IN MEMORIAM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5494, 26 June 1879, Page 6

IN MEMORIAM.

Eaglet! and do'st tliou fall and bleed, before thy radiant wings are grown, 'Ere thou could'at cUim thy father's throne By strongst will and noblest deed. Oh, boy ! "baptised in fire" ercwhile Baptised in streaming life-blood now, The pallid sinking o! thy brow Hast turned to teara a nation's smile. E'en we, in Ocean Isles afar— We mourn thec, 0 heroic dead! We sigh for all the hopes that fled With thee, Napoleonic star !— Yet diedst thou as thou should'st have died. In battle's stern, and proud array, In the victorious blazo of day. With frieuds and comrades at ihy side. Moro blest, than with his glory flewn, Vpm Helena's lonely rock, After the earthquake and the shock. The " Sun of Austenitz " went down. And meetcr for Napoleon's heir, The blood-stained shroud, the Zulu dirk. Than all the canting cares that lurk In fallen Ambition's dull despair. And thoa with thy proud flag unfurl'd, Who liest before ua calm and atill, Thou mightest lmTe climbed the topmost hill And stood, the Eagle of the World ! But happier far, in all thy charms, Uorne to tir Eternal Father's rest, Hushed on the Archangelic breast. Within the Everlasting Arms. And, mother! if we dare to name Buch loss, such fall, such grief as thine, If with thy tears wo intertwine A chaplet to thy hero'a fame, Oh, pardon—for on Aulis* shore The Grecian mother never wept, Mure tempest tossed, more all bereft, Than thou, O JEinp.esa, anguish'd aore" For thou can'st see mid blinding tears His cradle ! the adored of Franco ! Can watch the dawninir graces glance In his fair fico through growing yearsCan see him, in bis stripling pride, Adorning the imperial towers And crowning all thy life with flowers, Tall standing by his father's s de. And now, but bleeding, lifeless clay 1 Struck by a Zulu dagger down ! Thy dreams of an imperial crown But viewless shadows of decay! Oh, lay him on his lonely bier, Amid the glowing Airic wild. For him no mausoleum piled Shall hold him on this nether sphere I Bnt where the concave vault is spread, Where'er the winds iu circuit swell, There is his name imperishable ! The mausoleum of the dead. Frances Soails GEcmaa. June 25,187».