The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1861-02-15
PAUL REVERE'S RIDE.
BYH. W. LoNCPELLow,


..r
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy Eve:
Hardly a man is now alive
Whoremembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend: "Ifthe British march
By land or sea from the town tonight,
Hang a lantern alof. in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower, as signal.
light
One BY land, and. two if By ses,
And l on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Thro' every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to beup and to arm
Then he said good night, and with mufi
ed oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moosings lay
The Somerset, British msn>of war:
A phantom ship. with each mast and spar
Across the moon, like prison bar
And huge, black hulk that was magniiied
By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and
street,
Wanders and watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster Of men at the harrack door,
The sound Of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grensdiers
Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed to tho tower Of the
church,
Up the wooden stairs with stealthy tread,
To the belfry- chamber overhead,
And started the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rshers, that round him
made
Masses and moving shapes of shade
Up the light ladder, slender and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs Of the town,
And the mo blight flowing over all.
Beneath in the church-yard. lay the dead
In their night-encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence SO deep and still,
That he could hear, like a sentnel's tread
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And scanning to whisper, "All is we'll !"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of,he place and the hour, the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay
A line of black, that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like bridge Of boats.
Meanwhile impatient to mount and ride
Booted and spurred, with heavy stride,
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere
Now he patted his horses side,
Now gazed on the landscape far and near,
Then impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and frightened his saddle gi.th;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry-tower Of the old North Church,
AS it rose above the grave on the bill,
Lonely and spectre, and sombre, and still
And 10! as be looks, on the belfry',
height.
A glmmer, and then a CLEAN of light!
He spring to the saddle, the bride be
turns,
But fingers and gazes, tilFfull on bis sight
A second lamp in the berry burns!
A hurry of hoofs iu the village street,
A shape in tho m oonHgh', bulk in the
dark, -..-.# -...
And. beneath from the pebbles, in passing
spark,
Struck out by steed that fies fearless and
feet: a....
That was all and yet, through tie gloom
and the light,
The fate Of nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck ou, BY that steed, in
his fight,
Kindled the land into fame with lis heat.
1t was twelve by the village clock.
When he crossed the bridge into Medford
town, !" sa
lie heard the growing of the cock,
And the barking Of the farmers dog,
And felt the damp Of the river fog. ..
That rises when the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he rode into Lexington,
He saw the gildsd weathercook
Suin, in tho meonli0ht m ha n.ssAl