A hundred, a thousand to one; even so;
Not a hope in the world remained:
The swarming, howling wretches below
Gained and gained and gained.

Skene looked at his pale young wife:-
“Is the time come?”-”The time is come!”-
Young, strong, and so full of life:
The agony struck them dumb.

Close his arm about her now,
Close her cheek to his,
Close the pistol to her brow-
God forgive them this!

“Will it hurt much?”-”No, mine own:
I wish I could bear the pang for both.”
“I wish I could bear the pang alone:
Courage, dear, I am not loth.”

Kiss and kiss: “It is not pain
Thus to kiss and die.
One kiss more.”-”And yet one again.”-
“Good by.”-”Good by.”

Note.-I retain this little poem, not as historically
accurate, but as written and published before I heard the
supposed facts of its first verse contradicted.