Tales of the Chesapeake by George Alfred Townsend
page 147 of 335 (43%)
page 147 of 335 (43%)
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Where steeds of wings thy soul convey,
With pride of eagles circling o'er thee: Thou seest I adore thee! "Bound to thy starry home and her Who brought me thee and left earth hollow! An honored grave thy bones inter, And painting shall thy fame confer, Ere in thy shining track I follow, Thou courser of Apollo!" NOTE TO HERMAN OF BOHEMIA MANOR.[1] The singular incident of this poem was published in 1862, in Rev. John Lednum's "Personal Rise of Methodism," and in the following words: "It is said that the Dutch had him (Herman) a prisoner of war, at one time, under sentence of death, in New York. A short time before he was to be executed, he feigned himself to be deranged in mind, and requested that his horse should be brought to him in the prison. The horse was brought, finely caparisoned. Herman mounted him, and seemed to be performing military exercises, when, on the first opportunity, he bolted through one of the large windows, that was some fifteen feet above ground, leaped down, swam the North River, ran his horse through Jersey, and alighted on the bank of the Delaware, opposite Newcastle, and thus made his escape from death and the Dutch. This daring feat, tradition says, he had transferred to canvas--himself represented as standing by the side of his charger, from whose nostrils the blood was flowing."--Page 277. |
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