wounded struggling in agouy a calm lulling sleep, against which struggling was vain ; for in the midst of a frost-locked and devastated country help was not.

16. The stern winter hid for months the horrors, but as spring once more visited the earth, and its snowy garment slowly dissolved away in the swollen rivers, the sun began to shine upon the relics of the war. Arms, accoutrements, the tawdry trappings of the privates and the rich uniforms of the officers, all were there ; but in all the fearful stiffness of death to a man almost, either young or in the prime of life, there were 300,000 corpses of their enemy for the Russians to bury; and in vast funeral pyres, as of sacrifices to the bloodstained god of French glory, 160,000 dead horses to burn.

Magnificence of ruin! what has time,

In all it ever gazed upon of war, Of all the wild rage of storm, or deadly clime,

Seen, with that battle's vengeance to com

pare ?

How glorious shone the invaders' pomp

afar! Like pampered lions from the spoil they came:

The land before them silence and despair, The land behind them massacre and flame. Blood will have tenfold blood! What are they

3

5

In Stygiano cave forlorn, 'Mongst horrid shapes and shrieks and sights

unholy ! Find out some uncouth cell, Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous

wings, And the night raven sings; There under ebon' shades, and low-brow'd

5

rocks,

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15

12

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16

As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian8 desert ever dwell.
But come, thou goddess, fair and free,
In heav'n yclep'd' Euphrosyne,
And by men, heart-easing Mirth,

Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee,
Jest and youthful Jollity,
*Quips, and cranks 13 and wanton wiles,
Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe’s 18 cheek,
And love to live in dimples sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care 17 derides, 18
And Laughter holding both his sides,
('ome, and trip it as you go
On the light fantastic toe,
And in thy right hand lead with thee
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty;
And, if I give thee honour due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
To live with her and live with thee,
In unreproved pleasures free:
To hear the lark begin his flight,
And singing startle the dull night,

20

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25

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30

From his watch-tower 21 in the skies,
Till the dappled 22 dawn doth rise ;
Then to come, in spite of sorrow,
And at my window bid good-morrow,
Through the sweetbrier, or the vine,
Or the twisted eglantine : 23
While the cock with lively din
Scatters the rear of darkuess thin,

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40

And to the stack, or the barn-door,
Stoutly struts his dames before :
Oft list'ning how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumb’ring morn,
From the side of some hoar 24 hill,
Through the high wood echoing shrill :
Some time walking not unseen,
By hedge-row elms, or hillocks green,

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25

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50

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29

Right against the eastern gate,
Where the great sun begins his state,
Rob’d in flames, and amber 28 light,
The clouds in thousand liveries 27 dight;
While the ploughman near at hand,
Whistles o'er the furrow'd land,
And the milkmaid singeth blithe,
And the mower whets 30 his scythe,

55. And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, Whilst the landscape round it measuresRusset 31 lawns, and fallows 32

gray ;

60 Where the nibbling flocks do stray ; Mountains, on whose barren breast, The labouring *3 clouds do often rest; Meadows trim with daisies pied, Shallow brooks, and rivers wide : Towers and battlements 35 it sees, Bosom’d high in tufted trees, Where perhaps some beauty lies, The Cynosure 37 of neighbouring eyes.

. Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes,

70 From betwixt two aged oaks, Where Corydon and Thyrsis met, Are at their savoury dinner set, Of herbs, and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses ; And then in haste her bower she leaves, With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; Or if the earlier season lead To the tann'd 39 haycock in the mead.

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65

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