Dreams and Days: Poems Part 5

II

THE BRIDE OF WAR

(ARNOLD'S MARCH TO CANADA, 1775)

I

The trumpet, with a giant sound, Its harsh war-summons wildly sings; And, bursting forth like mountain-springs, Poured from the hillside camping-ground, Each swift battalion shouting flings Its force in line; where you may see The men, broad-shouldered, heavily Sway to the swing of the march; their heads Dark like the stones in river-beds.

Lightly the autumn breezes Play with the shining dust-cloud Rising to the sunset rays From feet of the moving column.

Soft, as you listen, comes The echo of iterant drums, Brought by the breezes light From the files that follow the road.

A moment their guns have glowed Sun-smitten: then out of sight They suddenly sink, Like men who touch a new grave's brink!

II

So it was the march began, The march of Morgan's riflemen, Who like iron held the van In unhappy Arnold's plan To win Wolfe's daring fame again.

With them, by her husband's side, Jemima Warner, n.o.bly free, Moved more fair than when, a bride, One year since, she strove to hide The blush it was a joy to see.

III

O distant, terrible forests of Maine, With huge trees numberless as the rain That falls on your lonely lakes!

(It falls and sings through the years, but wakes No answering echo of joy or pain.)

Your tangled wilderness was tracked With struggle and sorrow and vengeful act 'Gainst Puritan, pagan, and priest.

Where wolf and panther and serpent ceased, Man added the horrors your dark maze lacked.

The land was scarred with deeds not good, Like the fretting of worms on withered wood.

What if its venomous spell Breathed into Arnold a prompting of h.e.l.l, With slow empoisoning force indued?

IV

As through that dreary realm he went, Followed a shape of dark portent:-- Pard-like, of furtive eye, with brain To treason narrowing, Aaron Burr, Moved loyal-seeming in the train, Led by the arch-conspirator.

And craven Enos closed the rear, Whose honor's flame died out in fear.

Not sooner does the dry bough burn And into fruitless ashes turn, Than he with whispered, false command Drew back the hundreds in his hand; Fled like a shade; and all forsook.

Wherever Arnold bent his look, Danger and doubt around him hung; And pale Disaster, shrouded, flung Black omens in his track, as though The fingers of a future woe Already clutched his life, to wring Some expiation for the thing That he was yet to do. A chill Struck helpless many a steadfast will Within the ranks; the very air Rang with a thunder-toned despair: The hills seemed wandering to and fro, Like lost guides blinded by the snow.

V

Yet faithful still 'mid woe and doubt One woman's loyal heart--whose pain Filled it with pure celestial light-- Shone starry-constant like the North, Or that still radiance beaming forth From sacred lights in some lone fane.

But he whose ring Jemima wore, By want and weariness all unstrung, Though strong and honest of heart and young, Shrank at the blast that pierced so frore-- Like a huge, invisible bird of prey Furious launched from Labrador And the granite cliffs of Saguenay!

Along the bleak Dead River's banks They forced amain their frozen way; But ever from the thinning ranks Shapes of ice would reel and fall, Human shapes, whose dying prayer Floated, a mute white mist, in air; The crowding snow their pall.

Spectre-like Famine drew near; Her doom-word hummed in his ear: Ah, weak were woman's hands to reach And save him from the h.e.l.lish charms And wizard motion of those arms!

Yet only n.o.ble womanhood The wife her dauntless part could teach: She shared with him the last dry food And thronged with hopefulness her speech, As when hard by her home the flood Of rushing Conestoga fills Its depth afresh from springtide rills!

All, all in vain!

For far behind the invading rout These two were left alone; And in the waste their wildest shout Seemed but a smothered groan.

Like sheeted wanderers from the grave They moved, and yet seemed not to stir, As icy gorge and sere-leaf'd grove Of withered oak and shrouded fir Were pa.s.sed, and onward still they strove; While the loud wind's artillery clave The air, and furious sleety rain Swung like a sword above the plain!

VI

They crossed the hills; they came to where Through an arid gloom the river Chaudiere Fled like a Maenad with outstreaming hair; And there the soldier sank, and died.

Death-dumb he fell; yet ere life sped, Child-like on her knee he laid his head.

She strove to pray; but all words fled Save those their love had sanctified.

And then her voice rose waveringly To the notes of a mother's lullaby; But her song was only "Ah, must thou die?"

And to her his eyes death-still replied.

VII

Dead leaves and stricken boughs She heaped o'er the fallen form-- Wolf nor hawk nor lawless storm Him from his rest should rouse; But first, with solemn vows, Took rifle, pouch, and horn, And the belt that he had worn.

Then, onward pressing fast Through the forest rude and vast, Hunger-wasted, fever-parch'd, Many bitter days she marched With bleeding feet that spurned the flinty pain; One thought always throbbing through her brain: "They shall never say, 'He was afraid,'-- They shall never cry, 'The coward stayed!'"

VIII

Now the wilderness is pa.s.sed; Now the first hut reached, at last.

Ho, dwellers by the frontier trail, Come forth and greet the bride of war!

From cabin and rough settlement They come to speed her on her way-- Maidens, whose ruddy cheeks grow pale With pity never felt before; Children that cl.u.s.ter at the door; Mothers, whose toil-worn hands are lent To help, or bid her longer stay.

But through them all she pa.s.ses on, Strangely martial, fair and wan; Nor waits to listen to their cheers That sound so faintly in her ears.

For now all scenes around her shift, Like those before a racer's eyes When, foremost sped and madly swift, Quick stretching toward the goal he flies, Yet feels his strength wane with his breath, And purpose fail 'mid fears of death,--

Till, like the flashing of a lamp, Starts forth the sight of Arnold's camp,-- The bivouac flame, and sinuous gleam Of steel,--where, crouched, the army waits, Ere long, beyond the midnight stream, To storm Quebec's ice-mounded gates.

IX

Then to the leader she was brought, And spoke her simply loyal thought.

If, 'mid the shame of after-days, The man who wronged his country's trust (Yet now in worth outweighed all praise) Remembered what this woman wrought, It should have bowed him to the dust!

"Humbly my soldier-husband tried To do his part. He served,--and died.

But honor did not die. His name And honor--bringing both, I came; And this his rifle, here, to show, While far away the tired heart sleeps, To-day his faith with you he keeps!"

Proudly the war bride, ending so, Sank breathless in the dumb white snow.