The echoes of her mountains, Reclaimed her as their own! Nothing she heard around her, That said, "Go forth, save Bregenz, With trembling haste and breathless, With noiseless step she sped; Horses and weary cattle Were standing in the shed; She loosed the strong white charger, That fed from out her hand, She mounted, and she turned his head Towards her native land. Out-out into the darkness Faster, and still more fast; The smooth grass flies behind her, The chestnut wood is past; She looks up; clouds are heavy: Scarcely the wind beside them, "Faster!" she cries, "O faster!" "O God," she cries, "help Bregenz, Shall not the roaring waters To watch the flowing darkness, One pause-he staggers forward, L She strives to pierce the blackness, And looser throws the rein ; Her steed must breast the waters That dash above his mane. How gallantly, how nobly, He struggles through the foam, And see in the far distance, Shine out the lights of home! Up the steep banks he bears her, And out come serf and soldier Bregenz is saved! Ere daylight Her battlements are manned; Defiance greets the army That marches on the land. And if to deeds heroic Should endless fame be paid, Bregenz does well to honour The noble Tyrol maid. Three hundred years are vanished, An old stone gateway rises, To do her honour still. And there, when Bregenz women And when, to guard old Bregenz, 66 Nine," "ten," When midnight pauses in the skies, He calls the maiden's name! A FAREWELL. AREWELL, oh Dream of mine! I dare not stay; The hour is come, and time Will not delay: Pleasant and dear to me Wilt thou remain, No future hour Brings thee again. She stands, the Future dim, And draws me on; And shows me dearer joys But thou art gone! Treasures and Hopes more fair, Bears she for me, And yet I linger, O dream, with thee! |