Within, the pillars soar to gloom

Lit by the glimmering Rose ;
Spirits of beauty shrined in stone

Afar from mortal woes,

Hearing not, though their haunted shade

Is stricken, and all around
With splintering flash and brutal crash

The ghostly aisles resound.

And there, upon the pavement stretched,

The German wounded groan
To see the dropping flames of death

And feel the shells their own.

Too fierce the fire ! Helped by their foes

They stagger out to air.
The green-gray coats are seen, are known

Through all the crowded square.

Ah, now for vengeance ! Deep the groan :

A death-knell ! Quietly
Soldiers unsling their rifles, lift

And aim with steady eye.