THE FOUNTAIN-A NIGHT RHAPSODY. BY G. G. FOSTER. METHINKS the novelty of printing metre, In this rhyme hating prose emitting age, Should win my muse a welcome. Therefore greet her, Oh gentle Public! "at this early stage Of the proceedings." gently. Sweet and sweeter, Full well I know the poet's dreams no more Of thronging shadows whispering, while unfolds Yet in some green and sunny nook each heart Of the immortal beauty, far apart From the rude janglings of the ruder day, And Hope had not grown weary. So! a smile, Thy lip, sweet Public! and thy mouth the while And wasted Care may feed on, and beguile Oh frolic Fountain! dropping laughter near, As thou dost wave thy garments- kiss me now With healthful strength, again to re-endow My jaded thought with her forgotten lore, 'Tis night. The fair moon stealing to her bower 'Tis night. The grim ghosts of the daylight cower I hear thee, Fountain! whispering low and deep. What say'st thou, Sprite? For thou canst tell me all Of dust and darkness we call life, and roll We name the Universe, to its bright goal'Mid stars of light a star of light-a ray Homeward returning, 'wildered on its way. Hark! whispers the White Spirit of the glades, Their thrilling symphonies rehearse, unheard, Glad Fountain! how thy merry laugh doth ring Fainting upon thy bosom! From the foam Ne'er rose upon the sight than thou dost seem. The moon embraces with the stars, and tears- IT is the tyrant's death, the freeman's guard; Or where a nation rising up from sleep LAW. Which shut in wolves among the flying sheepOr where meet sages in a deep conclave O'er Right and Justice. Then when Truth approves Doth Freedom smile and dig the Tyrant's grave, While Heaven in man with gentle mercy moves, And strong and weak in bonds of justice binds, Perfecting this a brotherhood of minds. H. THE UNION-JACK. BY HARRY DANFORTH, AUTHOR OF "CRUISING IN THE LAST WAR." parted in terror-her eyes stared fearfully at some object in the distance; and her finger, which pointed in the direction of her look, quivered like an aspen. Instinctively I followed her eye. The cause of her agitation was apparent. Far up to windward, and scarcely discernible amid the thin haze which hung in that direction, appeared a long, heavy oared boat; and, though the distance and the fog bank rendered it nearly undistinguishable, enough could be seen to make us certain that it was crowded with men and pulling directly for us. The size of the boat, its dense crew, and the reputation of the seas we were in, left no doubt as to its character. It was a pirate. It was a calm and moonless night; but the stars | Her face was paler than that of death-her lips were were out on high, shining with a brilliancy only seen in the tropics. The brig lay almost motionless, her sails hanging loosely from the yards, and her bow slowly lifting with the almost imperceptible beave of the long, regular swell. There was not a sound to disturb the silence, except the wash of an occasional ripple against her side, or the impatient whistle of a seaman. On every side the ocean stretched away until lost in the dim obscurity of the horizon; and the blue concave was unbroken by clouds, except toward the west, where a bank of vapor hung on the seaboard, like a thin veil of gauze; but a spicy odor impregnating the air told the practiced seaman that what seemed only a cloud was in reality land. The beauty and stillness of the scene were beyond description, and even the rudest of the crew, as they leaned idly over the brig's side, seemed to feel the dreamy influence of the hour. There were but three passengers beside myself, a father and his daughters, two of the most beautiful girls I ever saw. One had dark eyes and hair, with a most queenly presence. She was the elder sister; but the other was my favorite. Rarely does nature gift a human being with such transcendant loveliness as that enjoyed by Ellen Benson. Her eyes were of a deep blue, humid, melting and heavenly. Her hair was of that rare golden color of which the poets speak, and each wavy tress glistened with every motion in the sun. Her voice was like running water, clear, silvery and liquid, or like a flute at night heard across a quiet lake. Her form was so light and aerial that it seemed to float along, as if it were that of a goddess, and the movements of her limbs kept time like sisters dancing. Though I had known her scarcely a week, she had already twined herself around my heart, for there was an artless frankness and reliance about her which might have won on one far less imaginative and susceptible than myself. The day had been excessively sultry, so that when night came on and the air grew cooler, we gathered on the quarter-deck with reviving spirits, and spent a gay and happy evening. Long will those few hours remain stamped on my memory, for, in the course of an eventful life, I have spent few so pleasantly. Ellen had been singing to us, and the soft notes of her voice yet lingered in our thoughts, producing that holy silence which always follows a plaintive song well sung, when suddenly a cry broke from the lips of the performer. It was a cry of alarm, so startling and wild that I turned hastily toward her. In an instant the alarm became general. A dozen eyes, at the same moment, discerned the outlaws. The sisters had heard so much of pirates that they knew immediately the character of the boat. The elder uttered a faint shriek and clung closer to her father's arm; while Ellen, after gazing in horror a moment longer on the barge, turned shudderingly away and buried her face in her parent's bosom. Never shall I forget the look of agony that shot over the sire's countenance. A dark frown gathered on the skipper's face, but to this speedily succeeded an expression of deep anxiety. He looked eagerly around the horizon, then up to the sails, then around the horizon again, and called for a lighted candle. By this time every eye was fixed on him. The crew gathered within a short distance of the quarter-deck, anxiously awaiting his orders; while the father and his daughters stood forming a group by themselves, the parent with one arm wound around either child, each of whom convulsively clung to him, while all gazed wistfully into the skipper's face, as if on his looks hung life or death. He was now calm and collected. He held the candle aloft, and though, for some minutes, it streamed perpendicularly upward, at last it slightly inclined and finally flared almost horizontally outward from the wick. Simultaneously I felt on my cheek a nearly imperceptible puff of air. But our sanguine feelings were of short duration. Again the candle burned up steadily, and as minute after minute passed, during which, though we watched the light anxiously, no perceptible effect was produced on it, our hearts sunk within us. There is no feeling so agonizing as suspense. As I watched the candle, my anxiety gradually became so intense that I could hear the beating of my heart increasing nervously in rapidity and strength until it smote on my ear like the strokes of a force pump. Soon, too, other sounds reached me—they were those of the quick rollicking of oars at a distance. I started, | and, seizing a night-glass, gazed at the approaching barge, determined to know the worst at once. Good God! I counted no less than thirty ruffianly negroes. Our own force, all told, did not amount to ten. Sick at soul, I shut the glass and turned to the skipper. We exchanged a look of mutual intelligence, and then again he fixed his eye on the candle. I fancied that it flared slightly. Wetting my hand I held it up and felt, yes! I felt the water evaporating on the palm. I turned to the light. It now bent steadily over. Half a minute passed, during which my heart beat faster and faster with anxiety, and I trembled nervously lest the flame should again resume the perpendicular, but it gradually inclined nearer to the horizon, and finally streamed out nearly at right angles to the wick, in which position it continued a moment, when it suddenly went out. At the same instant I heard a light murmur in the rigging, while a steady though light breeze poured gently by my cheek. "Thank Heaven! here it comes at last," said the skipper in a cheering tone: then, lifting his voice, he cried with startling energy, "All hands make saillay aloft-out to'gallant sails and royals. Away there cheerily my lads. It is for life or death." The men sprung to their duty; the sails were quickly distended, and the glad sound of the water rippling under our bows soon met our ears, telling us that we were in motion. With a sudden feeling of exhilaration I turned astern, and it seemed as if we had already increased our distance from the foe. Unconsciously I uttered an exclamation of joy. At this instant I heard a deep respiration at my side. The sound proceeded from Ellen, who, attracted by my words, had read hope in my face, and thus given utterance to her relief. "Do you think we shall escape?" she said eagerly. "I hope so-indeed I am nearly sure we shall," I added quickly, observing the sudden expression of agony on her face at my first doubtful words, “if the wind continues to freshen we shall in an hour run them out of sight." She clasped her hands and turned her eyes to heaven with a look of mingled hope and gratitude indescribable. That look gave me courage to face a dozen foes. I mentally resolved to lay down my life sooner than suffer her to fall into the hands of the pirates. The next fifteen minutes were passed in a state of the most agonizing suspense. At first, she fancied that the pirates were dropping astern, and a general feeling of relief passed through the ship, perceptible in the altered and gayer demeanor of the men, but particularly of the passengers. But, when I had watched the barge for several minutes, my heart misgave me, and at most I could only hope that the bucaneers did not gain on us. Anxious to conceal my fears from the sisters-for they studied my face continually, as if it were an index to our peril-I assumed a cheerfulness I did not feel, and endeavored to divert their minds from the contemplation of their dangerous situation. But my efforts were in vain. In spite of my attempts to appear composed, there was an increasing nervousness about me which reawakened the fears of the sisters, and when Ellen caught a stolen glance, which I directed anxiously from the horizon to our sails, she laid her hand on my arm, and said, "Do not deceive us. They-the-" she could not utter the word, and said, abruptly, “they are gaining on us!" She looked up into my face so pleadingly that, for my life, I could not tell her a falsehood. Yet I hesitated to acknowledge the truth. My silence convinced her that her suspicion had not been false. She looked up to heaven again mutely, clasping her hands; but this time her expression was one of agony and supplication. How my heart bled for her! I strove to encourage her with hope, and, for the few succeeding minutes, there seemed a faint chance of yet escaping from the pirates. The wind coming fitfully and in puffs, forged us ahead one moment, and then, almost dying out, left us comparatively motionless. Sometimes we would gain half a cable's length on our pursuers, but, just as the sisters' eyes began to sparkle with hope, the breeze would decline, and the dark forms on board the barge again perceptibly grow larger. But, during the whole time, we could hear the quick rollicking of their oars, the sounds becoming fainter as the boat dropped astern, but increasing as the pirates gained on us. These fluctuations from hope to despair grew momently more frequent and terrible. Never before in real life had I experienced so fully the horrors of suspense. I remember once, when a boy, dreaming that an enemy pursued me with a drawn sword, and never shall I forget my emotions as I looked back and beheld him, now at some paces behind, and now within a step or two of me. But that had been only a feverish dream—now I felt the horrible reality. Yet, it was not for myself that I cared. Had those lovely sisters been safe at home, I could have met these ruffians, as I had often, in earlier life, met other enemies at as great odds. At last the breeze died out, or only blew so lightly that it afforded us no hope. For the first time since they had come in sight, the pirates now uttered a wild yell, or rather a howl like that of famished wolves at sight of their prey, and, springing to their oars with increased energy, sent their boat along at a fearful pace, rolling the foam in cataracts under her bows. Ellen gave vent to a stifled shriek, and buried her face on her father's bosom. The other sister's lips parted in mortal terror, and her eyes were fixed on the barge, as if fascinated by some strange spell. Words cannot describe the agony expressed in the parent's look, or in the wild embrace with which he drew his children to his bosom. The skipper glanced at the now rapidly approaching boat, and, coming close to me, said, in a hoarse voice, | "In ten minutes all will be over. Good God!" and he looked earnestly toward the sisters, " to think of those lovely girls in the hands of brutal violators." "It shall never be," I said. "Arm the men, and let us make a desperate defence. We may beat | before they reach us, and every life will increase them off." our chances. We have four muskets on board. I think you are a good shot?" "Ay!" said my friend. "I will take care of one, if you will hit the other fair. Let us take the two leading oarsmen. What we do had best be done at a distance, for, the instant they touch us, we shall He shook his head mournfully; and I knew when he surrendered hope that the case was indeed desperate. "We will arm, certainly, and do our best." Again he glanced at the sisters, and something seemed on his mind. After a pause of a second, he said, "But, if we fail, shall we suffer these angels to have them pouring in, on our low decks, like a fall into the hands of the ruffians?" "Better death than dishonor," I responded, understanding his meaning. No other word was said, but we pressed each other's hands convulsively. Then he turned away and ordered the arm chest to be opened. His whole demeanor was changed. His voice was calm and energetic, his countenance glowed with high resolution, his form was erect, and his deportment calculated to inspire the crew, as far as the confidence of a leader can inspire his followers, in so desperate a situation as ours. Weapons were soon distributed to the men, and a short address made by the skipper. He did not pretend to conceal our danger; he told them they had no alternative but to conquer or die. No allusion was made to the females, but a single glance of his eye toward them was understood, and each man grasped his cutlass tighter as he comprehended the silent appeal. When the voice of the skipper ceased, there was a hush for a second. The first sound that broke the quiet was the rollicking of the pirates' oars, striking with fearful distinctness on our ears, and telling, by its increased loudness, how the foe had gained on us during the harangue. The measured sound was like the ticking of the clock that counts the criminal's last hour. cross wave over the knight heads. Are you ready?" "Ready!" was my response. There was a deathlike pause for a single breath, when we fired. I had taken deliberate aim, and, simultaneously with the flash of my piece, I saw the bow oarsman fall over. Quick as thought, the skipper followed my example and pulled trigger. The second ruffian leaped up, with a yell, and tumbled across the seat. Both oars caught in the water, and were snapped off at the thwart. For an instant, the negroes seemed paralysed, and then a cry of savage ferocity burst from them, while the oars, which had suddenly stopped, were again seen flashing in the water, and with increased velocity. The skipper had turned to me, with an exulting smile, but had not spoken, as he saw the two men fall, and now, seizing his second piece, he said, sternly, Again!" We fired so nearly at the same instant, that there was but one crack of our pieces, but our success was not so decided as before. One of the men we aimed at appeared wholly to have escaped, but the other, from a quick start and cry, we judged to be wounded. Both oarsmen kept their places at the oars, and our failure was received by the pirates with a sharp yell of exultation. So near had the ruffians now approached that we could make out the Spanish tongue as that in which they conversed, while the surging of the water under the bows of their barge was plainly distinguishable to the ear. "Would Heaven we had a carronade here!" I exclaimed. "We might rake them with grape, and, perhaps, sink their boat." "Ay!" answered the skipper. "But we must do our best with what we have. The muskets are ready again, and now for a last shot." The boat was now within pistol shot, for a delay had occurred while our muskets were being reloaded. We saw that our all depended on this single discharge. I have said that, when the pirates first appeared, they were scarcely distinguishable, on account of the distance and the fog-bank from which they emerged. This bank of vapor had, at that time, seemed scarcely more dense than a thin veil of gauze, or the semi-transparent clouds which the spectator on a mountain side sees streaming upward from a river at sunrise. Gradually, however, this pile of vapor had been creeping down toward us, lying flat on the water like a heap of snowy fleeces, and advancing with an almost imperceptible, but not less certain motion, until, at last, the fog enveloped us on every hand, growing momently denser and more opaque, and moving in a rapid whirl, like smoke when a hand is turned rapidly in it. By this time, the mist had grown so thick that, up to the west, it shut out the horizon from sight, veiling sea and sky alike in a thick, impenetrable shroud, though, as the fog extended only for a few degrees above the sea- I comprehended at once the reasoning of the skipboard, the stars were still visible higher up toward per. If the pirates could be deprived of their head, the zenith. Nearer us the vapor was less dense. they would board us, perhaps, in a state of irresoluObjects were still visible for some distance across tion, consequent on the want of an acknowledged the water, and, though the mist had enveloped the leader to whom to look. The same idea had already pirates, they were only rendered shadowy, and not occurred to me, and I had, after scanning the desconcealed, by its folds. Besides, they were advanc-peradoes, concluded also that the two persons named ing toward us at a speed that almost rivaled the by the skipper were the most prominent of our foes. velocity of the vapor. "I think I can pick off one of those ruffians," said I to the skipper. "We may disable three or four | "Take off that colossal fellow with the red sash," hoarsely whispered the skipper, "I will aim at the helmsman. One of the two must be the leader." I nodded an assent. The seconds that elapsed were, to me, the most intensely absorbing that I ever spent. I felt the mighty stake which hung on the accuracy of my aim. Some men grow nervous under such circumstances; but my eye was never keener, nor my hand more firm than at that moment. One might have counted three while I paused; then my piece blazed, and my man sprung forward and fell, struggling convulsively. The skipper fired simultaneously, and the helmsman tumbled headlong forward, falling on the man I had shot. Instantaneously there was a howl of lamentation from the negroes; the rowers stopped, several rushed aft, and all was confusion. The boat shot forward until almost abreast of us, and then lay motionless on the water. But the hesitation of the pirates was of short duration. We had scarcely begun to congratulate ourselves on our success, when the cries of grief on the part of the negroes became exchanged for shouts of rage, and, repairing again to their oars, the pirates rapidly brought the head of the boat around, and dashed up toward us. Their leader had evidently fallen, but this only inflamed them with the desire for revenge. We had barely time to note the horrible expression of their faces, glaring with revenge and the most savage passions; we had barely time to level the remaining muskets hastily at them and fire, though with what effect the confusion would scarcely allow us to perceive, when the bow of the barge grated against our sides, and immediately a boathook was fixed into the low bulwarks. One of the crew, with a blow of an axe, cut the implement in two, but, as he did so, a huge negro, whom we had noticed pointing at us, with violent gestures, after his leader's fall, started up, and, discharging a pistol, sprung, like a tiger, on deck, where the desperado stood, a brawny and gigantic opponent, keeping a charmed circle around him with his cutlass. Instantaneously, like a swarm of bees, the bucaneers clustered on the side of the vessel, and, despite our desperate resistance, eventually gained a footing, crowding around their leader, with ferocious and brutal looks, brandishing their weapons, and seeming to thirst for blood, yet to be afraid to move until he began the onset. We had, after we found our efforts unavailing to prevent the ruffians from boarding, retreated to the quarter-deck, where we prepared to make our stand. To reach us, the assailants would have to pass the narrow passages on each side of the companion way, and these had been partially blocked up, with such efficiency as time would admit, by the water-casks that usually stood on the quarter-deck. Our whole force was drawn up within this little fortification. and, aware of their fate, but resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. On one side was fiendish exultation, on the other manly despair. "Have at them!" shouted the ruffian in Spanish, after this breathless pause had continued for nearly a minute, "revenge! revenge!" As he spoke, he waved his cutlass and turned to his men, who, answering with a shout or rather a yell, dashed forward. "Stand fast, my hearts," said the skipper, confronting the foe at the pass on the right of the companion way, while I took the opposite pass on the left, "you strike for life or death." Of the succeeding minutes I have no distinct recollection. There was a wild clashing of cutlasses, mingled with the reports of pistols and the shouts of angry combatants, while occasionally a shrill cry of agony, from some one desperately wounded, rose over the uproar. Our stock of fire-arms was scanty, so that we had little with which to oppose the foe except cutlasses, while most of the desperadoes were armed with pistols. But our men were nerved with the energy of despair, and our defences, slight as they were, considerably retarded the approach of the foe. In vain the piratical leader, urging on his ruffians by his example, struggled to penetrate into our little circle; the skipper, bravely confronting him and sustained by four sturdy old men-of-war's men, hurled him back on his followers as often as he endeavored to clamber over our defences. So fierce was the contest in this quarter that the cutlasses, crossing each other in strife, formed a bridge over the two leaders, while the blades flashed so rapidly and incessantly as to conceal the real state of the conflict. The few hasty glances which I was able to cast toward my comrades revealed nothing except a wild confusion, from which I could extract only the fact that the skipper, though wounded, desperately maintained his ground. And my attention was soon wholly occu pied by my own immediate opponents, for a party of the ruffians, seeing the determined opposition made to their leader, made a diversion in his favor, and the fight on my side of the companion way grew as fierce as that maintained by the two leaders. Standing at the opening between the water casks, and sustained on either side by two of the crew, we beat down successively every man who attempted to pass our defences. In this desperate struggle we were all speedily wounded, but I still continued cheering my men, for the thought of our innocent companions nerved me to the utmost. Again and again our defences were nearly surmounted; again and again, with gigantic efforts, we hurled back the assailants. Three several times was I wounded, one of my little The piratical leader, whose sudden authority appeared to result from that power which great strength and daring give a man in moments of peril, saw our hasty preparations, and the pause we have re-party was shot dead, and all of us were streaming corded was spent in scanning our position. Thus both parties remained, for a few seconds, inactive, eyeing each other, however, keenly, as men are apt to do when about to engage in mortal conflict. On the part of the assailants, this scrutiny was carried on with feelings akin to those with which a tiger gloats over the prey he knows cannot escape him; our emotions were those of men doomed to death, with blood, yet still we maintained the unequal combat. For the rest of the fight all was confusion. Shouts and oaths, the rattle of blades, the crack of pistols, the dull, heavy sound of men falling to the deck; the groans of the wounded and the despairing shrieks of the dying met the ear, mingled in a wild uproar, like the noises in a fevered dream. During this mêlée I was conscious only that the gray-haired |