e
ever vouchsafe me a single glance of encouragement? As I am not a
general officer, I can't get mentioned in a despatch as having eight
bullets in my breast and 'lying in a precarious condition,' even if we
were not at peace. If I was only a drummer I could go and make a
disgusting noise under her window till she was obliged to look out to
tell me to go away, and I would then descend from fortissimo to piano
and adagio, for I suppose one could do adagio even upon a drum. But the
only fame she is likely to hear of me is that some one will tell her
to-morrow that I boozed in the Town Cellar from midnight to six a. m.

Now is no one awake but the highest and the lowest in the town,--the
watchman on the top of the cathedral tower, and I deep down in the
bowels of the earth. If I were the watchman I would be singing to a
certainty, so I don't see why I should not wake the echoes down here.
_She_ won't hear either of us, so here goes.

When at the lonely midnight hour
I pace my rounds upon the tower,
I muse upon my love afar,
Whose troth is fixed as morning star.

When to the flag at honour's call
I flew, her kiss was worth it all;
She decked my hat with ribbands blue,
Then pressed me to her heart anew.

And still her love's as warm as then,
It gives my hand the strength of ten;
It lends my heart a firmer beat,
To think in absence on my Sweet.

E'en now within her room she kneels
And wings to Heaven her dear appeals,
All lonely by the pale lamp's ray,
For one she loves that's far away.

But if my danger haunt thy breast,
Yet dry thy tears, and be at rest;
I stand in God's own armour clad,
He loves an honest soldier lad.

The clocks ring out, the round is near.
My hour of rest will soon be here;
Sleep rock thy brain, and set it free
To dream, and only dream of me.

Midnight! and is she dreaming of me? It always seems to me as if at
this mysterious hour the earth gave a little tremble, and the dead who
sleep in her bosom turned in their heavy slumber as if to mutter a
prayer of _Domine quousque_? That distant bell is borne to me very
differently from the 'twelve great shocks of shameless noon.' Hark! did
not a door shut in one of the further vaults? Strange, if I didn't
_know_ that I was perfectly alone here I should believe that I heard
footsteps. Yes, there are foots