The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-11-01
Islander at the Bridge.

(See Disraeli's Tale)
With loud huzzas and cheers,
All brandishing their spears.
and waving round their ears
Their keen Damascus blades.
4 score of horsemen dash;
And ieweled daggers flash.
AND empty scabbards CLASH.
As they near the Alban gladcs.
Afar on the billowy green
OF the hills that skirt the scene
4 fugitive girl they see:
And the soothing breath OF the air
Plays with her golden hair
As she hears with a throb of despair
Their shouts Of fiendish glee.
A moment the Moslems stand,
Each shading his eyes with his hand.
And stroking bis beard as in prayer;
Then like devils they toss IN the air
Their turbans of red. and they swear
By the beard of the prophet that they
VIII restore to Nahomet Bey
The infidel girl who has tied
In a panic of horror and dread
From the harem, gloomy and grey
With loud huzzas down the path
Toward the Pearl of Christendom spring
The servants OF Amurath:
Each eager to rescue the prize
That is fair to the fiery eyes
Of Mahomet. son of the King.
On an ancient bridge of stone.
The crumbling reminder lone
OF the Roman power decayed.
A Christian knight, arrayed
III the Turkish garb, doth knec'
With q cimeter of steel
In his hand, and humbly doth kiss
The cross. the token OF bliss:
And foaming, boiling tide
Goes rushing with roaring might
Beneath this gallant knight,
King Amurath's delight
Islander. Christendoms pride.
On with loud huzza
That the mountains echo afar,
Dash the Turks, like hawks of the air,
Till before them the deep ravine
With its narrow bridge is seen.
And the cimeter's deadly sheen,
As Islander rises from prayer.
On into the stream they dash.
And their plunging horses splash
The spray to the Christians feet;
But, baffled, back to the shore
Pant the steeds, and never more
Will the Turks their champion greet:
For, Selling stone from the wall,
Islander, the knight of the cross,
Hurls it, and down from his horse
They see him totter and fall.
Onward. in single file,
Pressing spurs to fanks that reek,
Till the foam-flaked coursers shrek.
And cursing all the while
That the hated Giaour doth dare.
With his cimeter poised in air,
Stand to defend the fair,
Stand to strike for the weak.
Now slowly the knight retires
Before the dancing fires
OF blades. that life-blood crave:
But circling cimeter flashes.
And steel against keen steel clashes.
And the head of a Moslem splashes
The foam from the boiling wave.
So the sweep of the Turk is delayed
Till, safe in a mountain glade,
On her knees the rescued maid
Prays to her Christ to ave
prince of the brave.
There between either shore
He stands, and moment more
And the struggle must be DER;
For the Turks, in a frenzy of Ire.
With their blood-shot eyes on fire,
Come charging nike demons of hell.
With a horrible, terrible YELL
But Islander leaps with despair
And the Wondering keystone creaks,
And crumbing ruins crash,
And horse and rider rash
Mingle their piercing shrieks
AS they fall and the river below
Smothers cry of woe.
But Islander swims to the shore,
3edrenched with mire and gore.
And, as one with some high Dehest.
He mutters: Oh, child OF the Hun,
Thy honor is cheaply won;
But for mine there is no rest.
And vaulting upon a steed