UNCLE NED'S TALE.
195
We snatched a hasty breakfast,—we were old campaigners then:
That morn, of all our splendid corps, we'd scarce one hundred men;
But they were soldiers, tried and true, who'd rather die than yield:
The rest were scattered far and wide o'er many a hard-fought field.
Our trumpet now rang sharply out, and at a swinging pace
"We left the bivouac behind; and soon the eye could trace
The columns moving o'er the plain. Oh! 'twas a stirring sight
To see two mighty armies there preparing for the fight:
To watch the heavy masses, as, with practised, steady wheel.
They opened out in slender lines of brightly flashing steel.
Our place was on the farther flank, behind some rising ground,
