人到八十岁时，想起“考验灵魂的时代”的所有痛苦和震动，就像火苗在燃烧;当我谈到辉格党和托利党，当我讲述起义军的故事时，对你来说，这些话是灰烬，但对我来说，它们是燃烧的煤。我听到了四月持续战斗的火枪声;珀西勋爵猎杀的士兵，我还能看见他们穿的红衣服;但是，当一天在我面前隐约出现，当一千个人躺在邦克山的山坡上流血时，一股致命的寒意袭上了我的心头。“那是一个宁静的夏日早晨，第一件给我们警示的事是从河上和岸上传来的隆隆的炮声。‘孩子，’奶奶说，‘怎么了，这是怎么回事?那些剥头皮的印度恶魔又来谋杀我们了吗?”可怜的老家伙!听到她谈论印第安人时，我的身体在颤抖，这时枪声开始轰鸣:她看到了燃烧的村庄，屠杀和掠夺，当莫霍克人用子弹射穿她父亲的门时。然后我说:“好了，亲爱的老奶奶，你不要烦恼和担心，因为我很快就会回来告诉你这是工作还是娱乐; There can't be mischief in it, so I won't be gone a minute'? For a minute then I started. I was gone the livelong day. No time for bodice-lacing or for looking-glass grimacing; Down my hair went as I hurried, tumbling half-way to my heels; God forbid your ever knowing, when there's blood around her flowing, How the lonely, helpless daughter of a quiet household feels! In the street I heard a thumping; and I knew it was the stumping Of the Corporal, our old neighbor, on that wooden leg he wore, With a knot of women round him,?it was lucky I had found him,? So I followed with the others, and the Corporal marched before. They were making for the steeple,?the old soldier and his people; The pigeons circled round us as we climbed the creaking stair, Just across the narrow river?O, so close it made me shiver!? Stood a fortress on the hilltop that but yesterday was bare. Not slow our eyes to find it; well we knew who stood behind it, Though the earthwork hid them from us, and the stubborn walls were dumb: Here were sister, wife, and mother, looking wild upon each other, And their lips were white with terror as they said, THE HOUR HAS COME! The morning slowly wasted, not a morsel had we tasted, And our heads were almost splitting with the cannons' deafening thrill, When a figure tall and stately round the rampart strode sedately; It was PRESCOTT, one since told me; he commanded on the hill. Every woman's heart grew bigger when we saw his manly figure, With the banyan buckled round it, standing up so straight and tall; Like a gentleman of leisure who is strolling out for pleasure, Through the storm of shells and cannon-shot he walked around the wall. At eleven the streets were swarming, for the red-coats' ranks were forming; At noon in marching order they were moving to the piers; How the bayonets gleamed and glistened, as we looked far down and listened To the trampling and the drum-beat of the belted grenadiers! At length the men have started, with a cheer (it seemed faint-hearted), In their scarlet regimentals, with their knapsacks on their backs, And the reddening, rippling water, as after a sea-fight's slaughter, Round the barges gliding onward blushed like blood along their tracks. So they crossed to the other border, and again they formed in order; And the boats came back for soldiers, came for soldiers, soldiers still: The time seemed everlasting to us women faint and fasting,? At last they're moving, marching, marching proudly up the hill. We can see the bright steel glancing all along the lines advancing? Now the front rank fires a volley?they have thrown away their shot; Far behind the earthwork lying, all the balls above them flying, Our people need not hurry; so they wait and answer not. Then the Corporal, our old cripple (he would swear sometimes and tipple),? He had heard the bullets whistle (in the old French war) before,? Calls out in words of jeering, just as if they all were hearing,? And his wooden leg thumps fiercely on the dusty belfry floor:? 'Oh! fire away, ye villains, and earn King George's shillin's, But ye'll waste a ton of powder afore a 'rebel' falls; You may bang the dirt and welcome, they're as safe as Dan'l Malcolm Ten foot beneath the gravestone that you've splintered with your balls!' In the hush of expectation, in the awe and trepidation Of the dread approaching moment, we are well-nigh breathless all; Though the rotten bars are failing on the rickety belfry railing, We ar