Page:The poetical works of Thomas Campbell.djvu/141

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XVI.It was encamping on the lake's far port,A cry of Areouski[1] broke our sleep,Where stormed an ambushed foe thy nation's fort,And rapid, rapid whoops came o'er the deep;But long thy country's war-sign on the steepAppeared through ghastly intervals of light,And deathfully their thunders seemed to sweep,Till utter darkness swallowed up the sight,As if a shower of blood had quenched the fiery fight!
XVII.It slept—it rose again—on high their towerSprung upwards like a torch to light the skies,Then down again it rained an ember shower,And louder lamentations heard we rise:As when the evil Manitou that driesTh' Ohio woods, consumes them in his ire,In vain the desolated panther flies,And howls amidst his wilderness of fire:Alas! too late, we reached and smote those Hurons dire!
XVIII.But as the fox beneath the nobler hound,So died their warriors by our battle-brand;And from the tree we, with her child, unboundA lonely mother of the Christian land:—Her lord—the captain of the British band—Amidst the slaughter of his soldiers lay.Scarce knew the widow our delivering hand;Upon her child she sobbed, and swooned away,Or shrieked unto the God to whom the Christians pray.
  1. ↑ The Indian God of War.
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