In the cottage of the rudest peasant, In ancestral homes whose crumbling towers, Speaking of the Past unto the Present, Tell us of the ancient games of Flowers; In all places, then, and in all seasons, And with child-like, credulous affection, THE BELEAGUERED CITY. I HAVE read, in some old marvellous tale, Beside the Moldau's rushing stream, White as a sea-fog, landward bound, No other voice nor sound was there, But, when the old cathedral bell Down the broad valley fast and far Up rose the glorious morning star, I have read, in the marvellous heart of man, That an army of phantoms vast and wan Encamped beside Life's rushing stream, Upon its midnight battle-ground No other voice nor sound is there, And when the solemn and deep church-bell The midnight phantoms feel the spell, The shadows sweep away. Down the broad Vale of Tears afar The spectral camp is fled; Faith shineth as a morning star, Our ghastly fears are dead. MIDNIGHT MASS FOR THE DYING YEAR. Yes, the Year is growing old, The leaves are falling, falling, "Caw! caw!" the rooks are calling, Through woods and mountain passes And the hooded clouds, like friars, There he stands in the foul weather, A king,-a king! Then comes the summer-like day, His joy his last! O, the old man gray To the crimson woods he saith, To the voice, gentle and low, Of the soft air, like a daughter's breath,"Pray do not mock me so! Do not laugh at me!" And now the sweet day is dead; Then, too, the Old Year dieth, Then comes with an awful roar, Howl! howl! and from the forest For there shall come a mightier blast, BALLADS. THE SKELETON IN ARMOUR. [The following ballad was suggested to me while riding on the seashore at Newport. A year or two previous, a skeleton had been dug up at Fall River, clad in broken and corroded armour; and the idea occurred to me of connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport, generally known hitherto as the Old Windmill, though now claimed by the Danes as a work of their early ancestors. Professor Rafn, in the Memoires de la Societe Royal des Antiquaires du Nord, for 1838 1839, says : "There is no mistaking, in this instance, the style in which the more ancient stone edifices of the North were constructed, the style which belongs to the Roman or ante-Gothic architecture, and which, especially after the time of Charlemagne, diffused itself from Italy over the whole of the west and north of Europe, where it continued to predominate until the close of the twelfth century; that style, which some authors have, from one of its most striking characteristics, called the round arch style, the same which in England is denominated Saxon, and sometimes Norman architecture. "On the ancient structure in Newport there are no ornaments remaining, which might possibly have served to guide us in assigning the probable date ot its erection. That no vestige whatever is found of the pointed arch, nor any approximation to it, is indicative of an earlier, rather than of a later period. From such characteristics as remain, however, we can scarcely form any other inference than one, in which I am persuaded that all, who are familiar with Old-Northern architecture, will concur, that THIS BUILDING WAS ERECTED AT A PERIOD DECIDEDLY NOT LATER THAN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. This remark applies, of course, to the original building only, and not to the alterations that it subsequently received; for there are several such alterations in the upper part of the building which cannot be mistaken, and which were most likely occasioned by its being adapted in modern times to various uses; for example, as the sub-structure of a windmill, and latterly as a hay magazine. To the same time may be referred the |