Page 185 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

Leaps to the soldier's lips,

A h hurriedly lie slips
All the bolts within their sockets,
Loads the guns and mounts the rockets,
Makes ali readv for the foe.
*
Then he waits; and list !1L a rustling;
fTis the breeze? No, ’tis the bustling
Of steal Lhy footsteps creeping slow.

Whiz ! a rocket shoots21 in air,
" A t your peril com e!1'4 Ueware ! ’'
Shouts, in tone defiant,
This hero self-reliant.
Halls the foe, his plan* betrayed;
Now he’ll wait for daylight's aid
To attack the fort.
While within, the grenadier;
Patient bides, with weapons near,
And courage high up wrought.

B a n g ! the first shot cleaves the air,
Just as Phoebus rises fair,
And smites the silent tower.
Bang, hang, bang, bang! the shots fly fast.
And hang !1 the fort replies at last,
And strikes with telling power.
At every shot a foe man fails,
Though singly come the musket balls,
Whereat the A ustrianw onders.
No heads above the ramparts"1 rise,
No mark the enemy descries;
He blindlv shoots2 and blunders.
j
Hour by hour until the eve,
Fought the foe with slight reprieve,