e got to make, is--
The Occident's not the West

THE BATTLE OF LAPRAIRIE. (1691.)

A BALLAD.

I.

That was a brave old epoch,
Our age of chivalry,
When the Briton met the Frenchman
At the fight of La Prairie;
And the manhood of New England,
And the Netherlander true
And Mohawks sworn, gave battle
To the Bourbon's lilied blue.

II.

That was a brave old governor
Who gathered his array,
And stood to meet, he knew not what
On that alarming day.
Eight hundred, amid rumors vast
That filled the wild wood's gloom,
With all New England's flower of youth,
Fierce for New France's doom.

III.

And the brave old half five hundred!
Their's should in truth be fame;
Borne down the savage Richelieu,
On what emprise they came!
Your hearts are great enough, O few:
Only your numbers fail,
New France asks more for conquerors
All glorious though your tale.

IV.

It was a brave old battle
That surged around the fort,
When D'Hosta fell in charging,
And 'twas deadly strife and short;
When in the very quarters
They contested face and hand,
And many a goodly fellow
Crimsoned yon La Prairie sand.

V.

And those were brave old orders
The colonel gave to meet
That forest force with trees entrenched
Opposing the retreat:
"DeCalliere's strength's behind us
And in front your Richelieu;
We must go straightforth at them;
There is nothing else to do."

VI.

And then the brave old story comes,
Of Schuyler and Valrennes
When "Fight," the British colonel called,
Encouraging his men,
"For the Protestant Religion
And the honor of our King!"--
"Sir, I am here to answer you!"
Valrennes cried, forthstepping.

VII.

Were those not brave old races?--
Well, here they still abide;
And yours is one or other,
And the second's at your side,
So when you hear your brother say,
"Some loyal deed I'll do,"
Like old Valrennes, be ready with
"I'm here to answer you!"

WINTER'S DAWN IN LOWER CANADA.

To each there lives some beauteous sight: mine is to me most fair,
I carry fadeless one clear dawn in keen December air,
O'er leagues of plain from night we fled upon a pulsing train;
For breath of morn, outside I stood. Then up a carmine stain
Flushed calm and rich the long, low east, deep reddening till the sun
Eyed from its molten fires and shot strange arrows, one by one
On certain fields, and on a wood of distant evergreen,
And fairy opal blues