Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old TownGoolrick, John T. (John Tackett)
History
Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old Town
Goolrick, John T. (John Tackett)
Fredericksburg (Va.) -- History
In 1794, when the Polish patriot, Kosciusco, headed a revolution,
Littlepage answered his summons and fought through to the storming of
Prague.
Stanislaus held him the greatest of his generals and his aides and when
the King was captured by the Russians, Littlepage, tired of the broils of
European politics, came home to America.
[Sidenote: _Ah, But he Had His Memories_]
When Littlepage was first in Poland, the place was gay and
laughter-loving. An atmosphere of high culture and literary achievements
made a satisfactory entourage for the ill-fated people. He lived happily
there and loved a princess of North Poland. There were starlight meetings
and woodland strolls, vows of faith and the pain of renunciation, when
for diplomatic reasons she was forced to endure another alliance.
Littlepage's reputation and splendid appearance; her beauty and the love
they bore each other and, finally, her death, made a background of red
romance, against which he is silhouetted in one's memory.
That Lewis Littlepage was a poet of no mean ability was a fact too well
known to be disputed. The last verse of a poem written by him and inspired
by the death of the woman he loved reads:
"Over there, where you bide--past the sunset's gold glory,
With eyes that are shining, and red lips apart,
Are you waiting to tell me the wonderful story,
That death cannot part us--White Rose of my Heart."
It is said that Littlepage had more honors and decorations showered upon
him than any other American in history.
Go to the old Masonic cemetery in Fredericksburg, and in a far corner,
where the wild vines and the hardy grass struggle for mastery, you may see
a legend inscribed upon a large flat stone: This is the tomb of Lewis
Littlepage. For the multitude, it is simply an unpleasant finale to the
life of a well known man.
To the imaginative, it starts a train of thought--a play of fancy. One
sees the rise of the star of Poland. Gay youths and maids pass and repass
to the sound of music and laughter. The clank of a sword sounds above the
measured foot fall on a polished floor. A soldier passes in all the
bravery of uniform. It is General Littlepage silently going to an audience
with the King. The massive doors open without a challenge, for as a
passport to the palace, on the uniform of this soldier glitters a large
gold key--the gift of Stanislaus.
Suddenly the scene changes. Amid the surging hosts and in the thick of the
bloody clash at Prague, when the anguish of uncertainty was crumbling the
courage of a kingdom, a man is seen, riding with reckless abandon. Tearing
through the lines and holding aloft the tattered standard of Poland,
comes Littlepage of Virginia. With the rallying cry of his adopted land,
he gathers up his troops and gloriously defends the flag he loves. Our
eyes again stray to the legend on the tomb: Disillusionment!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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