CALAIS.
Edward was fired with wrath.
"Bring forth," he said,
"The hostages, and let their death instruct
This contumacious city."
Forth they came,
The rope about their necks, those patriot men,
Who nobly chose an ignominious doom
To save their country's blood. Famine and toil
And the long siege had worn them to the bone;
Yet from their eye spoke that heroic soul
Which scorns the body's ill. Father and son
Stood side by side, and youthful forms were there,
By kindred linked, for whom the sky of life.
Was bright with love. Yet no repining sigh
Darkened their hour of fate. Well had they taxed
The midnight thought, and nerved the wearied arm,
While months and seasons thinned their wasting ranks.
The harvest failed, the joy of vintage ceased:—
Vine-dresser and grape-gatherer manned the walls,
And when they sank with hunger, others came,
