The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 6

LXXIV. And scrambling round the rampart, these same troops, After the taking of the "Cavalier," [449] Just as Koutousow's most "forlorn" of "hopes" Took, like chameleons, some slight tinge of fear, Opened the gate called "Kilia," to the groups [450] Of baffled heroes, who stood shyly near, Sliding knee-deep in lately frozen mud, Now thawed into a marsh of human blood. LXXIV. The Kozacks, or, if so you please, Cossacques— (I don't much pique myself upon orthography, So that I do not grossly err in facts, Statistics, tactics, politics, and geography)— Having been used to serve on horses' backs, And no great dilettanti in topography Of fortresses, but fighting where it pleases Their chiefs to order,—were all cut to pieces. [451] LXXV. Their column, though the Turkish batteries thundered Upon them, ne'ertheless had reached the rampart, [452] And naturally thought they could have plundered The city, without being farther hampered; But as it happens to brave men, they blundered— The Turks at first pretended to have scampered, Only to draw them 'twixt two bastion corners, [453] From whence they sallied on those Christian scorners. LXXVI. Then being taken by the tail—a taking Fatal to bishops as to soldiers—these [IH] Cossacques were all cut off as day was breaking, And found their lives were let at a short lease— But perished without shivering or shaking, Leaving as ladders their heaped carcasses, O'er which Lieutenant-Colonel Yesouskoi Marched with the brave battalion of Polouzki:— [454] LXXVII. This valiant man killed all the Turks he met, But could not eat them, being in his turn Slain by some Mussulmans, [455] who would not yet, Without resistance, see their city burn. The walls were won, but 't was an even bet Which of the armies would have cause to mourn: 'T was blow for blow, disputing inch by inch, For one would not retreat, nor 't other flinch. LXXVIII. Another column also suffered much:— And here we may remark with the historian, You should but give few cartridges to such Troops as are meant to march with greatest glory on: When matters must be carried by the touch Of the bright bayonet, and they all should hurry on; They sometimes, with a hankering for existence, Keep merely firing at a foolish distance. [456] LXXIX. A junction of the General Meknop's men (Without the General, who had fallen some time Before, being badly seconded just then) Was made at length with those who dared to climb The death-disgorging rampart once again; And, though the Turk's resistance was sublime, They took the bastion, which the Seraskier Defended at a price extremely dear. [457] LXXX. Juan and Johnson, and some volunteers, Among the foremost, offered him good quarter, A word which little suits with Seraskiers, Or at least suited not this valiant Tartar. He died, deserving well his country's tears, A savage sort of military martyr: An English naval officer, who wished To make him prisoner, was also dished: LXXXI. For all the answer to his proposition Was from a pistol-shot that laid him dead; [458] On which the rest, without more intermission, Began to lay about with steel and lead— The pious metals most in requisition On such occasions: not a single head Was spared;—three thousand Moslems perished here, And sixteen bayonets pierced the Seraskier. [459] 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. [460] Here War forgot his own destructive art In more destroying Nature; and the heat Of Carnage, like the Nile's sun-sodden slime, Engendered monstrous shapes of every crime. LXXXIII. A Russian officer, in martial tread Over a heap of bodies, felt his heel Seized fast, as if 't were by the serpent's head Whose fangs Eve taught her human seed to feel; In vain he kicked, and swore, and writhed, and bled, And howled for help as wolves do for a meal— The teeth still kept their gratifying hold, As do the subtle snakes described of old. [II] LXXXIV. A dying Moslem, who had felt the foot Of a foe o'er him, snatched 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 relinquished it Even with his life—for (but they lie) 't is said To the live leg still clung the severed head. LXXXV. However this may be, 't is pretty sure The Russian officer for life was lamed, For the Turk's teeth stuck faster than a skewer, And left him 'midst the invalid and maimed: The regimental surgeon could not cure His patient, and, perhaps, was to be blamed More than the head of the inveterate foe, Which was cut off, and scarce even then let go. LXXXVI. But then the fact's a fact—and 't is the part Of a true poet to escape from fiction Whene'er he can; for there is little art in leaving verse more free from the restriction Of Truth than prose, unless to suit the mart For what is sometimes called poetic diction, And that outrageous appetite for lies Which Satan angles with for souls, like flies. [IJ] LXXXVII. The city's taken, but not rendered!—No! There's not a Moslem that hath yielded sword: The blood may gush out, as the Danube's flow Rolls by the city wall; but deed nor word Acknowledge aught of dread of Death or foe: In vain the yell of victory is roared By the advancing Muscovite—the groan Of the last foe is echoed by his own. LXXXVIII. The bayonet pierces and the sabre cleaves, And human lives are lavished everywhere, As the year closing whirls the scarlet leaves [IK] When the stripped 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 checkered as is seen our human lot With good, and bad, and worse, alike prolific Of melancholy merriment, to quote Too much of one sort would be soporific;— Without, or with, offence to friends or foes, I sketch your world exactly as it goes. XC. And one good action in the midst of crimes Is "quite refreshing," in the affected phrase [461] Of these ambrosial, Pharisaic times, With all their pretty milk-and-water ways, And may serve therefore to bedew these rhymes, A little scorched at present with the blaze Of conquest and its consequences, which Make Epic poesy so rare and rich. XCI. Upon a taken bastion, where there lay Thousands of slaughtered men, a yet warm group Of murdered 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 lulled in bloody rest. [462] XCII. Two villanous Cossacques pursued the child With flashing eyes and weapons: matched with them , The rudest brute that roams Siberia's wild Has feelings pure and polished as a gem,— The bear is civilised, the wolf is mild; And whom for this at last must we condemn? Their natures? or their sovereigns, who employ All arts to teach their subjects to destroy? XCIII. Their sabres glittered o'er her little head, Whence her fair hair rose twining with affright, Her hidden face was plunged amidst the dead: When Juan caught a glimpse of this sad sight, I shall not say exactly what he said , Because it might not solace "ears polite;" [463] But what he did , was to lay on their backs, The readiest way of reasoning with Cossacques. XCIV. One's hip he slashed, and split the other's shoulder, And drove them with their brutal yells to seek If there might be chirurgeons who could solder The wounds they richly merited, [464] and shriek Their baffled rage and pain; while waxing colder As he turned o'er each pale and gory cheek, Don Juan raised his little captive from The heap a moment more had made her tomb. XCV. And she was chill as they, and on her face A slender streak of blood announced how near Her fate had been to that of all her race; For the same blow which laid her mother here Had scarred her brow, and left its crimson trace, As the last link with all she had held dear; [465] But else unhurt, she opened her large eyes, And gazed on Juan with a wild surprise. XCVI. Just at this instant, while their eyes were fixed Upon each other, with dilated glance, In Juan's look, pain, pleasure, hope, fear, mixed With joy to save, and dread of some mischance Unto his protégée; while hers, transfixed With infant terrors, glared as from a trance, A pure, transparent, pale, yet radiant face, Like to a lighted alabaster vase:— [466] XCVII. Up came John Johnson (I will not say "Jack," For that were vulgar, cold, and common-place On great occasions, such as an attack On cities, as hath been the present case): Up Johnson came, with hundreds at his back, Exclaiming—"Juan! Juan! On, boy! brace Your arm, and I'll bet Moscow to a dollar, That you and I will win St. George's collar. [467] XCVIII. "The Seraskier is knocked upon the head, But the stone bastion still remains, wherein The old Pacha sits among some hundreds dead, Smoking his pipe quite calmly 'midst the din Of our artillery and his own: 't is said Our killed, already piled up to the chin, Lie round the battery; but still it batters, And grape in volleys, like a vineyard, scatters. XCIX. "Then up with me!"—But Juan answered, "Look Upon this child—I saved her—must not leave Her life to chance; but point me out some nook Of safety, where she less may shrink and grieve, And I am with you."—Whereon Johnson took A glance around—and shrugged—and twitched his sleeve And black silk neckcloth—and replied, "You're right; Poor thing! what's to be done? I'm puzzled quite." C. Said Juan—"Whatsoever is to be Done, I'll not quit her till she seems secure Of present life a good deal more than we."— Quoth Johnson—" Neither will I quite insure; But at the least you may die gloriously."— Juan replied—" At least I will endure Whate'er is to be borne—but not resign This child, who is parentless, and therefore mine." CI. Johnson said—"Juan, we've no time to lose; The child's a pretty child—a very pretty— I never saw such eyes—but hark! now choose Between your fame and feelings, pride and pity:— Hark! how the roar increases!—no excuse Will serve when there is plunder in a city;— I should be loath to march without you, but, By God! we'll be too late for the first cut." CII. But Juan was immovable; until Johnson, who really loved him in his way, Picked out amongst his followers with some skill Such as he thought the least given up to prey, And, swearing, if the infant came to ill That they should all be shot on the next day,— But if she were delivered safe and sound, They should at least have fifty rubles round, CIII. And all allowances besides of plunder In fair proportion with their comrades;—then Juan consented to march on through thunder, Which thinned at every step their ranks of men: And yet the rest rushed eagerly—no wonder, For they were heated by the hope of gain, A thing which happens everywhere each day— No hero trusteth wholly to half pay. CIV. And such is Victory, and such is Man! At least nine tenths of what we call so:—God May have another name for half we scan As human beings, or his ways are odd. But to our subject: a brave Tartar Khan— Or "Sultan," as the author (to whose nod In prose I bend my humble verse) doth call This chieftain—somehow would not yield at all: CV. But flanked by five brave sons (such is polygamy, That she spawns warriors by the score, where none Are prosecuted for that false crime bigamy), He never would believe the city won While Courage clung but to a single twig.—Am I Describing Priam's, Peleus', or Jove's son? Neither—but a good, plain, old, temperate man, Who fought with his five children in the van. [468] CVI. To take him was the point.—The truly brave, When they behold the brave oppressed with odds, Are touched with a desire to shield and save;— A mixture of wild beasts and demi-gods Are they—now furious as the sweeping wave, Now moved with pity: even as sometimes nods The rugged tree unto the summer wind, Compassion breathes along the savage mind. CVII. But he would not be taken , and replied To all the propositions of surrender By mowing Christians down on every side, As obstinate as Swedish Charles at Bender. [469] His five brave boys no less the foe defied; Whereon the Russian pathos grew less tender As being a virtue, like terrestrial patience, [IL] Apt to wear out on trifling provocations. CVIII. And spite of Johnson and of Juan, who Expended all their Eastern phraseology In begging him, for God's sake, just to show So much less fight as might form an apology For them in saving such a desperate foe— He hewed away, like Doctors of Theology When they dispute with sceptics; and with curses Struck at his friends, as babies beat their nurses. CIX. Nay, he had wounded, though but slightly, both Juan and Johnson; whereupon they fell, The first with sighs, the second with an oath, Upon his angry Sultanship, pell-mell, And all around were grown exceeding wroth At such a pertinacious infidel, And poured upon him and his sons like rain, Which they resisted like a sandy plain CX. That drinks and still is dry. At last they perished— His second son was levelled by a shot; His third was sabred; and the fourth, most cherished Of all the five, on bayonets met his lot; The fifth, who, by a Christian mother nourished, Had been neglected, ill-used, and what not, Because deformed, yet died all game and bottom, [IM] To save a Sire who blushed that he begot him. CXI. The eldest was a true and tameless Tartar, As great a scorner of the Nazarene As ever Mahomet picked out for a martyr, Who only saw the black-eyed girls in green, Who make the beds of those who won't take quarter On earth, in Paradise; and when once seen, Those houris, like all other pretty creatures, Do just whate'er they please, by dint of features. CXII. And what they pleased to do with the young Khan In Heaven I know not, nor pretend to guess; But doubtless they prefer a fine young man To tough old heroes, and can do no less; [IN] And that's the cause no doubt why, if we scan A field of battle's ghastly wilderness, For one rough, weather-beaten, veteran body, You'll find ten thousand handsome coxcombs bloody. CXIII. Your houris also have a natural pleasure In lopping off your lately married men, Before the bridal hours have danced their measure And the sad, second moon grows dim again, Or dull Repentance hath had dreary leisure To wish him back a bachelor now and then: And thus your Houri (it may be) disputes Of these brief blossoms the immediate fruits. CXIV. Thus the young Khan, with Houris in his sight, Thought not upon the charms of four young brides, But bravely rushed on his first heavenly night. In short, howe'er our better faith derides, These black-eyed virgins make the Moslems fight, As though there were one Heaven and none besides— Whereas, if all be true we hear of Heaven And Hell, there must at least be six or seven. CXV. So fully flashed the phantom on his eyes, That when the very lance was in his heart, He shouted "Allah!" and saw Paradise With all its veil of mystery drawn apart, And bright Eternity without disguise On his soul, like a ceaseless sunrise, dart:— With Prophets—Houris—Angels—Saints, descried In one voluptuous blaze,—and then he died,— [IO] CXVI. But with a heavenly rapture on his face. The good old Khan, who long had ceased to see Houris, or aught except his florid race, Who grew like cedars round him gloriously— When he beheld his latest hero grace The earth, which he became like a felled tree, Paused for a moment from the fight, and cast A glance on that slain son, his first and last. CXVII. The soldiers, who beheld him drop his point, Stopped as if once more willing to concede Quarter, in case he bade them not "aroynt!" As he before had done. He did not heed Their pause nor signs: his heart was out of joint, And shook (till now unshaken) like a reed, As he looked down upon his children gone, And felt—though done with life—he was alone. [470] CXVIII. But 't was a transient tremor:—with a spring Upon the Russian steel his breast he flung, As carelessly as hurls the moth her wing Against the light wherein she dies: he clung Closer, that all the deadlier they might wring, Unto the bayonets which had pierced his young; And throwing back a dim look on his sons, In one wide wound poured forth his soul at once. CXIX. 'T is strange enough—the rough, tough soldiers, who Spared neither sex nor age in their career Of carnage, when this old man was pierced through, And lay before them with his children near, Touched by the heroism of him they slew, Were melted for a moment; though no tear Flowed from their bloodshot eyes, all red with strife, They honoured such determined scorn of Life. CXX. But the stone bastion still kept up its fire, Where the chief Pacha calmly held his post: Some twenty times he made the Russ retire, And baffled the assaults of all their host; At length he condescended to inquire If yet the city's rest were won or lost; And being told the latter, sent a Bey To answer Ribas' summons to give way. [471] CXXI. In the mean time, cross-legged, with great sang-froid, Among the scorching ruins he sat smoking Tobacco on a little carpet;—Troy Saw nothing like the scene around;—yet looking With martial Stoicism, nought seemed to annoy His stern philosophy; but gently stroking His beard, he puffed his pipe's ambrosial gales, As if he had three lives, as well as tails. [472] CXXII. The town was taken—whether he might yield Himself or bastion, little mattered now: His stubborn valour was no future shield. Ismail's no more! The Crescent's silver bow Sunk, and the crimson Cross glared o'er the field, But red with no redeeming gore: the glow Of burning streets, like moonlight on the water, Was imaged back in blood, the sea of slaughter. [IP] CXXIII. All that the mind would shrink from of excesses— All that the body perpetrates of bad; All that we read—hear—dream, of man's distresses— All that the Devil would do if run stark mad; All that defies the worst which pen expresses,— All by which Hell is peopled, or as sad As Hell—mere mortals who their power abuse— Was here (as heretofore and since) let loose. CXXIV. If here and there some transient trait of pity Was shown, and some more noble heart broke through Its bloody bond, and saved, perhaps, some pretty Child, or an agéd, helpless man or two— What's this in one annihilated city, Where thousand loves, and ties, and duties grew? Cockneys of London! Muscadins of Paris! Just ponder what a pious pastime War is. [IQ] CXXV. Think how the joys of reading a Gazette Are purchased by all agonies and crimes: Or if these do not move you, don't forget Such doom may be your own in after-times. Meantime the Taxes, Castlereagh, and Debt, Are hints as good as sermons, or as rhymes. Read your own hearts and Ireland's present story, Then feed her famine fat with Wellesley's glory. CXXVI. But still there is unto a patriot nation, Which loves so well its country and its King, A subject of sublimest exultation— Bear it, ye Muses, on your brightest wing! Howe'er the mighty locust, Desolation, Strip your green fields, and to your harvests cling, Gaunt famine never shall approach the throne— Though Ireland starve, great George weighs twenty stone. [473] CXXVII. But let me put an end unto my theme: There was an end of Ismail—hapless town! Far flashed her burning towers o'er Danube's stream, And redly ran his blushing waters down. The horrid war-whoop and the shriller scream Rose still; but fainter were the thunders grown: Of forty thousand who had manned the wall, Some hundreds breathed—the rest were silent all! [474] CXXVIII. In one thing ne'ertheless 't is fit to praise The Russian army upon this occasion, A virtue much in fashion now-a-days, And therefore worthy of commemoration: [IR] The topic's tender, so shall be my phrase— Perhaps the season's chill, and their long station In Winter's depth, or want of rest and victual, Had made them chaste;—they ravished very little. CXXIX. Much did they slay, more plunder, and no less Might here and there occur some violation In the other line;—but not to such excess As when the French, that dissipated nation, Take towns by storm: no causes can I guess, Except cold weather and commiseration; [IS] But all the ladies, save some twenty score, Were almost as much virgins as before. CXXX. Some odd mistakes, too, happened in the dark, Which showed a want of lanterns, or of taste— Indeed the smoke was such they scarce could mark Their friends from foes,—besides such things from haste Occur, though rarely, when there is a spark Of light to save the venerably chaste: But six old damsels, each of seventy years, Were all deflowered by different grenadiers. CXXXI. But on the whole their continence was great; So that some disappointment there ensued To those who had felt the inconvenient state Of "single blessedness," and thought it good (Since it was not their fault, but only fate, To bear these crosses) for each waning prude To make a Roman sort of Sabine wedding, Without the expense and the suspense of bedding. CXXII. Some voices of the buxom middle-aged Were also heard to wonder in the din (Widows of forty were these birds long caged) "Wherefore the ravishing did not begin!" But while the thirst for gore and plunder raged, There was small leisure for superfluous sin; But whether they escaped or no, lies hid In darkness—I can only hope they did. CXXXIII. Suwarrow now was conqueror—a match For Timour or for Zinghis in his trade. While mosques and streets, beneath his eyes, like thatch Blazed, and the cannon's roar was scarce allayed, With bloody hands he wrote his first despatch; And here exactly follows what he said:— "Glory to God and to the Empress!" ( Powers Eternal! such names mingled! ) "Ismail's ours." [475] CXXXIV. Methinks these are the most tremendous words, Since " Mene, Mene, Tekel ," and " Upharsin ," Which hands or pens have ever traced of swords. Heaven help me! I'm but little of a parson: What Daniel read was short-hand of the Lord's, Severe, sublime; the prophet wrote no farce on The fate of nations;—but this Russ so witty Could rhyme, like Nero, o'er a burning city. CXXXV. He wrote this Polar melody, and set it, Duly accompanied by shrieks and groans, Which few will sing, I trust, but none forget it— For I will teach, if possible, the stones To rise against Earth's tyrants. Never let it Be said that we still truckle unto thrones;— But ye—our children's children! think how we Showed what things were before the World was free! CXXXVI. That hour is not for us, but 't is for you: And as, in the great joy of your Millennium, You hardly will believe such things were true As now occur, I thought that I would pen you 'em; But may their very memory perish too!— Yet if perchance remembered, still disdain you 'em More than you scorn the savages of yore, Who painted their bare limbs, but not with gore. CXXXVII. And when you hear historians talk of thrones, And those that sate upon them, let it be As we now gaze upon the mammoth's bones, And wonder what old world such things could see, Or hieroglyphics on Egyptian stones, The pleasant riddles of futurity— Guessing at what shall happily be hid, As the real purpose of a pyramid. CXXXVIII. Reader! I have kept my word,—at least so far As the first Canto promised. You have now Had sketches of Love—Tempest—Travel—War,— All very accurate, you must allow, And Epic , if plain truth should prove no bar; For I have drawn much less with a long bow Than my forerunners. Carelessly I sing, But Phoebus lends me now and then a string, CXXXIX. With which I still can harp, and carp, and fiddle. What further hath befallen or may befall The hero of this grand poetic riddle, I by and by may tell you, if at all: But now I choose to break off in the middle, Worn out with battering Ismail's stubborn wall, While Juan is sent off with the despatch, For which all Petersburgh is on the watch. CXL. This special honour was conferred, because He had behaved with courage and humanity— Which last men like, when they have time to pause From their ferocities produced by vanity. His little captive gained him some applause For saving her amidst the wild insanity Of carnage,—and I think he was more glad in her Safety, than his new order of St. Vladimir. CXLI. The Moslem orphan went with her protector, For she was homeless, houseless, helpless; all Her friends, like the sad family of Hector, Had perished in the field or by the wall: Her very place of birth was but a spectre Of what it had been; there the Muezzin's call To prayer was heard no more!—and Juan wept, And made a vow to shield her, which he kept. FOOTNOTES: [412] {331}["La nuit était obscure; un brouillard épais ne nous permettait de distinguer autre chose que le feu de notre artillerie, dont l'horizon était embrasé de tous côtés: ce feu, partant du milieu du Danube, se réfléchissait sur les eaux, et offrait un coup d'oeil très-singulier."- Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 209.] [413] {332}["À peine eut-on parcouru l'espace de quelques toises au-delà des batteries, que les Turcs, qui n'avaient point tiré pendant toute la nuit s'apperçevant de nos mouvemens, commencèrent de leur côté un feu très-vif, qui embrasa le reste de l'horizon: mais ce fut bien autre chose lorsque, avancés davantage, le feu de la mousqueterie commença dans toute l'étendue du rempart que nous appercevions. Ce fut alors que la place parut à nos yeux comme un volcan dont le feu sortait de toutes parts."- Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 209.] [414] ["Un cri universel d' allah , qui se répétait tout autour de la ville, vint encore rendre plus extraordinaire cet instant, dont il est impossible de se faire une idée."— Ibid. , p. 209.] [415] Allah Hu! is properly the war-cry of the Mussulmans, and they dwell on the last syllable, which gives it a wild and peculiar effect. [See The Giaour , line 734, Poetical Works , 1900, iii. 120, note 1; see, too, Siege of Corinth , line 713, ibid., p. 481.] [416] ["Toutes les colonnes étaient en mouvement; celles qui attaquaient par eau commandées par le général Arséniew, essuyèrent un feu épouvantable, et perdirent avant le jour un tiers de leurs officiers."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 209.] [417] "But Thy [*] most dreaded instrument, In working out a pure intent, Is Man—arrayed for mutual slaughter,— Yea, Carnage is thy daughter! " Wordsworth's Thanksgiving Ode (January 18, 1816), stanza xii. lines 20, 23. [*]To wit, the Deity's: this is perhaps as pretty a pedigree for murder as ever was found out by Garter King at Arms.—What would have been said, had any free-spoken people discovered such a lineage? [Wordsworth omitted the lines in the last edition of his poems, which was revised by his own hand.] [IA] {333} The Duc de Richelieu ——.—[MS. erased.] [418] ["Le Prince de Ligne fut blessé au genou; le Duc de Richelieu eut une balle entre le fond de son bonnet et sa tête."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 210. For the gallantry of Prince Charles de Ligne (died September 14, 1792) eldest son of Prince Charles Joseph de Ligne (1735-1814), see The Prince de Ligne , 1899, ii. 46. Armand Emanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, born 1767, a grandson of Louis François Duc de Richelieu, the Marshal of France (1696-1780), served under Catherine II., and afterwards under the Czar Paul. On the restoration of Louis XVIII. he entered the King's household; and after the battle of Waterloo took office as President of the Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs. His Journal de mon Voyage en Allemagne , which was then unpublished, was placed at the disposal of the Marquis de Castelnau (see Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , 1827, i. 241). It has been printed in full by the Société Impériale d'Histoire de Russie , 1886, tom. liv. pp. 111-198. See for further mention of the manuscript, Le Duc de Richelieu , par Raoul de Cisternes, 1898, Preface, p. 3, note 1. He died May 17, 1822, two months before Cantos VI., VII., VIII. were completed.] [419] {334}["Le brigadier Markow, insistant pour qu'on emportât le prince blessé, reçut un coup de fusil qui lui fracassa le pied."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 210.] [420] ["Trois cents bouches à feu vomissaient sans interruption, et trente mille fusils alimentaient sans reláche une grêle de balles."— Ibid. , p. 210.] [421] {335}["Les troupes, déja débarquées, se portèrent á droite pour s'emparer d'une batterie; et celles débarquées plus bas, principalement composées des grenadiers de Fanagorie, escaladaient le retranchement et la palissade."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 210.] [422] A fact: see the Waterloo Gazettes. I recollect remarking at the time to a friend:—" There is fame! a man is killed, his name is Grose, and they print it Grove." I was at college with the deceased, who was a very amiable and clever man, and his society in great request for his wit, gaiety, and "Chansons à boire." [In the London Gazette Extraordinary of June 22, 1815, Captain Grove, 1st Guards, is among the list of killed. In the supplement to the London Gazette , published July 3, 1815, the mistake was corrected, and the entry runs, "1st Guards, 3d Batt. Lieut. Edward Grose, (Captain)." I am indebted to the courtesy of the Registrar of the University of Cambridge for the information that Edward Grose matriculated at St. John's College as a pensioner, December 7, 1805. Thanks to the "misprint" in the Gazette , and to Byron, he is "a name for ever."— Vir nullâ non donatus lauru! ] [423] {337}[At the Battle of Mollwitz, April 10, 1741, "the king vanishes for sixteen hours into the regions of Myth 'into Fairyland,' ... of the king's flight ... the king himself, who alone could have told us fully, maintained always rigorous silence, and nowhere drops the least hint. So that the small fact has come down to us involved in a great bulk of fabulous cobwebs, mostly of an ill-natured character, set a-going by Voltaire, Valori, and others."—Carlyle's Frederick the Great , 1862, iii. 314, 322, sq.] [424] See General Valancey and Sir Lawrence Parsons. [Charles Vallancey (1721-1812), general in the Royal Engineers, published an "Essay on the Celtic Language," etc., in 1782. "The language [the Iberno-Celtic]," he writes (p. 4), "we are now going to explain, had such an affinity with the Punic, that it may be said to have been, in a great degree, the language of Hanibal ( sic ), Hamilcar, and of Asdrubal." Sir Laurence Parsons (1758-1841), second Earl of Rosse, represented the University of Dublin 1782-90, and afterwards King's County, in the Irish House of Commons. He was an opponent of the Union. In a pamphlet entitled Defence of the Antient History of Ireland , published in 1795, he maintains (p. 158) "that the Carthaginian and the Irish language being originally the same, either the Carthaginians must have been descended from the Irish, or the Irish from the Carthaginians."] [425] {338}The Portuguese proverb says that "hell is paved with good intentions."—[See Vision of Judgment , stanza xxxvii. line 8, Poetical Works , 1901, iv. 499, note 2.] [IB] At least the sharp faints of that "burning marle." —[MS. erased.] [426] {339}["The Nervii marched to the number of sixty thousand, and fell upon Cæsar, as he was fortifying his camp, and had not the least notion of so sudden an attack. They first routed his cavalry, and then surrounded the twelfth and the seventh legions, and killed all the officers. Had not Cæsar snatched a buckler from one of his own men, forced his way through the combatants before him, and rushed upon the barbarians; or had not the tenth legion, seeing his danger, ran from the heights where they were posted, and mowed down the enemy's ranks, not one Roman would have survived the battle."—Plutarch, Cæsar , Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 502.] [427] ["As near a field of corn, a stubborn ass ... E'en so great Ajax son of Telamon." The Iliad , Lord Derby's translation, bk. xi. lines 639, 645.] [IC] {340} Nor care a single damn about his corps .—[MS. erased.] [428] ["N'apercevant plus le commandant du corps dont je faisais partie, et ignorant où je devais porter mes pas, je crus reconnaître le lieu où le rempart était situé; on y faisait un feu assez vif, que je jugeai être celui ... du général-major de Lascy."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 210. The speaker is the Duc de Richelieu. See, for original, his Journal de mon Voyage, etc., Soc. Imp. d'Hist. de Russie , tom. liv. p. 179] [ID] For he was dizzy, busy, and his blood Lightening along his veins, and where he heard The liveliest fire, and saw the fiercest flood Of Friar Bacon's mild discovery, shared By Turks and Christians equally, he could No longer now resist the attraction of gunpowder But flew to where the merry orchestra played louder .—[MS. erased.] [429] Gunpowder is said to have been discovered by this friar. [N.B. Though Friar Bacon seems to have discovered gunpowder, he had the humanity not to record his discovery in intelligible language.] [IE] {341} —— whose short breath, and long faces Kept always pushing onwards to the Glacis .—[MS. erased.] [430] {342}[ I Henry IV. , act iii. sc. 1, line 53.] [IF] And that mechanic impulse ——.—[MS. erased.] [431] [ Hamlet , act iii, sc. 1, lines 79, 80.] [432] {343}[" 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. ] [433] ["Appelant ceux des chasseurs qui étaient autour de moi en assez grand nombre, je m'avançai et reconnus ne m'être 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 Nouvelle Russie , ii. 210.] [434] {344}[Baron Menno van Coehoorn (circ. 1641-1704), a Dutch military engineer, the contemporary and rival of Vauban, invented a mortar which bore his name. He was the author of a celebrated work on fortification, published in 1692.] [435] ["Ce fut dans cet instant que je reconnus combien l'ignorance du constructeur des palissades était importante pour nous; car, comme elles étaient placées au milieu du parapet," etc.— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 211.] [436] They were but two feet above the level.—[MS.] ["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 et enjamber ensuite les palissades, qui ne s'élevaient que d'à-peu-près deux pieds au-dessus du niveau de la terre."— Ibid. , p. 211.] [437] {345}[Friederich Wilhelm, Baron von Bülow (1755-1816), was in command of the 4th corps of the Prussian Army at Waterloo. August Wilhelm Antonius Neidhart von Gneisenau (1760-1831) was chief of staff, and after Blücher was disabled by a fall at Ligny, assumed temporary command, June 16-17, 1815. He headed the triumphant pursuit of the French on the night of the battle. For Blücher's official account of the battles of Ligny and Waterloo (subscribed by Gneisenau), see W.H. Maxwell's Life of the Duke of Wellington , 1841, iii. 566-571; and for Wellington's acknowledgment of Blücher's "cordial and timely assistance," see Dispatches , 1847, viii. 150. See, too, The Life of Wellington , by the Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., 1899, ii. 88, et passim .] [IG] {346} —— as feminine of feature .—[MS.] Led him on—although he was the gentlest creature , As kind in heart as feminine of feature .—[MS. erased.] [438] {347}[Pistol's " Bezonian " is a corruption of bisognoso —a rogue, needy fellow. Byron, quoting from memory, confuses two passages. In 2 Henry VI. , act iv. sc. 1, line 134, Suffolk says, "Great men oft die of vile bezonians;" in 2 Henry IV. , act v. sc. 3, line 112, Pistol says, "Under which King, Besonian? speak or die."] [439] ["Le Général Lascy, voyant arriver un corps, si à-propos à son secours, s'avança vers l'officier qui l'avait conduit, et, le prenant pour un Livonien, lui fit, en allemand, 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 Nouvelle Russie , ii. 211.] [440] {348}[ The Task , bk. i. line 749. It was pointed out to Cowper that the same thought had been expressed by Isaac Hawkins Browne, in The Fire-side, a Pastoral Soliloquy , lines 15, 16 ( Poems , ed. 1768, p. 125)— "I have said it at home, I have said it abroad, That the town is Man's world, but that this is of God." There is a parallel passage in M.T. Varro, Rerum Rusticarum , lib. iii. I. 4, "Nee minim, quod divina natura dedit agros, ars humami aedificavit urbes."—See The Task, etc. , ed. by H.T. Griffith, 1896, ii. 234.] [441] [Sulla spoke of himself as the "fortunate," and in the twenty-second book of his Commentaries, finished only two days before his death, "he tells us that the Chaldeans had predicted, that after a life of glory he would depart in the height of his prosperity." He was fortunate, too, with regard to his funeral, for, at first, a brisk wind blew which fanned the pile into flame, and it was not till the fire had begun to die out that the rain, which had been expected throughout the day, began to fall in torrents.—Langhorne's Plutarch , 1838, pp. 334, 335. See, too, Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte , stanza vii. Poetical Works , 1900, in. 308, note I.] [442] [Daniel Boone (1735-1820) was the grandson of an English settler, George Boone, of Exeter. His great work in life was the conquest of Kentucky. Following in the steps of another pioneer, John Finley, he left his home in North Carolina in May, 1769, and, after numerous adventures, effected a settlement on the Kentucky river. He constructed a fort, which he named Boonesborough, and carried on a protracted campaign with varying but final success against the Indians. When Kentucky was admitted into the Union, February 4, 1791, he failed to make good his title to his property at Boonesborough, and withdrew to Mount Pleasant, beyond the Ohio. Thence, in 1795, he removed to Missouri, then a Spanish possession. Napoleon wrested Missouri from the Spaniards, only to sell the territory to the United States, with the result that in 1810 he was confirmed in the possession of 850 out of the 8000 acres which he had acquired in 1795. "Boone was then seventy-five years of age, hale and strong. The charm of the hunter's life clung to him to the last, and in his eighty-second year he went on a hunting excursion to the mouth of the Kansas river."—Appleton's Encyclopedia, etc ., art. "Boone." His fine and gracious nature reveals itself in his autobiography ( The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boon, Formerly a Hunter; Containing a Narrative of the Wars of Kentucky ; Imlay's North America , 1793, ii. 52-54). "One day," he writes (pp. 330, sq .), "I undertook a tour through the country, and the diversity and beauties of nature ... expelled every gloomy and vexatious thought. Just at the close of day the gentle gales retired, and left the place to the disposal of a profound calm. Not a breeze shook the most tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, and, looking round with astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains, the beauteous tracts below. On the other hand, I surveyed the famous river Ohio, that rolled in silent dignity, marking the western boundary of Kentucky with inconceivable grandeur. ... All things were still. I kindled a fire near a fountain of sweet water, and feasted on the loins of a buck, which a few hours before I had killed.... No populous city, with all the varieties of commerce and stately structures, could afford so much pleasure to my mind as the beauties of nature I found here." (See, too, The Kentucky Pioneers , by John Brown, Harper's New Monthly Magazine , 1887, vol. lxxv. pp. 48-71.)] [443] {350}[For John Kyrle, "the Man of Ross" (1635-1724), see Pope's Moral Essays , epist. iii. lines 249-284. See, too, Letters of S.T. Coleridge , 1895 (letter to R. Southey, July 13, 1794), i. 77.] [444] {351}[Byron seems to have derived his knowledge of Catherine's vie intime from the Mémoires Secrets sur la Russie , of C.F.P. Masson, which were published in Amsterdam in 1800, and translated into English in the same year.] [445] [Michailo Smolenskoi Koutousof (1743-1813), who was raised to eminence through the influence of Potemkin, was in command of the Austro-Russian Army at Austerlitz. During the retreat from Moscow he repulsed Napoleon at Malo-yaroslavetz, and pursued the French to Kalisz. Tolstoi introduces Koutousof in his novel, War and Peace , and dwells on his fatalism.] [446] {352}["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'intrépidité à un grand nombre de connaissances acquises; il marche au feu avec la même gaîeté 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 , ii. 212.] [447] ["Ce brave Koutouzow se jeta dans le fossé, fut suivi des siens, et ne pénétra jusqu'au haut du parapet qu'après avoir éprouvé des difficultés incroyables. (Le brigadier de Ribaupierre perdit la vie dans cette occasion: il avail 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."— Ibid. , p. 212.] [448] ["Quelques troupes russes, emportées par le courant, n'ayant pu débarquer sur le terrain qu'on leur avait prescrit," etc.— Ibid. , p. 213.] [449] ["A '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. ] [450] {353}[" ... longèrent le rempart, après la prise du cavalier, et ouvrirent la porte dite de Kilia aux soldats du général Koutouzow."— Hist, de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 213.] [451] ["Il était réservé aux Kozaks de combler de leurs corps la partie du fossé où ils combattaient; leur colonne avail été divisée entre MM. Platow et d'Orlow ..."— Ibid. , p. 213.] [452] [" ... la première partie, devant se joindre à la gauche du général Arséniew, fut foudroyée par le feu des batteries, et parvint néanmoins au haut du rempart."— Ibid. , p. 213.] [453] ["Les Turcs la laissèrent un peu s'avancer, dans la ville, et firent deux sorties par les angles saillans des bastions."— Ibid. , p. 213.] [IH] Fatal to warriors as to women—these .—[MS.] [454] {354}["Alors, se trouvant prise en queue, elle fut écrasée; cependant le Lieutenant-colonel Yesouskoï, qui commandait la réserve composée d'un bataillon du régiment de Polozk, traversa le fossé sur les cadavres des Kozaks ..."— Hist. de la Nouvell Russia , ii. 212.] [455] [" ... et extermina tous les Turcs qu'il eut en tête: ce brave homme fut tué pendant l'action."— Ibid. , p. 213.] [456] ["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 (c'est ici le lieu de placer une observation, que nous prenons dans les mémoires qui nous guident; elle fait remarquer combien il est raal vu de donner beaucoup de cartouches aux soldats qui doivent emporter un poste de vive force, et par conséquent où la baïonnette doit principalement agir; ils pensent ne devoir se servir de cette derniere arme, que lorsque les cartouches sont epuisées: 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.] [457] {355}["La jonction de la colonne de Meknop—(le général fut nial secondé et tué)—ne put s'effectuer avec celle qui l'avoisinait, ... ces colonnes attaquèrent un bastion, et éprouvèrent une résistance opiniâtre; raais bientôt des cris de victoire se font entendre de toutes parts, et le bastion est emporté: le séraskier défendait cette partie."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 214.] [458] [" ... un officier de marine Anglais veut le faire prisonnier, et reçoit un coup de pistolet qui l'étend roide mort."— Ibid. , p. 214.] [459] ["Les Russes passent trois mille Turcs au fil de l'épée; seize baïonnettes percent à la fois le séraskier."— Ibid. , p. 214.] [460] ["La ville est emportée; l'image de la mort et de la désolation se représente de tous les côtés le soldat furieux n'écoute plus la voix de ses officiers, il ne respire que le carnage; altéré de sang, tout est indifférent pour lui."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 214.] [II] {356} As do the subtle snake's denounced of old .—[MS.] [IJ] {357} Which most of all doth man characterise .—[MS. Alternative reading.] [IK] As Autumn winds disperse the yellow leaves .—[MS. erased.] [461] [See The Blues , ecl. i. line 25, Poetical Works , 1901, iv. 574, note 3.] [462] {358}["Je sauvai la vie à une fille de dix ans, don't 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'aperçus 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,"—Duc de Richelieu. (See Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 217.)] [463] ["Who never mentions Hell to ears polite."—Pope, Moral Essays , ep. iv, line 150.] [464] {359}["Ce spectacle m'attira bientôt, et je n'hésitai pas, comme on peut le croire, à prendre entre mes bras cette infortunée, que les barbares voulaient y poursuivre encore. J'eus bien de la peine à me retenir et à ne pas percer ces misérables du sabre que je tenais suspendu sur leur tête:—je me contentai cependant de les éloigner, non sans leur prodiguer les coups et les injures qu'ils méritaient...."—Duc de Richelieu, vide Hist, de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 217.] [465] [" ... J'eus le plaisir d'apercevoir que ma petite prisonnière n'avait d'autre mal qu'une coupure legere que lui avail faite au visage le même fer qui avail percé sa mére."—Duc de Richelieu, ibid . The Turks clamoured for the child, and Richelieu was forced to give way. But in the original the story ends unhappily. "Je fus obligé de céder á leurs instances et á celles de l'officier qui parlementait avec eux; ... ce ne fut pas sans de grandes difficultés et sans une promesse expresse de la parl de cet officier [Colonel Ribas] de me la faire rendre aussitôt que les Tures auraient mis bas les armes. Je me séparai donc de cet enfant qui m'était déjà devenu très-cher, et même a présent, je ne puis penser á ce moment sans amertume, puisque malgré toutes les recherches et les peines que je me donnai pour la retrouver, il me fut impossible d'y réussir, el je n'ai que trop sujet de craindre qu'elle n'ait péri malheureusement."— Société Impériale d'Histoire de Russie , tom. liv. p. 185.] [466] {360}[Sir Walter Scott ( Quarterly Review , October, 1816, vol. xvi. p. 177) says that a "brother-poet" compared Byron's features to the sculpture of a beautiful alabaster vase, only seen to perfection when lighted up from within. Byron alludes to this comparison in his Detached Thoughts , October 15, 1821, Letters , 1901, v. 408. It may be noted that Lorenzo Bartolini, the Italian sculptor who took a bust of Byron at Pisa, in the spring of 1822, had been employed by Napoleon, in 1814, to design marble vases for a terrace at Elba, which were to be illuminated at night "from within."] [467] A Russian military order. [468] {362}["Le sultan périt dans l'action en brave homme, digne d'un meilleur destin; ce fut lui qui rallia les Turcs lorsque l'ennemi pénétra dans la place ... ce sultan, d'une valeur éprouvée, surpassait en générosité les plus civilisés de sa nation; cinq de ses fils combattaient à ses côtés, il les encourageait par son exemple."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 215.] [469] ["When Charles XII. reached Bender, August 1, 1709, he refused, in the first instance, to cross the river Dniester, and on yielding to the representations of the Turks, he declined to enter the town, but decided on remaining encamped on an island, in spite of the assurances of the inhabitants that it was occasionally flooded." But, perhaps, Byron had in mind Voltaire's remarks on Charles's Opiniâtreté . (See Histoire de Charles XII. , 1772, p. 377. See, too, Charles XII. , by Oscar Browning, 1899, pp. 231-234.)] [IL] —— like celestial patience .—[MS. erased.] [IM] Because a hunchback ——.—[MS. erased.] [IN] {364} In battle to old age and ugliness .—[MS. erased.] [IO] {365} In one immortal glance, and then he died .—[MS. erased] [470] ["Tous cinq furent tous tués sous ces yeux: il ne cessa point de se battre, répondit par des coups de sabre aux propositions de se rendre, et ne fut atteint du coup mortel qu'après avoir abattu de sa main beaucoup de Kozaks des plus acharnée à sa prise; le reste de sa troupe fut massacré."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 215.] [471] {366}["Quoique les Russes fussent répandus dans la ville, le bastion de pierre résistait encore; il était défendu par un vicillard, pacha à trois queues, et commandant les forces réunies à Ismaël. On lui proposa une capitulation; il demanda si le reste de la ville était conquis; sur cette réponse, il autorisa quelques-uns de ces officiers à capituler avec M. de Ribas."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 215.] [472] ["Pendant ce colloque, il resta étendu sur des tapis placés sur les ruines de la forteresse, fumant sa pipe avec la même tranquillité et la même indifférence que s'il eût été étranger à tout ce qui se passait."— Ibid. , p. 215.] [IP] {367} Of burning cities, those full moons of slaughter Was imaged back in blood instead of water .—[MS. Alternative reading.] [IQ] Would you do less , "pro focis et pro aris"?—[MS. erased.] [473] {368}[Compare— "Spread—spread for Vitellius, the royal repast, Till the gluttonous despot be stuffed to the gorge!" The Irish Avatar , stanza 20, Poetical Works , 1891, iv. 559.] [474] ["On égorgea indistinctement, on saccagea la place; et la rage du vainqueur ... se répandit comme un torrent furieux qui a renversé les digues qui le rétenaient: personne obtint de grâce, et trente huit mille huit cent soixante Turcs périrent dans cette journée de sang."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie , ii. 216.] [IR] —— of my peroration .—[MS. erased.] [IS] {369} —— the cause I cannot guess — I hardly think it was commiseration .—[MS. erased.] [475] {370}In the original Russian— "Slava bogu! slava vam! Krépost vzata i ya tam;" a kind of couplet; for he was a poet. [J.H. Castéra ( Vie de Catherine II. , 1797, ii. 374) relates this incident in connection with the fall of Turtukey (or Tutrakaw) in Bulgaria, giving the words in French, "Gloire à Dieu! Louange à Catherine! Toutoukai est pris. Souwaroff y est entré." W. Tooke ( Life of Catherine II. , 1800, iii. 278). Castéra's translator, gives the original Russian with an English version. But according to Spalding ( Suvóroff , 1890, pp. 42, 43), the words, which were written on a scrap of paper, and addressed to Soltikoff, ran thus: "Your Excellency, we have conquered. Glory to God! Glory to you! Alexander Suvóroff." When Ismail was taken he wrote to Potemkin, "The Russian standard floats above the walls of Ismail," and to the Empress, "Proud Ismail lies at your Majesty's feet." The tenour of the poetical message on the fall of Tutrakaw recalls the triumphant piety of the Emperor William I. of Germany. See, too, for "mad Suwarrow's rhymes," Canto IX. stanza lx. lines 1-4.]

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