But Linden saw another sight, By torch and trumpet fast array'd To join the dreadful revelry. Then shook the hills with thunder riven; But redder yet that light shall glow 'Tis morn; but scarce yon level sun Shout in their sulphurous canopy. The combat deepens. On, ye Brave Who rush to glory, or the grave! Wave, Munich! all thy banners wave, And charge with all thy chivalry! Few, few shall part, where many meet ! The snow shall be their winding-sheet, And every turf beneath their feet Shall be a soldier's sepulchre. CCLX T. Campbell AFTER BLENHEIM It was a summer evening, She saw her brother Peterkin Roll something large and round Which he beside the rivulet In playing there had found; He came to ask what he had found That was so large and smooth and round Old Kaspar took it from the boy And then the old man shook his head, "Tis some poor fellow's skull,' said he, 'Who fell in the great victory. 'I find them in the garden, For there's many here about; And often when I go to plough The ploughshare turns them out. 'It was the English,' Kaspar cried, 'My father lived at Blenheim then, They burnt his dwelling to the ground, And he was forced to fly : So with his wife and child he fled, 'With fire and sword the country round Was wasted far and wide And many a childing mother then And newborn baby died: But things like that, you know, must be 'They say it was a shocking sight After the field was won; For many thousand bodies here Lay rotting in the sun : But things like that, you know, must be 'Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won 'Why 'twas a very wicked thing!' “Nay. nay.. my little girl,' quoth he, 'It was a famous victory 'And everybody praised the Duke 'Why that I cannot tell,' said he, R. Southey CCLXI PRO PATRIA MORI When he who adcres thee has left but the name Of his fault and his sorrows behind, Oh! say wilt thou weep, when they darken the fame Yes, weep, and however my foes may condemn, For, Heaven can witness, though guilty to them, With thee were the dreams of my earliest love; Oh! blest are the lovers and friends who shall live But the next dearest blessing that Heaven can give Is the pride of thus dying for thee. CCLXII T. Moore THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, O'er the grave where our hero we buried. No useless coffin enclosed his breast, Not in sheet or in shroud we wound him; Few and short were the prayers we said, But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead, And we bitterly thought of the morrow. We thought, as we hollow'd his narrow bed And smoothed down his lonely pillow, That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head, And we far away on the billow! Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone But half of our heavy task was done When the clock struck the hour for retiring: And we heard the distant and random gun That the foe was sullenly firing. Slowly and sadly we laid him down, From the field of his fame fresh and gory; We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone, But we left him alone with his glory. C. Wolfe CCLXIII SIMON LEE THE OLD HUNTSMAN In the sweet shire of Cardigan, Full five-and-thirty years he lived No man like him the horn could sound, The halloo of Simon Lee. In those proud days he little cared For husbandry or tillage; To blither tasks did Simon rouse The sleepers of the village. He all the country could outrun, Could leave both man and horse behind; And often, ere the chase was done He reel'd and was stone-blind. And still there's something in the world At which his heart rejoices; For when the chiming hounds are out, |