Let us go while Nature’s holy strain, O’er the joyous earth is pealing; My pulse has caught its youth again, And throbs with the rural feeling. Each bird, and brook, and dripping bud, Invites with a gentle warning; Then let us away to the field and wood, And drink the health of the morning.
Weary of earth, and tossed Amid the storms which ever wreck my way, Thou who canst save the wretched and the lost, O hear me pray.
Weary of time, which brings Little of comfort to my bosom now, Feeble and worn, to Thee my bosom clings, To Thee I bow.
Deep is the inward strife, Thou knowest consumes my sick and weary soul, Deep is that grief still agitates my life, Beyond control.
Here joy is o’er, Earth cannot soothe, for life can nothing give, Take me, then, Father, to that mighty shore, For Thee I’ll live.
Watch me where’er I go, Guide my faint footsteps through this valley drear; Father, I weep with more than mortal wo, But yet can bear.
The ensuing evening was cold, dark, and stormy. The commandant of Fort Constitution was faithful to his appointment. He was received at the door of Captain Wilton’s cottage by Arabella, and conducted silently to the drawing-room. A single light faintly illuminated the interior, and scarcely served to reveal the figure of an individual, plainly dressed, and enveloped in an overcoat, seated beside a table in the centre of the apartment. He rose on the entrance of Gansevoort, and advancing hastily to meet him, with extended hand, and a cordial manner, said, “I rejoice to meet you, Mr. Gansevoort, or rather Sir Francis, if you will permit me thus, in anticipation, to address you.”
The commandant drew back with evident emotion, and declining the proffered hand of the other, replied; “If I mistake not, I have the honor of addressing Sir Philip Bender. We will waive courtesies for the present, until we more fully understand the relation in which we stand to each other.”
“We meet no longer as enemies, Mr. Gansevoort, but as fellow-subjects of the same most gracious sovereign.”
“You and I are, indeed, subjects of one sovereign, Sir Philip, but it is that Sovereign whose empire is the universe.”
“Very true,” replied the other. “My remark, perhaps, was not properly applicable until our business is accomplished.”