Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1866-06-29
II o IL # IL Y.
From the Lynchburg Daily News. 4.
THE PRICE OF PEACE.

.fa5 100.
s1st BY "LoULAn
A woman paced with hurried steps, her lone and
:. dreary cell,
The setting sun, with golden ray, upon her dark
hair fell,
Which lay disheveled on her breast, and many {
shred of gray
Wound midst those tresses-sorrows gift-whilt
on her breast they lay.
She murmured disconnected strains, as to an6
fro, she paced,
And wildly beamed her piercing eye, and on hel
wasted face
A bur ming blush of fever glowed-there rolled
the lava tide
Of thought, from those thin coral lips, as passion
ate she cried:
|" Peace peace!" they tell me peace has come,
they say the war is DER;
The battle-cry, the shrek of death shall fill the
land no more,
They bid my heart rejoice-be glad-.they bid my
e tears to cease;
Yes, yes my heart, thou shouldst rejoice, for thou
hast paid. for peace!
All let me count the price once more, for fear my
lips restrain
The faintest note, that they should give to that
II rejoicing strain,
had son, a noble boy, just entered manhood
But he forgot his mothers tears, when first the
lannon's boom
magic spell "
And gallantly he bore our flag, and gallantly he
fell.
never saw my boy again (they say my tears must
cease,
But Herbert drop for drop wih thine, my heart
paid blood. for peace!
Another son, STRIPPING boy, who always by my
side.
Frail as lily, was content, forever to abide;
Not eighteen summers, had nursed with all a
mothers care
This ten der plant, when orders came my only
+ 3. child to tear
From mine embraced knew he'd die, and on my
Bonded knee
begged his life besought and wept, but no il
could not be-;
They bore him off, He never met the foe on hill
or plain
But dropped and died, know not where we
never met again
Oh Willie with thy soft blue eyes hush, hush
nv tears must cease
Yet darling with thy dying groan~, 7 paid in par
for peace!
Now both were gone-whom had I left? None but
i the fond true heart,
Who d mingle tear for tear with mine-he who
had borne part
In every throb Of anguish wild, which still my
bosom rent;
Whose eyes were dim, whose hair was gray, will
nights of weeping spent
For those oar sons. I thought that we, through
all this midnight gloom
Would hand in hand walk mournfully together
to the tomb.
But war insatiate claimed him too Isaw him toe
depart,
And something made of stone think, was giver
q me for heart; 5ti5
could not weep for many day; was alone
alone,
With that cold weight within my breast-tha
heavy heart of stone.
Tears came, and melted it at last; in prison fa
IA away, a..
nj forf no 1oy,r ,oF
day by day:
But Herbert and our Willie came, and bade tn
captive go,
They broke his chains, know they did, the an
gels told me So
And when they bore his soul aloft, they bid hi
suferings cease,
paid in spirit on his grave all that 1 oaved .to
It. peace.
Must rejoice perchance might; but wast1is al
the price?
All did my jewels, did my tears, MY broker
heart snfice?
No count upon the battlefield ten Thousand
nameless graves;
Call on the winds for signs and groans-go tel
the ocean waves
To bring their dead-the prison walls to shriel
their sickening tales
Concentrate, if you've power tonight, tie wild
owls and orphans walls,
Heap broken. hearts on broken hearts, till Pit.
bid you cease,
And then youll have not half the price that w
have paid for peace.
They say I'm mad, it may be so; they We bount
me in this cell.
know not when they brought me here, ant
nothing can tell
Of Heaven above or earth beneath; but oh til
| life shall cease,
Though reasons gone, the price IU know achich
| paid. for peace!
MErEoB1c SHOWERS EXTRAORDINARILY -
writer in the Mobile Tribune gives lons
! and detailed account of continuous ssmeteOrl