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THE SOLDIERS' JOURNAL,
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Original Poetry.
LINES
SUGGESTED BY THE RECENT REBEL INVASION.
Behold the invaders are coming again,
To plunder our cities and harvests of grain;
Then rouse up ye freemen, nor count ye the cost,
If now you should falter, our country Is lost.
We'll meet them in battle, hurl back in dismay
These mad-dogs of treason, aud capture their prey;
We'll never dishonor the patriot-dead.
By letting vile traitors 011 free soil to tread.
Shrink not from the conflict in the hour of need,
And treason shall tremble anc* tyrants shall bleed,
From cot and from castle we hear but one cry,
We'll battle for freedom and freemen we'll die.
For the Union lighting our thousands have died,
Whose names will be cherished with honor and pride;
Their orphans and widows are bowed in prayer,
In calling for vengence they'll never despair.
No soldier will falter when led by a Grant,
Nor yet by a Sherman who never knew "can't;"
With faith in our leaders and trust in our God
We'll put all tiie rebels down under the sod.
"Sodown with the traitors and up with the stars,"
And re-elect Abram, whom Davis abhors;
Then we will cease fighting, by ending the war,
And have a " New Union" no slav'ry can mar.
Fort Barnard, July 12,1801. _^___
Pftttltatttattl £t*6ittf.
From Ballou's Dollar Monthly.
THE HEVEL. OIT DEATH.
BY N. C. ROBINSOM.
Perched upon one of the loftiest and most in
accessable peaks of tho Caucasian Range, at a
time far back in the darkness of feudal r-ges,
the castle of PetrolF, an exiled nobleman of Rus
sia, stood frowningly against tho sky, overlook
ing the valleys and ravines in which the bi-sieg
lng forces had collected their strength. For more
than a year the castle of tho stubborn count had
withstood the assaults of its enemies, and daily
the hardy PetrofF made the circuit of the defen
ces, animating and encouraging his handful of
retainers to a stout resistance, and often assisting
himself in tho work.
Twenty years before, on account of some fan
-4
cied delinquincy, deeply offensive to royalty, this
nobleman had been ignominiously banished
from the Russian court. Departing unmurmur
ingly, he had built and fortified for himself this
erie-like retreat among the southern mountains;
and here, pleased with his solitude, as well as
the absence of courtly favor and tyranny, he
proposed to devote the declining years of his life
to the nurture and education of his orphaned
and darling child, the little Leola. And this,
thus far, he had done ; from a mere infant, he
had watched with delight her growth of body
and expansion of mind, until he beheld in her
the embodiment of that of which he had dream
ed at her birth—Leola, the beautiful, the proud,
whose eaglo eye and queenly bearing proclaimed
her a true daughter of the. Petroffs. The old
man loved to cherish the thought, and often his
exultation revealed itself in words such as
these:—
"It was a happy act, my child, which the ty
rant of Russia did, when he thought to crush us.
Ah, in these barren mountains, God willing, I
will nourish a spirit and build up a house which
in years to como will menace and overshadow
him!"
Declarations such as these were hinted about
among the adherents of the count, and in time
borne to the court of the Emperor. With them,
the latter also received strange accounts of the
beautiful maiden whom old Petroff so jealously
guarded in his mountain citadel; and prompted
by a dormant but still existing hatred of his
former liogeman, as well as by an arrogant de
sire to transfer this wild mountain flower to his
court and palace, the despot determined to invest
the castle of his banished vassal, and reduce him
to the performance of such terms as ho pleased
to prescribe.
To will was to do ; a month had scarcely elaps
ed before the stronghold of Petroif was girdled
and besieged by a powerful force, led by the em
peror in person, and employing all the arts of
war to reduce and capture it. A year, however,
had elapsed, and still tho fortress of the exile
had frowned defiance upon its foes. No force of
arms or effort of strategy had been sufficient to
muke the slightest impression upon the strong
hold ; but, upon the other hand, favored by their
position, the besieged had been able almost
daily to hurl death and devastation into the
, camp of the besieger. And in his daily walk
upon his battlements, the stout old rebel sont
forth his laugh of derision upon his enemy
below.
Rut it was mainly owing to the efforts of the
i youthful and gallant Seltzberg, a protege of Pe
troff, and the actual commander of the defending
force, that the latter had been able to hold outs')
stubbornly. With the promise from the count
"of the hand of Lady Leola, when he should
finally repel the invader, the young command
ant had applied himself vigorously and success
fully to tho defence. Cheered by the hope which
had thus been held out to him, tho realization ot
which seemed to grow daily brighter, and by the
smiles ol Leola herself, the youth seemed in
himself to be a tower of strength, and ail assur
ance of final success.
A crisis, however, was now approaching. An
gered and mortified at his continual failure
certain, as he was, that the surrounding nations
were watching in surprise the unusual spectacle
of the emperor of a mighty nation held at bay
by the single arm of one banished noble; and,
further than this, despairing of his ability to
bring him to terms by the simple force of arms,
the baffled tyrant dispatched a messenger to the
castle, with the terms of the compromise which
he proposed. The herald stood in the presence
of Petrol!*, his daughter and Seltzberg, and thuß
delivered his message;
" My master, the emperor, bids me declare to
you, that he has no wish to continue this fruit
less and unnatural contest. Deliver to him the
Lady Leola, your daughter, tho report of whose
beauty reached him even in his capital, and to
gain whom lie was the more willing to take up
arms—do this, and he swears that he will retire
forthwith from your castle, and molest you no
more."
"Answer him, Leola," were the quick, sterto
words of the count.
"Answer him, Seltzberg," the maiden repeat
ed, turning to her lover, with a Hash of her black
eyes which sent a thrill to his heart.
"Aye—that I will!" was his reply, as starting
to his feet he confronted tho messenger. " Rase
million of a baser master, tell the caitiff-emperor
who sent you hither, to go back in disgrace to
his city, while we yet leave him the strength
wherewith to depart. Tell him this, and say to
him that while a stone of our castle remains
standing, while an arm can be raised within it
in her defence, Leola PetrofF shall be preserved
from the disgrace of his touch ! And more—tell
him that if he shall insult us with a like propo
sal, we will surely hurl his messenger from our
battlements!"
The cowering herald shrank away; and his
report of the answer he had received aroused the
emperor to new exertions. Again and again he
hurled his whole strength against the walls; and
as often he WM borne back by the indomitable
defenders, until at length, resting Upon his arm*,
he dispatched. another embassy to the castle.—
Count Petroff heard its terms with undisguised
astonishment, his enemy now - proposed a final
cessation of arms, a reconciliation of all subsist
ing feuds, and avowed himself •-. willing to restore
the exiled count to all the dignities and honors
Which ho had formerly held at court. The pro
position concluded with an invitation of himself
and his commandant to the besieging camp, that
they might arrange with him a certain founda
tion for peace.
There was much in this strange concession
that could not be otherwise than pleasing to the
