NOTES TO CANTO III.

1.

In "pride of place » here last the eagle flew. Stanza xviii. line 5. "Pride of place, is a term of falconry, and means the highest pitch of flight. See Macbeth, etc. "An Eagle towering in his pride of place

Was by a mousing Owl hawked at and killed. »

2.

Such as Harmodius drew on Athens' tyrant lord. Stanza xx. line 9.

See the famous song on Harmodius and Aristogiton. The best English translation is in Bland's Anthology, by Mr. Denman.

"With myrtle my sword will I wreathe,.

3.

etc.

And all went merry as a marriage-bell.

Stanza xxi. line 8. On the night previous to the action, it is said that a ball was given at Brussels.

4, 5.

And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clans

man's ears.

Stanza xxvi. line 9. Sir Evan Cameron, and his descendant Donald, the gentle Lochiel, of the "forty-five. »

"

6.

And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves. Stanza xxvii. line 1.

The wood of Soignies is supposed to be a remnant of the forest of Ardennes,» famous in Boiardo's Orlando, and immortal in Shakspeare's "As you like it. It is also celebrated in Tacitus as being the spot of successful defence by the Germans

against the Roman encroachments. I have ventured to adopt the name connected with nobler association than those of mere slaughter.

7.

I turn'd from all she brought to those she could not bring.

Stanza xxx. line 9. My guide from Mont St. Jean over the field seemed intelligent and accurate. The place where Major Howard fell was not far from two tall and solitary trees (there was a third cut down, or shivered in the battle) which stand a few yards from each other at a pathway's side. Beneath these he died and was buried. The body has since been removed to England. A small hollow for the present marks where it lay, but will probably soon be effaced; the plough has been upon it, and the grain is.

After pointing out the different spots where Picton and other gallant men had perished; the guide said, "here Major Howard lay: I was near him when wounded. I told him my relationship, and he seemed then still more anxious to point out the particular spot and circumstances. The place is one of the most marked in the field from the peculiarity of the two trees above-mentioned.

I went on horseback twice over the field, comparing it with my recollection of similar scenes. As a plain, Waterloo seems marked out for the scene of some great action, though this may be mere imagination: I have viewed with attention. those of Platea, Troy, Mantinea, Leuctra, Chaeronea, and Marathon; and the field around Mont St. Jean and Hougoumont appears to want little but a better cause, and that undefinable but impressive halo which the lapse of ages throws around a celebrated spot, to vie in interest with any or all of these, except perhaps the last mentioned.

8.

Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore. Stanza xxxiv. line 6. The (fabled) apples on the brink of the lake

Asphaltes were said to be fair without, and within ashes. Vide Tacitus, Histor. I. 5, 7.

9.

For sceptred cynics earth were far too wide a den. Stanza xli. line last.

The great error of Napoleon, "if we have writ our annals true,» was a continued obtrusion on mankind of his want of all community of feeling for or with them; perhaps more offensive to hu man vanity than the active cruelty of more trembling and suspicious tyranny.

Suck were his speeches to public assemblies as well as individuals; and the single expression which he is said to have used on returning to Paris after the Russian winter had destroyed his army, rubbing his hands over a fire, "This is pleasanter than Moscow, would probably alienate more favour from his cause than the destruction and reverses which led to the remark.

10.

What want these outlaws conquerors should have? Stanza xlviii. line 6.

"What wants that knave

That a king should have?"

was King James's question on meeting Johnny Armstrong and his followers in full accoutrements. See the Ballad.

11.

The castled crag of Drachenfels.

Page 158. line 1. The castle of Drachenfels stands on the highest summit of "the Seven Mountains, over the Rhine banks; it is in ruins, and connected with some singular traditions: it is the first in view on the road from Bonn, but on the opposite side of the river; on this bank, nearly facing it, are the re. mains of another, called the Jew's castle, and a large cross commemorative of the murder of a chief by his brother: the number of castles and cities along the course of the Rhine on both sides is very great, and their situations remarkably beautiful.

12.

The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o'er him wept.

Stanza Ivii, line last. The monument of the young and lamented General Marceau (killed by a rifle-ball at Altenkirchen on the last day of the fourth year of the French republic) still remains as described.

The inscriptions on his monument are rather too long, and not required : his name was enough; France adored, and her enemies admired; both wept over him. - His funeral was attended by the generals and detachments from both armies. In the same grave General Hoche is interred, a gallant man also in every sense of the word; but though he distinguished himself greatly in battle, he had not the good fortune to die there: his death was attended by suspicions of poison.

A separate monument (not over his body, which is buried by Marceau's) is raised for him near Andernach, opposite to which one of his most memorable exploits was performed, in throwing a bridge to an island on the Rhine. The shape and style are different from that of Marceau's, and the Inscription more simple and pleasing.

The Army of the Sambre and Meuse.
to its Commander in Chief

"Hoche...

Hoche was

This is all, and as it should be. esteemed among the first of France's earlier ge. nerals before Buonaparte monopolized her triumphs. He was the destined commander of the invading army of Ireland.

13.

Here Ehrenbreitstein, with her shatter'd wall. Stanza lviii. line 1.

Ehrenbreitstein, i. e. " the broad stone of Honour, one of the strongest fortresses in Europe, was dismantled and blown up by the French at the truce of Leoben. It had been and could only be reduced by famine or treachery. It yielded to the former, aided by surprise. After having seen the fortifications of Gibraltar and Malta, it did not much strike by comparison, but the situation

is commanding. General Marceau besieged it in vain for some time, and I slept in a room where I was shown a window at which he is said to have been standing observing the progress of the siege by moonlight, when a ball struck immediately

below it.

14.

Unsepulchred they roam'd, and shriek'd each wandering ghost.

Stanza Ixiii. line last. The chapel is destroyed, and the pyramid of bones diminished to a small number by the Burgun dian legion in the service of France, who anxiously effaced this record of their ancestors' less successfull invasions. A few still remain, notwithstanding the pains taken by the Burgundians for ages (all who passed that way removing a bone to their own country) and the less justifiable larcenies of the Swiss postilions, who carried them off to sell for knife-handles, a purpose for which the whiteness imbibed by the bleaching of years had rendered them in great request. Of these relics I ventured to bring away as much as may have made a quarter of a hero, for which the sole excuse is, that if 1 had not, the next passer by might have perverted them to worse uses than the careful preservation which I intend for them.

15.

Levell'd Aventicum hath strew'd her subject lands. Stanza Ixv. line last. Aventicum (near Morat) was the Roman capital of Helvetia, where Avenches now stands.

16.

And held within their urn one mind, one heart, one dust.

Stanza Ixvi. line last. Julia Alpinula, a young Aventian priestess, died soon after a vain endeavour to save her father, condemned to death as a traitor by Aulus Caecina. Her epitaph was discovered many years ago; it is thus