“ Star of Switzerland! whose rays

“In innumerable waves, Shed such sweet expiring light,

Swoln with fury, grim with blood,
Ere the Gallic comet's blaze

Headlong roll'd the hordes of slaves,
Swept thy beauty into night:-

And ingulf'd us with a flood. “Star of Switzerland! thy fame

“ In the whirlpool of that food, No recording bard hath sung :

Firm in fortitude divine,
Yet be thine immortal name

Like th' eternal rocks we stood,
Inspiration to my tongue !4

In the cataract of the Rhine. " While the lingering moon delay'd

« Till by tenfold force assail'd,

In a hurricane of fire,
In the wilderness of night,
Ere the morn awoke the shade

When at length our pbalanx fail'd,
Into loveliness and light:-

Then our courage blazed the higher.

“ Broken into feeble bands, “Gallia's tigers, wild for blood,

Fighting in dissever'd parts,
Darted on our sleeping fold:

Weak and weaker grew our hands,
Down the mountains, o'er the flood,

Strong and stronger still our hearts.
Dark as thunder clouds they roll'd.

“ Fierce amid the loud alarms, “By the trumpet's voice alarm'd,

Shouting in the foremost fray,
All the valley burst awake;

Children raised their little arms
All were in a moment arm'd,

In their country's evil day.
From the barriers to the lake.

“On their country's dying bed,

Wives and husbands pour'd their breath; * The French made their first attack on the valley of Underwalden from the lake: but, after a desperate con

Many a youth and maiden bled, flict, they were victoriously repelled, and two of their

Married at thine altar, Death. vessels, containing five hundred men, perished in the engagement.

† In the last and decisive battle, the Underwalders At Schaffhausen.-See Coxe's Travels. were overpowered by two French armies, which rushed † In this miserable conflict, many of the women and upon them from the opposite mountains, and surrounded children of the Underwalders fought in the ranks by their their camp, while an assault, at the same time, was made husbands, and fathers, and friends, and fell gloriously for upon them' from the lake.

“ Wildly scatter'd o'er the plain,

WANDERER.
Bloodier still the battle grew ;-
Oye spirits of the slain,

“ Hail !--all bail! the patriot's grave, Slain on those your prowess slew :

Valour's venerable bed :

Hail! the memory of the brave, “ Who shall now your deeds relate?

Hail ! the spirits of the dead.
Ye that fell unwept, unknown;
Mourning for your country's fate,

“ Time their triumphs shall proclaim, But rejoicing in your own.

And their rich reward be this,

Immortality of famo, “ Virtue, valour, naught availa

Immortality of bliss."
With so merciless a foe;
When the nerves of heroes fail'd,

SHEPHERD.
Cowards then could strike a blow.

“On that melancholy plain,

In that conflict of despair, “ Cold and keen th' assassin's blade

How was noble Albert slain?
Smote the father to the ground;

How didst thou, old warrior, fare?”
Through the infant's breast convey'd
To the mother's heart a wound.*

WANDERER.

“ In the agony of strife, “Underwalden thus expired;

Where the heart of battle bled,
But at her expiring flame,

Where his country lost her life,
With fraternal feeling fired,

Glorious Albert bow'd his head.
Lo, a band of Switzers came.t

When our phalanx broke away, “ From the steeps beyond the lake,

And our stoutest soldiers fell,
Like a winter's weight of snow,

Where the dark rocks dimm'd the day, When the huge lavanges break,

Scowling o'er the deepest dell;
Devastating all below.I

“ There, like lions old in blood, “ Down they rush'd with headlong might,

Lions rallying round their den,
Swifter than the panting wind;

Albert and his warriors stood;
All before them fear and fight,

We were few, but we were men. Death and silence all behind.

“ Breast to breast we fought the ground, 6 How the forest of the foe

Arm to arm repell’d the foe ;
Bow'd before the thunder strokes,

Every motion was a wound,
When they laid the cedars low,

And a death was every blow.
When they overwhelm'd the oaks.

“ Thus the clouds of sunset beam “ Thus they hew'd their dreadful way;

Warmer with expiring light;
Till, by numbers forced to yield,

Thus autumnal meteors stream
Terrible in death they lay,

Redder through the darkening night The AVENGERS OF THE FIELD."

“ Miracles our champions wrought

Who their dying deeds shall tell! PART IV.

O how gloriously they fought!

How triumphantly they fell! The Wanderer relates the circumslances alcending the death of Albert.

« One by one gave up the ghost,

Slain, not conquer'd,—they died free. SHEPHERD.

Albert stood,-himself a host: * PLEDGE the memory of the brave,

Last of all the Swiss was he.
And the spirits of the dead;

“So, when night with rising shade Pledge the venerable grave,

Climbs the Alps from steep to steep Valour's consecrated bed.

Till, in hoary gloom array'd, “ Wanderer, cheer thy drooping soul,

All the giant mountains sleep ;
This inspiring goblet take;

“ High in heaven their monarch* stands, Drain the deep delicious bowl,

Bright and beauteous from afar,
For thy martyr'd brethren's sake.

Shining unto distant lands

Like a new-created star.