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Show Before the bastions vast H And infinite redoubts of the Karoo. f "Pass, friend!" who living were so stout a foe, H Unquelled, unvon. Not uncommiserate H The British sentry at Van Riebeck's gate jH Salutes you, and as once three years ago H The crowd moves hushed and slowt H And silence holds the' city desolate. H The last long trek begins. Now something thrills H Our English hearts, that, unconfossad -and dim, H Drew Dutch hearts north, that April day, with H him H Whose grave is hewn in the eternal hills. H The war of these two wills H Was as the warring of the Anakim. H What might have been, had these two been at one? H Or had the wise old peasant, wiser yet, H Taught strength to mate with freedom and beget The true republic, nor, till sands at run, H Gripped close as Bible and gun M The keys of power, like some fond amulet. M He called to God for storm; and on his head H Alas! not his alone the thunders fell. lM But not by his own text, or ill could spell, M Nor in our shallow scales shall lib bo weighed, j Whose dust, lapped 'round with lead, H To shrill debate lies inaccessible. j Bred up to board the lion, youth and man He towered the great chief of a little folk, M Till, once, the scarred old hunter missed his H j stroke H And by the blue Mediterranean H Pined for some brackish pan, B Far south, self-exiled, till the tired heart broke. IH Bear homo your dead, sad burghers; nor recoil M From English wreaths; for our posterity fl Shall praise his stubborn worth, co-heirs made M free M Of Africa, like yours, by blood and toil, fl And proud that British soil, !H Which bore, received him back in obsequy. H F. EDMUND GARRETT. jfl |