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Show 78 To the wild sounds of fear and death- Toussaint l'Ouverture! 'Vhat marvel that his heart beat high! The blow for freedom had been g•ven; And blood had answered to the cry Which earth sent up to heaven! What marvel, that a fierce delight Smiled arimly o'er his brow of mght, As groaon, and shout, and bursting flame, Told where the midnight tempest came; With hlood and fire along its van, And death behind !-he was a MAN! Yes-darl<-souled chieftain !-if the light Of mild Religion's heavenly ray Unveiled not to thy mental sight The lowlier and the purer way, In which the Holy Sufferer trod, Meekly amidst the sons of crime,That calm rel!ance upon God For justice, in his own good time,That gentleness, to which belongs Forgiveness for its many wrongs; Even as the primal martyr, kneeling For mercy on the evil·dealing,- Let not the favored white man name Thy stern appeal, with words of blame. Has he not, with the light of heaven Broadly around him, made the sameYea,- on a thousand war·fields striven, And gloried in his open shame 1 79 ~~neeling amidst his brothers' blood, 1 o offer mockery unto God As if the High and Holy O~e Could smile on deeds of murder done!As if a human sacrifice ·were purer in His holy eyes Though offered up hy Christ(an hands, Than the foul rites of Pagan lands ! " . • Sternly, amidst his household band • His carbine grasped within his hm;d, The white man stood, prepared and still 'Vaiting the shock of madJeued men ' Unchained, and fierce as ti(Tcrs, whci: The horn lvinds through ~heir caverned hill. And one \Vas wecpinO' in his sirrht _ The fairest flower ~fall the isJ;,The bride who seemed but yesterniaht The image of a smile. ~ And, clinging to her trembling knee, Looked up the form of infancy, With tearful glance in either face The secret of its fear to trace. ' 'Jla~stand, or die!' The white man's eye H1s steady musket gleamed along, As a tall Negro hastened nigh, With fearl ess step and strong. 'What ho, Toussaint ! ' A moment more His shadow crossed the lighted floor. ' 'Away,' he-shouted; 'fly with me,- |