hort speeches pass between two men who speak No common language; and besides, in time f war and taking towns, when many a shriek Rings o'er the dialogue, and many a crime perpetrated ere a word can break Upon the ear, and sounds of horror chime like church-bells, with sigh, howl, groan, yell, prayer, here cannot be much conversation there.

(1) Pistol's "Bezonian" is a corruption of bisognoso — a edy man-metaphorically (at least) a scoundrel.-L. E.

"Le général Lascy, voyant arriver un corps si à-proà son secours, s'avança vers l'officier qui l'avait conduit, le prenant pour un Livonien, lui fit, en allemand, les mplimens les plus flatteurs; le jeune militaire (le duc de ichelieu) qui parlait parfaitement cette langue, y répondit fee sa modestie ordinaire." Hist. de la N. R. t. ii. p. 211.

E.

(3) See antè, p. 136.-P. E. 4) "The wildest solitudes are to the taste of some peole. General Boon, who was chiefly instrumental in the rst settlement of Kentucky, is of this turn. It is said that e is now (1818), at the age of seventy, pursuing the daily hase two hundred miles to the westward of the last abode f civilised man. He had retired to a chosen spot, beyond

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, deafen'd 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
Rome, Babylon, Tyre, Carthage, Nineveh,
All walls men know, and many never known;
And pondering on the present and the past,
To deem the woods shall be our home at last:-
LXI.

Of all men, saving Sylla (3) 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.(4)

LXII.

Crime came not near him-she is not the child Of solitude; Health shrank not from him-for Her home is in the rarely-trodden wild,

Where if men seek her not, and death be more
Their choice than life, forgive them, as beguiled
By habit to what their own hearts abhor-
In cities caged. The present case in point I
Cite is, that Boon lived hunting up to ninety;
LXIII.

And, what's still stranger, left behind a name
For which men vainly decimate the throng,
Not only famous, but of that good fame,

Without which glory's but a tavern song-
Simple, serene, the antipodes of shame,

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, When they built up unto his darling trees,— He moved some hundred miles off, for a station

Where there were fewer houses and more ease; (5)

the Missouri, which, after him, is named Poon'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.-L. E.

(5) "Such is the restless disposition of these backwoodsmen, and so averse are their habits from those of a civilised neighbourhood, that nothing short of the salt sandy desert 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. - L. E.

The inconvenience of civilisation

Is, that you neither can be pleased nor please; But where he met the individual man, He show'd himself as kind as mortal can.

LXV.

He was not all alone: around him grew
A sylvan tribe of children of the chase,
Whose young unwaken'd world was ever new,
Nor sword nor sorrow yet had left a trace
On her unwrinkled brow, nor could you view
A frown on Nature's or on human face;
The free-born forest found and kept them free,
And fresh as is a torrent or a tree.

LXVI.

And tall, and strong, and wift of foot were they,
Beyond the dwarfing city's pale abortions,
Because their thoughts had never been the prey
Of care or gain: the green woods were their portions;
No sinking spirits told them they grew grey,

No fashion made them apes of her distortions;
Simple they were, not savage; and their rifles
Though very true, were not yet used for trifles.

LXVII.

Motion was in their days, rest in their slumbers,
And cheerfulness the handmaid of their toil;
Nor yet too many nor too few their numbers;

Corruption could not make their hearts her toil;
The Just which stings, the splendour which encumbers,
With the free foresters divide no spoil;
Serene, not sullen, were the solitudes
Of this unsighing people of the woods.

LXVIII.

So much for Nature:-by way of variety,
Now back to thy great joys, Civilisation!
And the sweet consequence of large society,
War, pestilence, the despot's desolation,
The kingly scourge, the lust of notoriety,

The millions slain by soldiers for their ration, The scenes like Catherine's boudoir at threescore, With Ismail's storm to soften it the more.

LXIX.

The town was enter'd: first one column made
Its sanguinary way good-then another;
The reeking bayonet and the flashing blade

Clash'd gainst the scimitar, and babe and mother
With distant shrieks were heard Heaven to upbraid :-
Still closer sulphury clouds began to smother
The breath of morn and man, where foot by foot
The madden'd Turks their city still dispute.

(I) "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 méme gaité qu'il va à une féte; 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, t. ii. p. 212.— L. E.

(2) "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 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." Ibid. -L. E.

(3) "Quelques troupes russes, emportées par le courant,

LXX.

Koutousow, he who afterward beat back (With some assistance from the frost and snow) Napoleon on his boid 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; (1) But here, it seem'd, his jokes had ceased to take: 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 Was much regretted), for the Moslem men Threw them all down into the ditch again.(2)

LXXII.

And had it not been for some stray troops landing They knew not where, being carried by the stream To some spot, where they lost their understanding, And wander'd up and down as in a dream, Until they reach'd, as daybreak was expanding,

That which a portal to their eyes did seem,The great and gay Koutousow might have lain Where three parts of his column yet remain. (3)

LXXIII.

And scrambling round the rampart, these same troops
After the taking of the "cavalier," (4)
Just as Koutousow's most "forlorn" of "hopes"
Took, like cameleons, some slight tinge of fear,
Open'd the gate call'd "Kilia," to the groups (5)
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(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. (6)

LXXV.

Their column, though the Turkish batteries thunder Upon them, ne'er the less had reach'd the rampart

n'ayant pu débarquer sur le terrain qu'on leur avait pr crit," etc. Ibid. p. 213.-L. E.

(4) "A cavalier is an elevation of earth, situated o dinarily in the gorge of a bastion, bordered with a parap and cut into more or fewer embrasures, according to capacity." Milit. Dict.-L. E.

(5)..."longèrent le rempart après la prise da cate lier, et ouvrirent la porte dite de Kilio aux soldats de néral Koutouzow." Hist. de la N. R. t. ii. p. 213-LE

(6) "11 était réservé aux Kozaks de combler de t corps la partie du fossé où ils combattaient; lear colat avait été divisée entre MM. Platow et d'Orlow... Ibid.-L. E.

(7)... "La première partie, devant se joindre à la cue che du Général Arsenieu, fut fondroyée par le feu des bath ries, et parvint néanmoins au haut du rempart."

L. E.

id=

And naturally thought they could have plunder'd
The city, without being farther hamper'd;
But as it happens to brave men, they blunder'd-
The Turks at first pretended to have scamper'd,
Only to draw them 'twixt two bastion corners, (1)
From whence they sallied on those Christian scorners.
LXXVI.

Then being taken by the tail-a taking
Fatal to bishops as to soldiers-these
Cossacques were all cut off as day was breaking,
And found their lives were let at a short lease-
But perish'd without shivering or shaking,

Leaving as ladders their heap'd carcasses,
O'er which Lieutenant-Colonel Yesouskoi
March'd with the brave battalion of Polouzki:-(2)

LXXVII.

This valiant man kill'd all the Turks he met,
But could not eat them, being in his turn
Slain by some Mussulmans, (3) 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:
Twas blow for blow, disputing inch by inch,
For one would not retreat, nor t'other flinch.

LXXVIII.

Another column also suffer'd 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. (4)

LXXIX.

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 Turks' resistance was sublime,
They took the bastion, which the Seraskier
Defended at a price extremely dear. (5)
LXXX.

Juan and Johnson, and some volunteers
Among the foremost, offer'd him good quarter,

(1) Les Turcs la laissèrent un peu s'avancer dans la ville, et firent deux sorties par les angles saillans des bastions." Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie, t. ii. p. 213.-L. E. (2) Alors, se trouvant prise en queue, elle fut écrasée ; cependant le lieutenant-colonel Yesouskoi, qui commandait la réserve, composée d'un bataillon du regiment de Polozk, traversa le fossé sur les cadavres des Kozaks..." Ibid. -L. E.

(3)..." et extermina tous les Turcs qu'il eut en tête : te brave homme fut tué pendant l'action." Ibid.-L. E. (4) "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

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 wish'd
To make him prisoner, was also dish'd:

LXXXI.

For all the answer to his proposition

Was from a pistol-shot that laid him dead; (6) 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

Was spared;-three thousand Moslems perish'd here, And sixteen bayonets pierced the Seraskier. (7) 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.(8) Here War forgot his own destructive art

In more destroying Nature; and the heat 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 Seized 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.

LXXXV.

However this may be, 't is pretty sure

The Russian officer for life was lamed,

cette persuasion, ils retardent leur marche, et restent plus long-temps exposés au canon et à la mitraille de l'ennemi." Ibid. p. 214.-L. E.

(5) "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 éprou vèrent une résistance opiniâtre; mais bientôt des cris de victoire se font entendre de toutes parts, et le bastion est emporté le séraskier défendait cette partie." Ibid.-L. E. (6)..." un officier de marine anglais, veut le faire prisonnier, et reçoit un coup de pistolet qui l'étend roide mort." Ibid.-L. E.

(7) "Les Russes passent trois mille Turcs au fil de l'épée ; seize baionnettes percent à la fois le séraskier." Ibid. - L. E.

(8) "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 carnage; altéré de sang, tout est indifferent pour lui.” Ibid.-L. E.

For the Turk's teeth stuck faster than a skewer, And left him 'midst the invalid and maim'd: 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 call'd poetic diction,
And that outrageous appetite for lies
Which Satan angles with for souls, like flies.

LXXXVII.

The city's taken, but not render'd!-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 roar'd 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 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 with 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 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
Of these ambrosial pharisaic times,

With all their pretty milk-and-water ways,
And may serve therefore to bedew these rhymes,
A little scorch'd at present with the blaze
Of conquest and its consequences, which
Make epic poesy so rare and rich.

(1) "Je sauvai 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 le combat cessa et commença le carnage, j'a perçus 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 Nouv. Russ. t. ii. p. 217.-L. E.

(2) "But never mention bell to ears polite." Pope.-L. E. (3) Ce spectacle m'attira bientôt, et je n'hésitai pas,

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 flank'd 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. (2)

CVI.

To take him was the point. The truly brave,

When they behold the brave oppress'd with odds, Are touch'd 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. (3)
His five brave boys no less the foe defied;

Whereon the Russian pathos grew less tender,
As being a virtue, like terrestrial patience,
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

(3) "At Bender, after the fatal battle of Pultowa, Charles gave a proof of that unreasonable obstinacy which occasioned all his misfortunes in Turkey. When advised to write to the grand vizier, according to the custom of the Turks, he said it was beneath his dignity. The same obstinacy placed him necessarily at variance with all the ministers of the Porte." Voltaire.-L. E.