Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.
Gressenig
By Rowland E. Egerton-Warburton (18041891)
B
Fast as that river flows,
France takes flight to the Rhine once more
From the might of her Austrian foes.
Mid the ranks of those that fled;
She followed the steps and she fought by the side
Of him she had lately wed.
Where the vine and the olive grow,
For fields of blood, and to share in the toil
That her lover must undergo.
To war and its daring deeds,
Could not to her tender frame impart
The strength a soldier needs.
For her limbs began to fail,
And the hue of her cheek, though unchanged by fear,
With weariness grew pale.
As he held her to his breast;
And her drooping head, as they tarried there,
Sunk in his arms to rest.
Far from her anxious sight
The distant bands of her countrymen
Had vanished in their flight.
And sought the forest shade:
She wished from that host not a soldier back,
While her own stood by to aid.
For days and nights they sped;
The fruits of the forest their only fare,
The leaves their only bed.
Once more to their native land;
Vain hope! what sees that startled bride?
Why grasps she her lover’s hand?
Half hid by the copsewood screen;—
She clung, as a shield, to that breast so dear,
And the fatal flash was seen!
Where yon lonely cypress grows;
Their bodies, pierced by that single shot,
In a single grave repose.