Classic Poem

Leading his fleeing host Lee looked behind,
Seeing the lurid clouds, hearing the roar,
Feeling the ravage of the City doomed.
And as he gazed, his rueful heart crept back,
Crept back o'er red and wildering ways of death,
And bowed at Richmond's gates midst fire and gloom,
Bleeding and wondering before High God.

But God had not forgotten. Though most high
He dwells most low with them of humble spirit.
The sparrows' God was Lee's. The One who marks
The birds inconsequent and guides their ways
Had heart and eyes upon His troubled own,
His mystic messenger of destiny.

And as Lee's lone and agonizing soul
Bowed broken at the burning City's gates,
And love was seeking vainly o'er the swath
Of fiery turbulence and foemen's feet
The heart of yore, the home of yesterday,
A Union aide rode down a Richmond street,
Enlisting men to stay the spreading flames, —
The conflagration that with mouths of fire
Was eating out the City's throbbing heart.

As on he rode, forth from an open house
A servant rushed and vehemently called
For him to halt and see his troubled mistress.
The aide dismounted. At the mansion's door
A Southern maiden met him. Terror gloomed
Her pale and beauteous face. With passionate words
She flung her spirit forth imploringly —
Her mien betokening high ancestry,
Her anguished voice commanding while it begged, —
" Would he not save her mother from the flames,
Her helpless mother from the fiery storm
Which swept with rabid violence towards her door? "

True soldiers fight with men, but never clash
With Nature's chivalry when woman calls.
Old Glory! Thou hast ever led the way
Over all bars to knightly charity.
It was Old Glory's ambulance that came,
As by a miracle of summoning,
Responsive to a Northern soldier's heart,
And bore the Southern matron safely forth.
And they who took her 'neath the Stars and Stripes
Out from the pathway of the striding flame,
Found — 'twas a joyful and a prideful thing —
The invalid was the wife of General Lee,
And she who asked the favor was his daughter.

High God, whose children are past numbering,
All for their sakes and His great covenant,
Hath troops of love and comfort at His hest,
And in that hour dispatched a Company
Of Holy Ones to guard the Mighty Chief —
Perchance the White Battalions of His power.
And while Lee fled, and Richmond burned, his soul
Rose out of anguish, knowing the covenant peace,
The peace of God that passeth understanding.

The universe is one vast ether-space
For God's great wireless system. Who has faith
And yields his spirit to the Spirit Divine,
Shall have Love's messages out of the heavens,
And know that God the Father ne'er forgets,
But daily sends His living answers down
Along the shining stairways of the dark,
To every call of true obedience,
To every cry of His unfortunates.
So comes the peace of God which came to Lee.
So knows each trusting soul, as knew Lee's soul,
The Father's Voice midst a discordant world.