Читать книгу The Two Spies: Nathan Hale and John André онлайн

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Hale, bright and generous, found a hapless grave;

With genius' living flame his bosom glowed,

And Science lured him to her sweet abode.

In Worth's fair path his feet adventured far,

The pride of peace, the rising hope of war;

In duty firm, in danger calm as even,

To friends unchanging, and sincere to Heaven.

How short his course, the prize how early won!

While weeping Friendship mourns her favorite gone."

I.W. Stuart, in his little biography of Hale,ssss1 has preserved fragments of several poetic effusions. A short time after Hale's death, an unknown personal friend of the martyr wrote a poem of one hundred and sixty lines, in which he described the personal appearance of the young soldier—tall and with "a beauteous face." Of his qualities of temper and conduct he wrote:

"Removed from envy, malice, pride, and strife,

He walked through goodness as he walked through life;

A kinder brother Nature never knew,

A child more duteous or a friend more true."

Of Hale's motives in becoming a spy he wrote: