LIFE OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN. THE glare of victory is always enticing and beautiful. Whether the hero who was successful in this struggle falls or survives, he is sure of the plaudits of admiring millions. He wears the laurel on his brow, or it is wreathed by the hands of a grateful country round the urn that contains his ashes. Victory always brings with it, its own reward: and to those who have the nobleness to esteem a good name dearer than life, the loss of life itself is more than remunerated, by the reverence which is paid to their memories. But there is another class of men who have still more potent claims on the gratitude of their countrymen. The man who bravely contends to the last, and, when he finds defeat inevitable, sacrifices his life for his country, is entitled to all that reverence which the proudest victory could yield. He has no animating thoughts to sooth his dying hours: the prize for which he contends is rifled from him; and his fast receding existence admonishes him that he never will retrieve the loss which he now suffers. Glory, that capricious goddess, whom he has fol VOL. III. |