THE WIDOW OF THE GRAND ARMY. Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven, BYRON. 215 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 The war-horses' tramp (4) shook the solid ground, (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 Sword, sabre and lance of thy chivalry, France, Where are ye now, ye myriads? Hark! Oh God! not a sound; they are stretch'd on the ground, On their ghastly (5) faces the snows still fall, The horse and his rider (7) are both o'erthrown: For the wolf and the bear; when day is flown (8), Oh! whither are fled those echoes dread? (1) Milk-white, blanc comme du lait. (2) Vanwards, en avant. (3) To flash, briller. (4) Stark, roide mort. (5) Ghastly, cadavéreux. (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. And hush'd they lie in the sleep of death. They come they come! the barbarian horde! All Germany darkens the rolling tide (1), Sound the tocsin, the trumpet, the drum! And dash (5) the invaders to earth as (6) they come ! Ah me! my heart-it will burst in twain (7)! (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. 217 Sickens (1) my soul and maddens (2) my brain- THE ENGLISHMAN AT PARIS. A Frenchman seeing as he walk'd One of those Johnny-Bulls (5) we meet (1) To sicken, rendre malade, devenir malade. (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, May tempt its boughs to wander free (1), 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 (1) To wander free, errer, pousser sans restriction. |