CHANT DE L'EPEE

Page 27. A few hours before his death Théodore Kôrner, the youthful hero and bard of the German wars for freedom, wrote this rapturous bridal-song to his sword. He was reading it aloud in the woods where the troops were stationed when the signal to advance was given. In the battle Kôrner fell mortally wounded. He was twenty-one years of âge when he died. He Hes buried under an oak tree in the village of Wobbelin. It was of him that Mrs. Hemans sang:

"A song for the death day of the brave —

A song of pride !

The youth went down to a hero's grave

With the sword his bride."