The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon Part 194

[Footnote 14: It has been conjectured of late that these adventurous spirits were Sir Robert Wilson and, possibly, Lord Hutchinson, present there at imminent risks of their lives.]

[Footnote 15: The traditional present of the rose was probably on this occasion, though it is not quite matter of certainty.]

[Footnote 16: At this date.]

[Footnote 17: So Madame Metternich to her husband in reporting this interview.

But who shall say!]

[Footnote 18: The writer has been unable to discover what became of this unhappy lady and her orphaned infants.--[Footnote The foregoing note, which appeared in the first edition of this drama, was the means of bringing from a descendant of the lady referred to the information she remarried, and lived and died at Venice; and that both her children grew up and did well.--1909:

[Footnote 19: Thomas Young of Sturminster-Newton; served twenty-one years in the Fifteenth [Footnote King's: Hussars; died 1853; fought at Vitoria, and Waterloo.]

[Footnote 20: Hussars, it may be remembered, used to wear a pelisse, dolman, or "sling-jacket" [Footnote as the men called: , which hung loosely over the shoulder. The writer is able to recall the picturesque effect of this uniform.]

[Footnote 21: Sheridan.]

[Footnote 22: This famous ball has become so embedded in the history of the Hundred Days as to be an integral part of it. Yet in spite of the efforts that have been made to locate the room which saw the memorable gathering [Footnote by the present writer more than thirty years back, among other enthusiasts: , a dispa.s.sionate judgment must deny that its site has as yet been proven. Even Sir W.

Fraser is not convincing. The event happened less than a century ago, but the spot is almost as phantasmal in its elusive mystery as towered Camelot, the palace of Priam, or the hill of Calvary.]

[Footnote 23: The spelling of the date is used.]

[Footnote 24: Samuel Clark; born 1779, died 1857. Buried at West Stafford, Dorset.]

[Footnote 25: One of the many Waterloo men known to the writer in his youth, John Bentley of the Fusileer Guards, use to declare that he lay down on the ground in such weariness that when food was brought him he could not eat it, and slept till next morning on an empty stomach. He died at Chelsea Hospital, 187-, aged eighty six.]

[Footnote 26: Transcriber's note: This footnote is an excerpt in Greek from the "Magnificat" canticle, the Latin character equivalent being "katheile DYNASTAS apo THrono," or "He has put down the mighty from their thrones."--D.L.]

[Footnote 27: Hor. _Epis._ i, 12.]