2 [Glendower. "I can call spirits from the vasty deep. But will they come when you do call for ["the dread of something after death,— 3[Talus,-the slope or inclination of a wall, whereby, reclining at the top so as to fall within its base, the thickness is gradually lessened according to the height." — Milit. Dict.] 4 ["Appellant ceux des chasseurs qui étaient autour de moi en assez grand nombre, je m'avançai et reconnus ne m'étre point trompé dans mon calcul; c'était en effet cette colonne qui à l'instant parvenait au sommet du rempart. Les Turcs de derrière les travers et les flancs des bastions voisins fasaient sur elle un feu très-vif de canon et de mousqueterie. Je gravis, avec les gens qui m'avaient suivi, le talus intérieur du rempart."-Hist. de la N. R. p. 211.] 5 ["Ce fut dans cet instant que je reconnus combien l'ignorance du constructeur des palissades était importante pour nous; car, comme elles étaient placés au milieu du parapet," &c.ibid. p. 211.] XLVII. So that on either side some nine or ten Paces were left, whereon you could contrive To march; a great convenience to our men, At least to all those who were left alive, Who thus could form a line and fight again; And that which farther aided them to strive Among the first, I will not say the first, Out between friends as well as allied nations: Put to such trial John Bull's partial patience, though the Prussians say so too ;- And that if Blucher, Bulow, Gneisenau, And God knows who besides in "au" and "ow," Had not come up in time to cast an awe Into the hearts of those who fought till now As tigers combat with an empty craw, The Duke of Wellington had ceased to show His orders, also to receive his pensions; Which are the heaviest that our history mentions. L. But never mind; -" God save the king!" and kings! For if he don't, I doubt if men will longer I think I hear a little bird, who sings The people by and by will be the stronger: LI. At first it grumbles, then it swears, and then, Snatch when despair makes human hearts less pliant. Then comes" the tug of war; "-'t will come again, I rather doubt; and I would fain say "fle on 't," If I had not perceived that revolution Alone can save the earth from hell's pollution. LII. But to continue: -I say not the first, But of the first, our little friend Don Juan Walk'd o'er the walls of Ismail, as if nursed [one Amidst such scenes - though this was quite a new To him, and I should hope to most. The thirst Of glory, which so pierces through and through one, Pervaded him- although a generous creature, As warm in heart as feminine in feature. 1["Il y avait de chaque côté neuf à dix pieds sur lesquels on pouvait marcher; et les soldats, après être montés, avaient pu se ranger commodément sur l'espace extérieur, qui ne s'éleva que d'à-peu-près deux pieds au-dessus du niveau de la terre."-Hist. de la N. R. p. 211.] 2 [It has been a favourite assertion with almost all the French, and some English writers, that the English were on the point of being defeated, when the Prussian force came up. The contrary is the truth. Baron Muffling has given the most explicit testimony," that the battle could have afforded no favourable result to the enemy, even if the Prussians had never come up." The laurels of Waterloo LIII. And here he was- who upon woman's breast, Which Rousseau points out to the dubious fair, "Observe your lover when he leaves your arms; " But Juan never left them, while they had charms, LIV. Unless compell'd by fate, or wave, or wind, Or near relations, who are much the same. But here he was!-where each tie that can bind Humanity must yield to steel and flame : And he whose very body was all mind, Flung here by fate or circumstance, which tame The loftiest, hurried by the time and place, Dash'd on like a spurr'd blood-horse in a race. LV. So was his blood stirr'd while he found resistance, Of Britain's youth depends upon their weight, The General Lascy, who had been hard press'd, As were some hundred youngsters all abreast, His thanks, and hopes to take the city soon, Not reckoning him to be a " base Bezonian," 3 (As Pistol calls it) but a young Livonian. + LVIL Juan, to whom he spoke in German, knew The general who held him in command; LVIII. Short speeches pass between two men who speak Is perpetrated ere a word can break Upon the ear, and sounds of horror chime In like church-bells, with sigh, howl, groan, yell, prayer, There cannot be much conversation there. must be divided - the British won the battle, the Prussians achieved and rendered available the victory. - SIR WALTER SCOTT.] 3 [Pistol's" Bezonian" is a corruption of bisognoso-a needy man-metaphorically (at least) a scoundrel.] 4"Le Général Lascy, voyant arriver un corps, si à propos à son secour, s'avança vers l'officier qui l'avait conduit, et, le prenant pour un Livonien, lui fit, en Alleman 1, les complimens les plus flatteurs; le jeune militaire (le Duc de Richelieu) qui parlait parfaitement cette langue, y répondit avec sa modestie ordinaire."- Hist. de la N. R. p. 211.] Y y LIX. And therefore all we have related in Two long octaves, pass'd in a little minute; But in the same small minute, every sin Contrived to get itself comprised within it. The very cannon, deafened by the din, Grew dumb, for you might almost hear a linnet, As soon as thunder, 'midst the general noise Of human nature's agonising voice! LX. The town was enter'd. Oh eternity! — "God made the country, and man made the town," So Cowper says-and I begin to be Of his opinion, when I see cast down All walls men know, and many never known; Of all men, saving Sylla1 the man-slayer, Who passes for in life and death most lucky, Of the great names which in our faces stare, The General Boon, back-woodsman of Kentucky, Was happiest amongst mortals any where; For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he Enjoy'd the lonely, vigorous, harmless days Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze. 2 LXII. Crime came not near him-she is not the child Where if men seek her not, and death be more And what's still stranger, left behind a name Without which glory 's but a tavern song— Which hate nor envy e'er could tinge with wrong; An active hermit, even in age the child Of Nature, or the Man of Ross run wild. LXIV. 'Tis true he shrank from men even of his nation, Is, that you neither can be pleased nor please; 1 [See antè, p. 461.] 2["The wildest solitudes are to the taste of some people. General Boon, who was chiefly instrumental in the first settlement of Kentucky, is of this turn. It is said, that he is now (1818), at the age of seventy, pursuing the daily chase two hundred miles to the westward of the last abode of civilised man. He had retired to a chosen spot, beyond the Missouri, which, after him, is named Boon's Lick, out of the reach, as he flattered himself, of intrusion; but white men, even there, encroached upon him, and, two years ago, he went back two hundred miles farther."- Birkbeck's Notes on America.] 3 ["Such is the restless disposition of these back-woodsmen, and so averse are their habits from those of a civilised neighbourhood, that nothing short of the salt, sandy desert LXV. He was not all alone: around him grew LXVI. And tall, and strong, and swift of foot were they, No fashion made them apes of her distortions; Motion was in their days, rest in their slumbers, Corruption could not make their hearts her soil; The lust which stings, the splendour which encumbers, With the free foresters divide no spoil; Serene, not sullen, were the solitudes So much for Nature: - by way of variety, The millions slain by soldiers for their ration, LXIX. The town was enter'd: first one column made LXX. Koutousow, he who afterward beat back (With some assistance from the frost and snow) Napoleon on his bold and bloody track, It happen'd was himself beat back just now : He was a jolly fellow, and could crack His jest alike in face of friend or foe, Though life, and death, and victory were at stake;◄ But here it seem'd his jokes had ceased to take: can stop them. The notorious Daniel Boon, who about fifty different times has shifted his abode westward, as civilisation approached his dwelling, when asked the cause of his frequent change, replied, I think it time to remove, when I can no longer fell a tree for fuel, so that its top will lie within a few yards of my cabin.'"— Quart. Rev. vol. xxix. p. 14.] 4[" Parmi les colonnes, une de celles qui souffrirent le plus était commandée par le Général Koutouzow (aujourd'hui Prince de Smolensko). Ce brave militaire réunit l'intrépidite à un grand nombre de connaissances acquises; il marche au feu avec la même gaieté qu'il va à une fête; il sait commander avec autant de sang froid qu'il déploie d'esprit et d'amabilité dans le commerce habituel de la vie." -Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie, tom. iii. p. 212] LXXI. For having thrown himself into a ditch, Follow'd in haste by various grenadiers, Whose blood the puddle greatly did enrich, He climb'd to where the parapet appears; But there his project reach'd its utmost pitch ('Mongst other deaths the General Ribaupierre's And had it not been for some stray troops landing LXXIII. And scrambling round the rampart, these same troops, After the taking of the "Cavalier," 3 Just as Koutousow's most "forlorn" of "hopes' Took, like chameleons, some slight tinge of fear, Open'd the gate call'd " Kilia," to the groups + Of baffled heroes, who stood shyly near, Sliding knee-deep in lately frozen mud, Now thaw'd into a marsh of human blood. LXXIV. The Kozacks, or, if so you please, Cossacques- Statistics, tactics, politics, and geography)— Their column, though the Turkish batteries thunder'd 1 ["Ce brave Koutouzow se jéta dans le fossé, fut suivi des siens, et ne pénétra jusqu'au haut du parapet qu'après avoir éprouvé des difficultés incroyables. (Le brigadier Ribaupierre perdit la vie dans cette occasion: il avait fixé l'estime générale, et sa mort occasionna beaucoup de regrets. Les Turcs accoururent en grand nombre; cette multitude repoussa deux fois le général jusqu'au fossé."-Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie, p. 212.] 2 [Quelques troupes Russes, emportées par le courant, n'ayant pu dabarquer sur le terrein qu'on leur avait préscrit," &c. Ibid. p. 213.] 3 ГА "Cavalier" is an elevation of earth, situated ordinarily in the gorge of a bastion, bordered with a parapet, and cut into more or fewer embrasures, according to its capacity.” -Milit. Dict.] 4 [..."longèrent le rempart, après la prisé du cavalier, et ouvrirent la porte dite de Kilia aux soldats du Général Koutouzow."-Hist. de la N. R. p. 213.] 5 ["Il était réservé aux Kozaks de combler de leur corps la partie du fossé où ils combattaient; leur colonne avait été divisée entre MM. Platow et d'Orlow..."-Ibid. p. 213.] 6 [... La première partie, devant se joindre à la gauche du Général Arsenieu, fut foudroyée par le feu des batteries, et parvint néanmoins au haut du rempart."-Ibid. p. 213.] 7 ["Les Turcs la laissèrent un peu s'avancer, dans la ville, et firent deux sorties par les angles saillans des bastions."— Hist. de la N. R. tom. ii. p. 213.] 8["Alors, se trouvant prise en queue, elle fut écrasée ; cependant le Lieutenant-colonel Yesouskoi, qui commandait la réserve composée d'un bataillon du régiment de Polozk, traversa le fossé sur les cadavres des Kozaks..."-Ibid. p. 212.] 9 [...". "et extermina tous les Turcs qu'il eut en tête: ce brave homme fut tué pendant l'action."— Ibid. p. 213.] 10 ["L'autre partie des Kozaks, qu'Orlow commandait, souffrit de la manière la plus cruelle: elle attaqua à maintes reprises, fut souvent repoussée, et perdit les deux tiers de son monde. Et c'est ici le lieu de placer une observation, que nous prenons dans les mémoires qui nous guident; elle fait remarquer combien il est mal vu de donner beaucoup de cartouches aux soldats qui doivent emporter un poste de vive force, et par conséquent où la baionnette doit principalement agir; ils pensent ne devoir se servir de cette dernière arme, que lorsque les cartouches sont épuisées: dans cette persuasion, ils retardent leur marche, et restent plus long-temps exposés au canon et à la mitraille de l'ennemi."— Ibid. p. 214.] 11["La jonction de la colonne de Meknop― (le général étant mal secondé fut tué) — s'étant effectuée avec celle qui l'avoisinait, ces colonnes attaquèrent un bastion, et éprouvèrent un résistance opiniàtre; mais bientôt des cris de victoire se font entendre de toutes parts, et le bastion est emporté: le séraskier défendait cette partie."— Ibid. p. 214.] LXXXI. For all the answer to his proposition Was from a pistol-shot that laid him dead; 1 On which the rest, without more intermission, Began to lay about with steel and leadThe pious metals most in requisition On such occasions: not a single head LXXXVII. The city's taken, but not render'd! - No! Was spared;-three thousand Moslems perish'd here, By the advancing Muscovite — the groan LXXXII. The city's taken-only part by part And Death is drunk with gore: there's not a street Where fights not to the last some desperate heart, For those for whom it soon shall cease to beat. 3 Here War forgot his own destructive art In more destroying Nature; and the beat Of carnage, like the Nile's sun-sodden slime, Engender'd monstrous shapes of every crime. LXXXIII. A Russian officer, in martial tread Over a heap of bodies, felt his heel Scized fast, as if 't were by the serpent's head Whose fangs Eve taught her human seed to feel; In vain he kick'd, and swore, and writhed, and bled, And howl'd for help as wolves do for a mealThe teeth still kept their gratifying hold, As do the subtle snakes described of old. LXXXIV. A dying Moslem, who had felt the foot Of a foe o'er him, snatch'd at it, and bit The very tendon which is most acute (That which some ancient Muse or modern wit Named after thee, Achilles) and quite through't He made the teeth meet, nor relinquish'd it Even with his life- -for (but they lie) 't is said To the live leg still clung the sever'd head. [..."un officier de marine Anglais, veut le faire prisonnier, et reçoit un coup de pistolet qui l'étend roide mort." -Hist. de la N. R. p. 214.] ["Les Russes passent trois mille Turcs au fil de l'épée ; seize baionnettes percent à la fois le séraskier."— Ibid p. 214.] 3 ["La ville est emportée; l'image de la mort et de la destruction se représente de tous les côtés; le soldat furieux n'écoute plus la voix de ses officiers, il ne respire que le Of the last foe is echoed by his own. LXXXVIII. The bayonet pierces and the sabre cleaves, And human lives are lavish'd every where, As the year closing whirls the scarlet leaves When the stripp'd forest bows to the bleak air, And groans; and thus the peopled city grieves, Shorn of its best and loveliest, and left bare; But still it falls in vast and awful splinters, As oaks blown down with all their thousand winters. LXXXIX. It is an awful topic - but 't is not My cue for any time to be terrific : For checker'd as is seen our human lot With good, and bad, and worse, alike prolific Too much of one sort would be soporific ; — XC. And one good action in the midst of crimes With all their pretty milk-and-water ways, XCI. Upon a taken bastion, where there lay Thousands of slaughter'd men, a yet warm group Of murder'd women, who had found their way To this vain refuge, made the good heart droop And shudder; -while, as beautiful as May, A female child of ten years tried to stoop And hide her little palpitating breast Amidst the bodies lull'd in bloody rest. XCII. Two villanous Cossacques pursued the child The rudest brute that roams Siberia's wild And whom for this at last must we condemn ? carnage; altéré de sang, tout est indifferent pour lui.". Hist. de la N. R. p. 214.] 4 ["Je sauval la vie à une fille de dix ans, dont l'innocence et la candeur formaient un contraste bien frappant avec la rage de tout ce qui m'environnait. En arrivant sur le bastion où commença le carnage, j'apperçus un groupe de quatre femmes égorgées, entre lesquelles cet enfant, d'une figure charmante, cherchait un asile contre la fureur de deux Kozaks qui étaient sur le point de la massacrer."-DỤC DE RICHELIEU. See Hist. de la Nour. Russ. tom. iii. p. 217.] |