THOUSAND  FAMOUS	247
When Abraham Lincoln Died
npHGSE who mourned most deeply were the blacks. They were the
jl only ones who had blessed him heartily as their saviour in life.
They sang songs in his honour and said that their Messiah was now
in Heaven. Tad, who lived only a few years more, believed the same
thing. When he stood beside the coffin at the White House he asked,
" Is Father In heaven now ? Then I am glads for lie was not really
happy here."
Never again, since Abraham Lincoln lived and died, has an inno-
cent man worn fetters in the United States. Since lie lived, worked,
and was slain, all men to whom God has given the gift of life are
there born free.	Ernil Lud-jcig
They Come Beset by Riddling Hail
This stirring chorus comes into Thomas Hardy* s famous Epic of the Dynasts,
and deals with the Battle at Albuera in Spain, between the British and Spanish on
the one side and Napoleon"1 s forces on tite other.
npHEY come beset by riddling hail,
JL   They sway like sedges in a gale ;
They fail, and win, and win, and fail.    Albuera !
They gain the ground there, j^ard by yard,
Their brows and hair and lashes charred.
Their blackened teeth set firm and hard.
Their mad assailants rave and reel,
And face, as men who scorn to feel,
The close-lined, three-edged prongs of steel.
Till faintness follows closing-in,
When, faltering headlong down, they spin
Like leaves.    But those pay well who win Albuera*
Out of six thousand souls that sware
To hold the mount, or pass elsewhere,
But eighteen hundred muster there.
Pale colonels, captains, ranksmen lie,
Facing the earth or facing sky ;
They strove to live, they stretch to die.
Friends, foemen, mingle ; heap and heap.
Hide their hacked bones, Earth !—deep, deep, deep,
Where harmless worms caress and creep,
Hide their hacked bones. Earth !—deep, deep, deep,
Where harmless worms earess and creep.
What man can grieve ?  what woman weep ?
Better than waking Is to sleep i   Albuera i
Thomas Hardy