The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-05-12
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
! am dying, Egypt. dying.
Ebbs the crimson fctide fast,
And the dark Plutonian shadows
Gather on the evening blast.
Let thine arm, % Queen, support mel
Hush thy sobs and bow thine ear
Harken to the great heart-secrets
Thou, and thou alone. must hear.
Though my SCARED and veteran legions
Bear their eagles high more,
And my wrecked and scattered galleys
Srew dark Actums fatal shore;
Though no glittering guards surround me,
Prompt to do their masters will,
must perish like Roman
Die the great triumvir STILL
Let not Cesar's servie minons
Mock the lion thus laid low;
Twas no foeman's hand that slew him,
twas his own that struck the blow.
Hear, then, piowed on thy bosom.
Ere his star fades quite away,
Him who, drunk with thy caresses,
Madiy flung world awayi
Should the base plebeian rabble
Dare assail my fame In Rome,
Where the noble spouse, Octavia,
Weeps within her widowed home
Beck her, say the gods have told me,
Affairs, augurs, clrciing wings,
That her blood, with mine commingled,
Yet shall mount the throne Of kings
And for thee, star-eyed Eggplant
Glorious sorceress of the NilcI
Light the path TO Stygian horrors
With the splendors of thy smile;
Give the Cesar crowns and arches
Let his brow the laurel twine-
scorn the Senate's triumphs
Triumphing In love like thine.
lam dying, Egypt. dying:
Hark the insulting fOeman's cryi
They are comng-quick, my falchioni
Let me front them ere die.
Ali no more amid the battle
Shall my heart exulting swelli
Isis and Osiris guard thee
Cleopatra, Rome-fareweli
That the poet and warrior natures are In
some mysterious and unaccountable manner
akin, and often characteristics of the same in.
dividual, is fully demonstrated in Lytle's per
sonality. AT tho very outbreak of the rebellion.
having had some military training and expe
rience, he was commissioned as Colonel of the
10th Ohio, one of the first regiments put into
the field by that intensely. patriotic Common
wealth, and went to the front with an exuIting
enthusiasm born of true love of country and q
noble ambition. lie had the misfortune to be
wounded in every engagement in which he
participated his personal courage and exalted
sense of duty as leader carried him into the
midst OF every danger, although it does not
appear that he sought to be simply conspicuous
by foolish displays of those admirable and
necessary qualities of the successful soldier. In
the small affair of Carnifex Ferry w, Va.
Sept. 10. 1861, Lytle was dangerously wounded.
and thrown out of active service for several
months. Again, he was wounded, and capt
ured at the bloody battle of Perryyille about
year later. as concsely related in his letter
above, which unfortunate occurrence furnishes
The happy occasion for writing this sketch of a
brave and gifted citizen soldier.
Shortly after this very earnest appeal for ex-
change and active service was dispatched to the
proper military authority. which, as the sad
event proved, was in fact a prayer for speedy
death, Lyle was promoted-as Mr. Stanton evil
IDENTITY intended he should be-to Brigadier, to
date from Nov %, 1862 Subsequently, having
been regularly exchanged, his am bition to reioin
the army was gratifed, and he was assigned with
appropriate rank" to one of the best brigades
In Sherman's Division, Army of the Cumber-
land. Endowed with a vaulting ambition, he
longed to inscribe his name on the scroll of
military fame and doubtless would have sue.
ceeded had his life been spared, but another
fate was in store for him.
In the great battle of Chickamauga. on the
10th OF September, 1863 In the break caused
by furious and unexpected attack of the
Coniederates as Sheridan was moving by the