II. Though thou art fall'n, while we are free Thou shalt not taste of death! The generous blood that flowed from thee Disdained to sink beneath: Within our veins its currents be, Thy spirit on our breath! III. Thy name, our charging hosts along, Shall be the battle-word! Thy fall, the theme of chorál song To From virgin voices poured! weep would do thy glory wrong; Thou shalt not be deplored. SONG OF SAUL BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE. I. WARRIORS and Chiefs! should the shaft or the sword Pierce me in leading the host of the Lord, Heed not the corse, though a king's, in your path: Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath! II. Thou who art bearing my buckler and bow, Should the soldiers of Saul look away from the foe, Stretch me that moment in blood at thy feet! Mine be the doom which they dared not to meet. III. Farewell to others, but never we part, Heir to my royalty, son of my heart! Bright is the diadem, boundless the sway, Or kingly the death, which awaits us to-day! SAUL. I. THOU whose spell can raise the dead, Bid the prophet's form appear. Samuel, raise thy buried head! "King, behold the phantom seer!" VOL. IV. N Earth yawned; he stood the centre of a cloud: Light changed its hue, retiring from his shroud. Death stood all glassy in his fixed eye; His hand was withered, and his veins were dry; His foot, in bony whiteness, glittered there, Saul saw, and fell to earth, as falls the oak, At once, and blasted by the thunder-stroke. II. "Why is my sleep disquieted? "Who is he that calls the dead? "Is it thou, Oh King? Behold "Bloodless are these limbs, and cold: |