"Behold the crown of ages gone, Sublime and self-possessed; In empire of the floods and shores None so completely blest. "This land shall come to vast estate, In freedom vastly grow, And I shall have a name to live, Who helped to build it so. "Ye patriots, true and sorely tried, When the dark days assail, I seem to see what tears ye shed, At thought of Nathan Hale. "Where is that man among ye all, Who come to see me die, That would not glory in his soul, If he had done as I? "Judge, then, how I have wrecked my life. And in what cause begun. I sorrow but in one regret, That I can lose but one. "In Thee, O Christ! I now repose-- Thou art my All to me; And unto Thee, thou Triune God-- Oh make my country free!" Then turning to a guard, who wept Like sudden April rain, And scattered from his generous eyes The drops of holy pain. "Unto your honest tears I trust These letters to convey." Then, to the Provost-Marshal, Hale Did mildly turn, and say: "Before from underneath my feet The fatal cart is gone, I fain would hear the chaplain pray; Sir Provost have you none?" As when a dreadful lion roams The torrid sands, and sees A fawn among the valleys drink, Beneath the tuneful trees; If, 'chance, he sees the tender hind Just move behind an oak, He snaps his teeth, and snaps his tail, And makes the desert smoke. So, when the Provost witnessed Hale To softer hands convey His parting love, and heard him ask To hear the chaplain pray, He jumped like mad, he danced about, Did dance, and roar, and swear-- The furies in his furnace eyes, And in his rampant hair. "Dog of a thief! ere you shall have Priest, book, or passing-bell, Your rebel hide shall rot in air, Your soul shall roast in hell!" "God's will be done!" said Nathan Hale: "Farewell to life and light!" They pulled the cloth about his eyes, And the slack cord was tight. V. 1. Once more the rack, along the Sound, Curled to the mounting sun, That kissed, with mercy's beams, a world Where such strange things are done. Along our lines the sentry walked; The dew was on his hair; He felt the night in every limb, But kept his station there; And watched the shimmering spires, and saw The swallows slide away; When, o'er the fields, there came a man, Rough, and in rough array. "Holla, you Yankee scout!" said he, "They've caught your Captain Hale, And choked him for a traitor spy, Dead as a dead door-nail.