SAN JACINTO.
I.
"'Come to the Bower,'[1] they sang,
Immortal spirits, crowned with flame,
On yonder heights of radiant bloom.
From freedom's deathless fields they came.
From mountain pass and prison gloom;
Dyed with the blood of Marathon,
Drenched with Salamis' bitter sea.
From where the sun of Leuctra shone,
And from thy rocks, Thermopylae.
" ' Come to the Bower,' they sang.
The old Paladins cased in mail.
Whose standards sparkled to the mom,
And peers and princes from the vale
Where Roland blew his mighty horn;
And Scottish chiefs from Bannockburn,
And English knights from Ascalon,
And sturdy hearts whose memories turn
Toward Bunker Hill and Lexington.
" ' Come to the Bower,' they sang,
' Come join our deathless throng and glow
Like us, while earth and heaven shall stand.
But yesterday the Alamo,
Unbroken, sent its glorious band.
And Goliad, from a reeking field,
Passed up her heroes ! Crowned with flowers,
Behold us ! Come with sword and shield.
And bask in fame's immortal bowers.'
II.
" By San Jacinto's placid stream
The warriors heard and, shining far,
They saw the splendid morning gleam
Of one imperial, changeless star;
They followed where its gleaming led:
To Hope, to Peace, to Victory, '
For, from beneath her martyr dead,
Behold, a nation rose up free!
" Lo ! now around this hallowed stone
They press, the living and the dead,
And banners on the air are blown,
And quick and stirring orders sped;
Houston and Sherman, brave Lamar,
Millard and Hockley close around,
And, lo! with steady, swinging step,
A phantom sentry makes his round.
- ↑ "Come to the Bower" is the air to the strains of which the Texan army
marched into the battle of San Jacinto, and the cries which animated them were:
" Remember Goliad ' " " Remember the Alamo! "
