How He Saved St Michael

How He Saved St Michael’s
1792

So you beg for a story, my darling, my brown eyed Leopold,
And you Alice, with face like the morning, and curling locks of gold
Then come If you will, and listen; stand close beside my knee
To a tale of the Southern city-proud Charleston by the sea

It was long ago, my children, ere ever the signal gun
That blazed above Fort Sumter had awakened the North as one
Long ere the wondrous pillar of battle cloud and fire
Had marked where the unchained millions marched on to their hearts’ desire

On the roofs and the glittering turrets, that night as the sun went down,
The mellow glow of the twilight shone like a Jeweled crown,
And bathed in the living glory, as the people lifted their eyes,
They saw the pride of the city, the spire of St X Michael’s, rise

The gently gathering shadows shut out the waning light
The children praved at their bedsides, as you will pray tonight
The noise of buyer and seller from the busy mart was gone,
And in dreams of a peaceful morrow the city slumbered on

But another light than sunrise aroused the sleep- ing street,
For a cry was heard at midnight, and the rush of trampling feet,
And the fire king’s wild battalions scaled wall and capstone high
And planted their fharing banners against the inky sky

From the death that raged behind them and the urash of ruin loud,
To the great square of the city, were driven the surging crowd;
Where yet firm in all the tumult, unscathed, by the fiery flood,
With its heaven pointing finger, the church of St Michael’s stood

But e’en as they gazed upon It, there rose a sudden wail
A cry of horror blended with the roaring of the wale
On whose scorching wings up driven, a single flaming brand
Aloft on the towering steeple, ciung liko a bloody hand

“Will it fade?” The whisper trembled from the thousand whitening lips
Far out on the lurid harbor they watched it from the ships
A baletul gleam, that brighter and ever brighter shone
Like a flickering, trembling-will-o’-the-wisp to a steady beacon grown

“Uncounted gold shall be given to the man whose brave right hand
For the love of the periled city, plucks down yon burning brand!”
So erled the mayor of Charleston, that all the people heard
But they looked each one at his fellow, and no man spoke a word

Who is it leans from the belfrys with face upturned to the sky
Clings to a column, and measures the dizzy spire with his eye?
Ah! Seet He has stepped on the ralling; he climbs with his feet and his hands,
And firm on a narrow projection, with the belfry beneath him, he stands

Slow, steadily mounting, unheeding aught save the goal of the fire;
Still higher and higher, an atom, he moves, on the face of the pite
He stops; will he fail? Lo! for answer, a gleam like a meteor’s track
And hurled on the stones of the pavement, the red brand lea shattered and black

How, Intid cuivering sir
At the church dour mayer and consets wait, with their fer in the stair
And the enter the kind them prees for a Loach tof hie land
The unknown astor, whore daring could com pass a cred to grand

But why does a sudden tri mor seize on them, while ther Waze?
And what motaneth that stifled murmur of wonder and amaze?
He stood in the gate of the temple he had perfied his ilfe to
And the face of the hero, my children, was the satile face of a plave

With foided arms he was speaking in tones that were clear, not toud,
And his eyes, ablaze in their sockets, burnt Info the eyes of the crowd
“You may keep your gold: I scorn it But answer me, ye who can,
If the deed I have done before be not the deed of a man?”

He stepped but a short space hackward, and from all the women and men,
There were only sohs for answer, and the mayor called for a pen
And the great seal of the elty, that he might read who ran
And the slave who saved Et Michael’s went out from its door-a man

Pardon me, but the poem is not given in fuil If
You wish the connections, they are as follows
The fourth verse is omitted It should be as have written it here:
High over the lesser steeples, tipped with a golden bail

That bung like a radiant planet caught in its earthward fall
The first glimpse of home to the sailer who had made the harbor round
And the last slow fading vision dear to the outward bound
“The sixth verse is also incorrect It should be as Yollows:

But another light than sunrise aroused the sleep- ing street
For a cry was heard at midnight and the rush of trampling feet
Men stared in each other’s faces, thro’ mingled fire and smoke
While the frantic bells went clashing, clamorous stroke on stroke “Seventh verse:

“In the glare of her blazing rooftree, the houseless mother fled
With the babe she pressed to her basom, shrleking in nameless dread
While the fire king’s wild battalion scaled wall and capstone high
And planted their flaming banners against an sky

After the words, “With the belfry beneath him he stands”:
“Now once and once only they cheer him, a single tempestuous breath,
And there falls in the multitude gazing a hush like the stiliness of death”