Page 76 - 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 ...

T H E B L A C K HORSR A N D HIS RIDER.

I T W A S the seventh of October, 1777. Horatio Gate/; stood b e t-^
his tent, gazing upon the two armies now arrayed in orde; \*
battle. It was a clear, bra chit; day, in el low with the riclm-ss
of a lit Lim n, The sk y was cloi-hess. the foliage of the woods scarcely
linged with purple and gold. But the tread of legions shook “[he
r round, fro:n every bush shot the trimmer of ri Q c-barrel s ; on evu’v
‘.J
r
-1
if
hillside blazed the si 1 arpedit'd bayonet. Grimes was sad and thoughtful
as he watched the evolutions of the two arrmes, A. 11 at once a smc kc
arose, a thunder shook the ground, and a chorus of shouts and groans
yelled along the darkened air. The play of death had begun. The
two flags, thin of the stars, that of the red cross, tossed amid tht?
smoke nf battle while the earth throbbed as with the piistations of 3
-nighty heart. Suddenly along the heightsr on which (-Tates and his
staff stood, came a rider upon a black horse, rushing towards drj
distant battle. L o o k ! He draws his sword. The sharpbladequivers
ihrough the air ■ and now he is gone, gone through those clouds,
while his shout echoes over the plains. W herever the fight is thichest
there, through the intervals of cannon-smoke, yon may see rijin-
madly forward, that Grange soldier mounted on hi:J. steed black as
death. Look ^t him, as, with face red with British blood, he waver; his
sword and shouts to his legions. Now you may sec him fighting in
that cannon's glare; and the next moment he is away off yonder,
leading the forlorn hope up that steep cliff.
Thus it was all the day long ; and wherever that black hors" and
his rider went, there followed victory. A t last, towards the setting ot
the sun, the crisis of the conflict camc. That fortress youdrr, on

Bcirms Heights, must be won, or tin: American cause is lost. Thai
cliff is too steep. That death is too certain. The officers eannol
]persuade the men to advance. The Americans have lost the field.
Kven Morgan, that iron man among iron men, leans on--.his rifi- and
despairs. But look yonder! In this moment, when al‘ is di .may,
iJere crashing on, comes the black horse and his nder. Thai -i’'dtv