VI

'Great Lazarus, which Empire dost thou crave?' Thus ran the sacred scroll :

'The Empire of the Earth, or Heaven? Save Thy wonder, nor of glory dare to rave.

Is Earth thy final goal?

Then fall upon the Turks with sword in hand,
And not an infidel shall thee withstand!

VII

'But, if the Heavenly Empire be thy choice, At Kossovo upbuild

Communion altars; and upraise thy voice

In prayer with priests and men.

And let the air be filled

Long time rejoice

With holy supplication: then at last

Into the combat rush with ardour vast.

VIII

'And thou, with thine, shalt perish there; but Heaven Shall open wide its gates.

And thou, from grosser earthly glories riven,

Shalt ne'er regret ; and thou shalt help to leaven
With grace the throng that waits

About the borders of that pearly sea

Where all the just and sanctified shall be !'

IX

Then said the prince, 'The Earth is for a day, But Heaven for evermore ;

O great Elijah, to the Virgin say

I come to dwell among the saints alway!'
Elijah upward bore

The message, and next night the prince and all
His army lay beneath funereal pall.

WAR CONTRASTS.

(Bulgaria, 1877.)

I

BULGARIAN.

A STRANGER lingered by Mahala's well,
What time rude war across Bulgarian plains
Swept wildly, and the shock of battle fell

On Russian breasts that feared nor death nor pains.
The cooling cup he took from peasant's hands,
And when his thirst was slaked, he proudly said,
'See! thou poor tiller of these pillaged lands!
I give thee gold!'

The farmer bowed his head :

Tears dimmed his eyes; upon his sun-browned face
There fell a holy and a tender calm :

He gently spurned the money from his palm,
And said, with exquisite and pious grace,
'Nor gold nor silver from thee will I take !
I serve the water for the Lord Christ's sake.'

II

RUSSIAN.

The Mussulman before his captor came :
His wounds were many; gone was every hope.
His eyes were hot with sullen hatred's flame:
His hands for absent weapons seemed to grope.
He waited death and torture, but instead
His hurts the Muscovites with gentleness

Bound up or staunched; while over their own dead
New troops rushed forward to the battle's press.
His enemy no longer sought his life,

But brought him food and water; led him where
Soft beds and skilled hands waited to repair
The ravages of long and deadly strife.
And while he muttered curses on his loss,

Above him waved the standard of the Cross.

III

TURK.

One weary night the baleful Crescent shone
On shameful massacres of wounded men.
The Turk was deaf alike to prayer and groan
Of dying Russian in the Balkan glen.
The swart stern Kurd from Asiatic hill,
The fell Circassian with his reeking blade,
The ragged bandit-all of blood their fill
Drank fiercely, while in savage pomp arrayed,
From field to field the grim commanders strode,
And ordered conflagration, and the sack
Of burning villages, or o'er the track
Of dim past murders with rejoicing rode.
The Cross of Christ each infidel defiled,
And, in his frenzy, thought Mahomet smiled.

H