The Wildfire Club - The Emma Hardinge Britten Archive

172 THE JJlPBOYTI.8ATOBE,
foremost in unselfish, daring enterprises; and notwithstanding
the scanty field for honor and renown which an intestine
struggle against oppression afforded, speedy promotion
and high laudation heralded ·his name from place to place
as one of freedom's champions.
It is Dot our purpose to touch on any of the political conditions
of the time. We are simply following the fortunes
of an individual, not narrating particulars of a party, cause,
or nation. We know· such a one as our improvvisatore
took part, fought, bled, and suffered, in many of the bitter
struggles in which an oppressed people armed for defence
against oppression, or strove to break a chain too heavy for
human sufferance. The man, and not the cause, ia ours at
present. They said his comrades. loved him, and despite
the promotion which his gallantry so rapidly insured, none
envied or grudged the kind young man his honors - hon-
. ors borne so meekly and gained so well, that love, not
rivalry, seemed only possible with him. There was, besides
his tender sympathy for suffering and friends, another quality
that endeared him to his comrades; - this was his
sweet, wild voice, and readiness to sing his wondrous
strains, so full of soothing power. No hearts are so susceptible
to music as those in whom the presence of danger
kindles up constant excitement. Thus the sailor, soldier,
captive, and mourner hang on the tones of music as an echo
to the feverish throbs of their own excited heuts. At
night, wben they sat by the watcb-fires, or laid them down
beside the balf-dug trenches which each felt might be bis
grave to-morrow, the minstrel soldier sang to them lays
coined in the burning realms of inspiration. And never
did trumpet's crash or clarion's shriek, sbrill pibroch or
"spirit stirring drum," wake to such martial fire, such
warlike heat, or Boothe the soul with half sucb tender calm,