LORD AND LADY DERBY.
HE times are peaceful, and we know
No unsheathed sword, no bended bow;
No more upon the quiet night
Flashes the beacon’s sudden light,
No more the vassals in the hall
Start at the trumpet’s fiery call;
And undisturbed the ivy wreath
Hangs o'er the battlements beneath.
Years have gone by since English hand
Spilt English blood on English land.
—We see the armed warriors ride,
But only in their plumed pride,
The actual agonies of war,
Thank God, have been from us afar.
We have not seen the silvery flood
Run crimson with our kindred’s blood;
We have not seen the stranger’s tread
Profane the church where slept our dead;
Nor watched the red and kindled air,
And known our home was blazing there.
Our soldiers to a foreign soil
Kept the wild warfare’s blood and toil,
And news of some proud victory
Was all that ever crost the sea.
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