With pallid lips and curdled blood,

Each trembling cries, "The flood! the flood!"

[Pg 44]

[Pg 44]

THE AVENGER OF BLOOD.

There were two sons of Ashur at work in the field,

And one to the other his passion revealed—

As the white barley bowed to the stroke of his scythe,

He burst out in accents exultingly blithe—

"I have wooed a young maid!—I have wooed and I've won,

On a lovelier face never glanced yon bright sun;

To the tall stately cedar my love I'll compare,

With her eyes' shaded glory, her long raven hair,

And her bosom as white as the snow when it gleams

On Lebanon's heights, ere washed down by the streams.

[Pg 45]

She has ravished and filled my rapt soul with delight;

She's more dear to my heart than yon heavens to my sight."—

"And who is the chosen?" his comrade replied,

Whilst the deepest of crimson his swarthy cheek dyed,

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