THE WIDOW OF THE GRAND ARMY.

Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven,
Darkness above, despair beneath,
Around it flame, within it death.

BYRON.

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THE WIDOW OF THE GRAND ARMY,

After the disastrous campaign of Russia, in which the flower of the French army perished, a French woman of a respectable family was so deeply affected by the calamities of her country that she lost her senses (1). She dressed continually in deep mourning (2), and was daily seen in the Champs-Élysées lamenting and bewailing the fate of so many brave men, and the destruction of so fine an armament. She acquired by those means the title of THE WIDOW OF THE GRAND ARMY. Her lamentations are said to have been nearly as follow.

Half a million of heroes

-

I saw them all :

Oh God! 'twas a sight of awful delight
To gaze on that army, the glory of Gaul,
As it roll'd in its fierceness of beauty forth (3)
Like a glittering torrent to deluge the North.

The war-horses' tramp (4) shook the solid ground,
While their neighings (5) aha! and the dread hurra
Of the myriad mass made the skies resound,

(1) Lost her senses, devint folle.

(2) Deep mourning, grand deuil. (3) Forth, en avant.

(4) Tramp, bruit que l'on fait avec les pieds. (5) Neighings, hennissements.

As the invincible chief on his milk-white (1) steed
Vanwards (2) gallop'd their host to lead.

Sword, sabre and lance of thy chivalry, France,
And helmet of brass, and the steel cuirass,
Flash'd (3) in the sun as I saw them pass;
While day by day, in sublime array,
The glorious pageant roll'd away!

Where are ye now, ye myriads? Hark!

Oh God! not a sound; they are stretch'd on the ground,
Silent and cold, and stiff and stark (4) :

On their ghastly (5) faces the snows still fall,
And one winding-sheet (6) enwraps them all.

The horse and his rider (7) are both o'erthrown:
Soldier and beast-form a common feast

For the wolf and the bear; when day is flown (8),
Their teeth gleam white in the pale moonlight
As with crash (9) of bones they startle the night.

Oh! whither are fled those echoes dread?
As the host hurraed (10), and the chargers neigh'd,

(1) Milk-white, blanc comme du lait.

(2) Vanwards, en avant.

(3) To flash, briller.

(4) Stark, roide mort.

(5) Ghastly, cadavéreux.
(6) Winding-sheet, linceul.
(7) Rider, cavalier.

(8) Flown, parti, envolé.

(9) Crash, bruit que l'on fait en écrasant quelque chose.

(10) To hurra, pousser des cris.

THE WIDOW OF THE GRAND ARMY.

And the cannon roar'd, and the trumpets bray'd.
Stifled is all this living breath,

And hush'd they lie in the sleep of death.

They come they come! the barbarian horde!
Thy foes advance, oh beautiful France,
To ravage thy valleys with fire and sword;
Calmuck and Moscovite follow the track
Of the Tartar fierce, and the wild Cossack.

All Germany darkens the rolling tide (1),
Sclavonian dun (2), Croat, Prussian, Hun,
With the traitorous Belgian bands allied,
While the Spaniard swarth (5), and the Briton fair,
Their banners wave (4) in our southern air.

Sound the tocsin, the trumpet, the drum!
Heroes of France, advance, advance!

And dash (5) the invaders to earth as (6) they come !
Where's the Grand Army to drive them back?
March, countrymen, march! - Attack, attack!

Ah me! my heart-it will burst in twain (7)!
One fearful thought, to my memory brought,

(1) Tide, courant, marée.

(2) Dun, basané.

(3) Swarth, ou swarthy, basané.

(4) To wave, faire flotter, déployer.

(5) To dash to the earth, écraser, renverser par terre. (6) As they come, à mesure qu'ils se présentent.

(7) In twain, en deux, en pièces.

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Sickens (1) my soul and maddens (2) my brain-
That army of heroes our glory and trust,
Where is it? What is it? bones and dust!

THE ENGLISHMAN AT PARIS.

A Frenchman seeing as he walk'd
A friend of his across (3) the street,
Cried" Hem! " exactly as there stalk'd (4)
An Englishman along the road,

One of those Johnny-Bulls (5) we meet
In every sea-port town abroad,
Prepared to take (6) and give offence,
Partly perhaps because they speak
About as much of French as Greek,
And partly from the want of sense!
The Briton thought this exclamation
Meant (7) some reflection on his nation.
So bustling (8) to the Frenchman's side,
"Mounseer Jack-Frog (9)," he fiercely cried,

(1) To sicken, rendre malade, devenir malade.
(2) To madden, étourdir, faire perdre la raison.

(3) Across, à travers.

(4) To stalk, marcher fièrement, par grandes enjambées. (5) Johnny-Bull, sobriquel donné aux Anglais ; Jean Tau

reau.

(6) To take, recevoir, prendre; to take offence, s'offenser. (7) Meant, passé de to mean, signifier, vouloir dire.

(8) To bustle, s'empresser.

(9) Jack-Frog, sobriquet donné aux Français par les Anglais: Jean Grenouille.

BASTION TAKEN BY ASSAULT.

ઃઃ Pourquoi vous faire Hem! quand moi passe?" The Gaul replied, "Monsieur God-dem,

66

Pourquoi vous passe quand moi faire Hem?"

219

TO MY MOTHER.

They tell us of an Indian tree,
Which howsoe'er the sun and sky

May tempt its boughs to wander free (1),
And shoot, and blossom, wide and high (2),
Far better loves to bend its arms
Downward again to that dear earth

From which the life that fills and warms

Its grateful being, first had birth.

'Tis thus, though woo'd (3) by flattering friends, And fed with fame (if fame it be),

This heart my own dear mother bends,

With love's true instinct back to thee.

MOORE.

SCENE ON A BASTION TAKEN BY ASSAULT.

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

(1) To wander free, errer, pousser sans restriction.
(2) Wide and high, au large el en haut.
(5) To woo, flatter, caresser, inviter.