*

 NOTES AND TESTIMONIES. 61

And to thy hapless children gave
One choice, pollution, or the grave I
Where then was he whose fiery zeal
Had taught the trampled heart to feel,
Until Despair itself grew strong,
And Vengeance fed its torch from wrong ?
Now, when the thunderbolt is speeding;
Now, when oppression's heart is bleeding;
Now,- when the latent curse of Time
 Is raining down in fire and blood, -
That curse, which, through long years of crime,
 Has gathered, drop by drop, its flood,-
Why strikes he not, the foremost one,
Where murder's sternest deeds are done ?


le stood the aged palms beneath,
 That shadowed o'er his humble door,
Listening, with half-suspended breath,
To the wild sounds of fear and death, -
 Toussaint L'Ouverture I
What marvel that his heart beat high!
SThe blow for freedom had been given;
And blood had answered to the cry
 That earth sent up to Heaven I
What marvel that a fierce delight
Smiled grimly o'er his brow of night,
As groan and shout and bursting flame
Told where the midnight tempest came,
With blood and fire along its van,
And death behind !- he was a man I

Yes, dark-souled chieftain I -if the light
 Of mild Religion's heavenly ray
Unveiled not to thy mental sight
 The lowlier and the purer way,