PAUL REVERE’S RIDE. 215

 

“SO THROUGH THE NIGHT RODE PAUL REVERE}

AND SO THROUGH THE NIGHT WENT HIS CRY OF ALARM
TO EVERY MIDDLESEX VILLAGE AND FARM—

A CRY OF DEFIANCE, AND NOT OF FEAR.”

‘You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British regulars fired and fled —

How the farmers gave them ball for ball,

From behind each fence and farmyard-wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,

Then crossing the fields to emerge again

Under the trees at the turn of the road, In the hour of darkness, and peril, and need,
And only pausing to fire and load. The people will waken and listen to hear
Bo through the night rode Paul Revere; The hurrying hoof-beat of that steed,
And so through the night went his cry of alarm And the midnight-message of Paul Revere.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW,

To every Middlesex village and farm —

A cry of defiance, and not of fear —

A voice in the darkness, g knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,

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