How, upon bloody Quatre-Bras.

Brave Cameron heard the wild hurrab
Of conquest as he fell.

'Lone on the outskirts of the host,
The weary sentinel held post,

And heard, through darkness far aloof
The frequent clang of courser's hoof,
Where held the cloak'd patrol their course,

And spurr'd 'gainst storm the swerving horse;
But there are sounds in Allan's ear,
Patrol nor sentinel may hear,

And sights before his eye aghast
Invisible to them have pass'd,

When down the destin'd plain,
"Twixt Britain and the bands of France,
Wild as marsh-borne meteors glance,
Strange phantoms wheel'd a revel dance,
And doom'd the future slain.-

Such forms were seen, such sounds were heard
When Scotland's James his march prepared
For Flodden's fatal plain;

An indistinct and phantom band,

They wheel'd their ring-dance hand in hand,
With gestures wild and dread;

The seer, who watch'd them ride the storm,
Saw through their faint and shadowy form
The lightning's flash more red;
And still their ghastly roundelay
Was of the coming battle-fray,

And of the destined dead.

SONG.

Wheel the wild dance while lightnings glance,
And thunders rattle loud, and call the brave
To bloody grave, to sleep without a shroud.

Our airy feet so light and fleet,

They do not bend the rye that sinks its head when whirlwinds rave,

And swells again in eddying wave, as each wild gust blows by;

But still the corn, at dawn of morn,

Our fatal steps that bore, at eve lies waste,

A trampled paste of blackening mud and gore.

Wheel the wild dance! brave sons of France,
For you our ring makes room; make space full wide
For martial pride, for banner, spear, and plume.
Approach, draw near, proud cuirassier!

Room for the men of steel! through crest and plate The broadsword's weight, both head and heart shall feel.

Sons of the spear! you feel us near

In many a ghastly dream; with fancy's eye
Our forms you spy, and hear our fatal scream.
With clearer sight ere falls the night,

Just when to weal or woe your disembodied souls

take flight

On trembling wing-each startled sprite our choir of death shall know.

Burst, ye clouds, in tempest showers, redder rain shall soon be ours

See the east grows wan-yield we place to sterner

game,

Ere deadlier bolts and direr flame shall the welkin's thunders shame;

Elemental rage is tame to the wrath of man.
Wheel the wild dance while lightnings glance,
And thunders rattle loud, and call the brave
To bloody grave, to sleep without a shroud.

At morn, gray Allan's mates with awe
Heard of the vision'd sights he saw,
The legend heard him say:

But the seer's gifted eye was dim,
Deafen'd his ear, and stark his limb,
Ere closed that bloody day-

He sleeps far from his highland heath,-
But often of the Dance of Death

His comrades tell the tale,

On picquet-post, when ebbs the night,
And waning watch-fires grow less bright,
And dawn is glimmering pale.

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

BENEFITS OF THE CONSTITUTION.

THE benefits of the Constitution are not exclusive.

THE

What has it left undone, which any government could do, for the whole country? In what condition has it placed us? Where do we now stand? Are we

elevated, or degraded, by its operation? What is our condition, under its influence, at the very moment when some talk of arresting its power and breaking its unity? Do we not feel ourselves on an eminence? Do we not challenge the respect of the whole world? What has placed us thus high? What has given us this just pride? What else is it, but the unrestrained and free operation of that same Federal Constitution, which it has been proposed now to hamper and manacle and nullify? Who is there among us, that, should he find himself on any spot of the earth where human beings exist, and where the existence of other nations is known, would not be proud to say, I am an American? I am a countryman of Washington? I am a citizen of that Republic, which, although it has suddenly sprung up, yet there are none on the globe who have ears to hear, and have not heard of it; who have eyes to see, and have not read of it; who know any. thing, and yet do not know of its existence and its glory? And, gentlemen, let me now reverse the picture. Let me ask, who is there among us, if he were to be found to-morrow in one of the civilized countries of Europe, and were there to learn that this goodly form of government had been overthrown-that the United States were no longer united-that a deathblow had been struck upon their bond of unionthat they themselves had destroyed their chief good and their chief honor-who is there, whose heart would not sink within him? Who is there, who would not cover his face for very shame?

At this very moment, gentlemen, our country is a general refuge for the distressed and the persecuted of

other nations. Whoever is in affliction from political occurrences in his own country looks here for shelter. Whether he be a republican, flying from the oppression of thrones-or whether he be monarch or monarchist, flying from thrones that crumble and fall under or around him he feels equal assurance that if he get foothold on our soil, his person is safe, and his rights will be respected.

And who will venture to say that in any government now existing in the world, there is greater security for persons or property than in that of the United States? We have tried these popular institutions in times of great excitement and commotion; and they have stood substantially firm and steady, while the fountains of the great deep have been elsewhere broken up; while thrones, resting on ages of prescription, have tottered and fallen; and while in other countries the earthquake of unrestrained popular commotion has swallowed up all law and all liberty and all right, together. Our government has been tried in peace, and it has been tried in war, and has proved itself fit for both. It has been assailed from without, and it has successfully resisted the shock; it has been disturbed within, and it has effectually quieted the disturbance. It can stand trial-it can stand assault-it can stand adversityit can stand everything but the marring of its own beauty and the weakening of its own strength. It can stand everything but the effects of our own rashness and our own folly. It can stand everything but disorganization, disunion, and nullification. DANIEL WEBSTER.