TEIED AND TRUE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 160, 2 March 1871, Page 7

TRIED AND TRUE.

T. Hood.

AN INCIDENT IX THE WAR.

[ " We came across a dead Prussian ; he had a shot in the left side, and, according to our doctors, must have survived in a conscious state f»r ahout ten minutes ; he had pushed his knapsack under his head, and leant upon his right arm; the look of his still open eyes were fixed upon the photograph of a girl in his stiff left hand ; he had drawn the picture out of the letter-case ■which lay near him, and had awaited death, his gaze rivetted on the beloved featuies. --" Allgenieine Zeitung."] It is not so hard to discover What Trudchen is thinking to-day ; She di earns of an ahspnt lover There— in the thick of the fray ! OJ-er fields is her fancy roaming ' Covered with wounded and dead ; ' TiJl more than the shades of gloaming Darken that golden head. Ah, hut the past was pleasant ! Seemed not the future sweet? Never a thought of thi<» present ! Parted— ever to meet ?

» * * * Sedan to-day must be taken 1 That every man knows well ; How the old fortress is shaken, Shattered with shot and shell ! " Charge ! " Down into the whirling Clouds of the battle Mnoke ; Column on column hurling - See where the foe's line broke ! What's tli.it ?— a private only Shot in the Prussian ranks : — Ah. for a heai t left lonely, Rhine, on thy distant banks ! Yes ! it is death ! He knows it. Down the field he sinks. " Life-blood !— so slowly flows it? See how the diy ground drinks I " Pror.t on his knap?:ick-pil!ov/, Ciiltn he lies down to die. Whilo the attack's red Mllow *^J^|e lesistlessly by ! T*nOT^s his time is measured. Draws he from out his hrenst —

Something- a porbtiit treasured ! Now to his chill lips pressed. Thus on that portrait gazing Waits he his last repose. On it, his eye', fast glazing, Fitsten, until they closa. Jsov/ his heart pauses —flutters — Stops ! With his dying breath, "Trudchen ! " he fondly utters. Faithful even in death !