110

SONG OF THE GREEK AMAZON.

They slew him—and my virgin years

Are vowed to Greece and vengeance now, And many an Othman dame, in tears,

Shall rue the Grecian maiden's vow.

I touched the lute in better days,

I led in dance the joyous band;
Ah! they may move to mirthful lays

Whose hands can touch a lover's hand.
The march of hosts that haste to meet
Seems gayer than the dance to me;
The lute's sweet tones are not so sweet
As the fierce shout of victory.

THE AFRICAN CHIEF.

CHAINED in the market-place he stood,

A man of giant frame,

Amid the gathering multitude

That shrunk to hear his name-
All stern of look and strong of limb,
His dark eye on the ground:-
And silently they gazed on him,
As on a lion bound.

Vainly, but well, that chief had fought,

He was a captive now,

Yet pride, that fortune humbles not,
Was written on his brow.

The scars his dark broad bosom wore,

Showed warrior true and brave;

A prince among his tribe before,

He could not be a slave.

Then to his conqueror he spake

"My brother is a king; Undo this necklace from my neck,

And take this bracelet ring

112

THE AFRICAN CHIEF.

And send me where my brother reigns,

And I will fill thy hands

With store of ivory from the plains,

And gold-dust from the sands."

"Not for thy ivory nor thy gold
Will I unbind thy chain;
That bloody hand shall never hold
The battle-spear again.

A price thy nation never gave,

Shall yet be paid for thee;

For thou shalt be the Christian's slave,
In lands beyond the sea."

Then wept the warrior chief, and bade

To shred his locks

away;

And, one by one, each heavy braid

Before the victor lay.

Thick were the platted locks, and long,

And deftly hidden there

Shone many a wedge of gold among

The dark and crisped hair.

"Look, feast thy greedy eye with gold
Long kept for sorest need;

Take it-thou askest sums untold,

And say that I am freed.

Take it-my wife, the long, long day

Weeps by the cocoa-tree,

And my young children leave their play,
And ask in vain for me."

THE AFRICAN CHIEF.

"I take thy gold—but I have made Thy fetters fast and strong,

And ween that by the cocoa shade

Thy wife will wait thee long."
Strong was the agony that shook
The captive's frame to hear,
And the proud meaning of his look
Was changed to mortal fear.

His heart was broken-crazed his brain :

At once his eye grew wild;
He struggled fiercely with his chain,
Whispered, and wept, and smiled;
Yet wore not long those fatal bands,
And once, at shut of day,

They drew him forth upon the sands,
The foul hyena's prey.

10*

113

SONG.

Soon as the glazed and gleaming snow Reflects the day-dawn cold and clear, The hunter of the west must go,

In depth of woods to seek the deer

His rifle on his shoulder placed,

His stores of death arranged with skill, His moccasins and snow-shoes laced,Why lingers he beside the hill?

Far, in the dim and doubtful light,
Where woody slopes a valley leave,
He sees what none but lover might,
The dwelling of his Genevieve.

And oft he turns his truant eye,

And pauses oft, and lingers near; But when he marks the reddening sky, He bounds away to hunt the deer.