
If I begin the battery once again,
I will not leave the half achieved Harfleur,
Till in her ashes she lie buried.”
_King Henry V._
And now was heard on the clear night air the shrill blast of a solitary
trumpet breathing defiance, and announcing to the besieged loyalists,
the presence of the insurgents before the walls of Jamestown. Exhausted
by their long march, and depressed by the still gloomy prospect before
them, the thinned ranks of the rebel army required all the encouraging
eloquence of their general, to urge them forward in their perilous duty.
Nor did they need it long. Drawing his wearied, but faithful followers
around him, the young and ardent enthusiast addressed them in language
like the following:
“SOLDIERS,”
“Animated by a desire to free your country from the incursions of a
savage foe, you have crowned your arms with victory and your lives
with honor. You have annihilated the Indian power in Virginia, and
in the waters of the brook which was the witness of your victory,
you have washed away the stains of its cruelty. The purple blood
which dyed that fatal stream, has even now passed away; Yet your
deeds shall survive in the name which you have given it. And future
generations, when they look upon its calm and unstained bosom, will
remember with grateful hearts, those brave men who have given
security to their homes, and will bless your patriot names when
they repeat the story of Bloody Run.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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