QUEBEC.

O fortress city, bathed by streams

Majestic as thy memories great,

Where mountains, floods, and forests mate

The grandeur of the glorious dreams,

Born of the hero hearts who died

In founding here an Empire's pride;

Prosperity attend thy fate,

And happiness in thee abide,

Pair Canada's strong tower and gate!

May Envy, that against thy might

Dashed hostile hosts to surge and break,

Bring Commerce, emulous to make

Thy people share her fruitful fight,

In filling argosies with store

Of grain and timber, and each ore,

And all a continent can shake

Into thy lap, till more and more

Thy praise in distant worlds awake.

Who hath not known delight whose feet

Have paced thy streets or terrace way;

From rampart sod or bastion grey

Hath marked thy sea-like river greet.

The bright and peopled banks which shine

In front of the far mountain's line;

Thy glittering roofs below, the play

Of currents where the ships entwine

Their spars, or laden pass away?

As we who joyously once rode

Past guarded gates to trumpet sound,

Along the devious ways that wound

O'er drawbridges, through moats, and showed

The vast St. Lawrence flowing, belt

The Orleans Isle, and sea-ward melt;

Then by old walls with cannon crowned,

Down stair-like streets, to where we felt

The salt winds blown o'er meadow ground.

Where flows the Charles past wharf and dock.

And Learning from Laval looks down,

And quiet convents grace the town.

There swift to meet the battle shock

Montcalm rushed on; and eddying back,

Red slaughter marked the bridge's track:

See now the shores with lumber brown,

And girt with happy lands which lack

No loveliness of Summer's crown.

Quaint hamlet-alleys, border-filled

With purple lilacs, poplars tall,

Where flits the yellow bird, and fall

The deep eave shadows. There when tilled

The peasant's field or garden bed,

He rests content if o'er his head

From silver spires the church-bells call

To gorgeous shrines, and prayers that gild

The simple hopes and lives of all.

Winter is mocked by garbs of green,

Worn by the copses flaked with snow,—

White spikes and balls of bloom, that blow

In hedgerows deep; and cattle seen

In meadows spangled thick with gold,

And globes where lovers’ fates are told

Around the red-doored houses low;

While rising o'er them, fold on fold,

The distant hills in azure glow.

Oft in the woods we long delayed,

When hours were minutes all too brief,

For Nature knew no sound of grief;

But overhead the breezes played,

And in the dank grass at our knee,

Shone pearls of our green forest sea,

The star-white flowers of triple leaf

Which love around the brooks to be,

Within the birch and maple shade.

At times we passed some fairy mere

Embosomed in the leafy screen,

And streaked with tints of heaven's sheen,

Where'er the water's surface clear

Bore not the hues of verdant light

From myriad boughs on mountain height,

Or near the shadowed banks were seen

The sparkles that in circlets bright

Told where the fishes’ feast had been.

And when afar the forests flushed

In falling swathes of fire, there soared

Dark clouds where muttering thunder roared,

And mounting vapours lurid rushed,

While a metallic lustre flew

Upon the vivid verdure's hue,

Before the blasts and rain forth poured,

And slow o'er mighty landscapes drew

The grandest pageant of the Lord:

The threatening march of flashing cloud,

With tumults of embattled air,

Blest conflicts for the good they bear!

A century has God allowed

None other, since the days He gave

Unequal fortune to the brave.

Comrades in death! you live to share

An equal honour, for your grave

Bade Enmity take Love as heir!

We watched, when gone day's quivering haze,

The loops of plunging foam that beat

The rocks at Montmorenci's feet

Stab the deep gloom with moonlit rays;

Or from the fortress saw the streams

Sweep swiftly o'er the pillared beams;

White shone the roofs, and anchored fleet,

And grassy slopes where nod in dreams

Pale hosts of sleeping Marguerite.

Or when the dazzling Frost King mailed

Would clasp the wilful waterfall,

Fast leaping to her snowy hall

She fled; and where her rainbows hailed

Her freedom, painting all her home,

We climbed her spray-built palace dome,

Shot down the radiant glassy wall

Until we reached the snowdrift foam,

As shoots to waves some meteor ball.

Then homeward, hearing song or tale,

With chime of harness bells we sped

Above the frozen river bed.

The city, through a misty veil,

Gleamed from her cape, where sunset fire

Touched louvre and cathedral spire,

Bathed ice and snow a rosy red,

So beautiful that men's desire

For May-time's rival wonders fled:

What glories hath this gracious land,

Fit home for many a hardy race;

Where liberty has broadest base,

And labour honours every hand!

Throughout her triply thousand miles

The sun upon each season smiles,

And every man has scope and space,

And kindliness, from strand to strand,

Alone is born to right of place!

Such were our memories. May they yet

Be shared by others, sent to be

Signs of the union of the free

And kindred peoples God hath set

O'er famous isles, and fertile zones

Of continents! Or if new thrones

And mighty States arise, may He

Whose potent hand yon river owns

Smooth their great future's shrouded Sea!