The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 47

Compare, too, with stanzas xiii., xiv., _ibid_., lines 58-72.]

[gu] _Fool he not to know_.--[MS. erased.]

[gv]

_Where there were mountains there for him were friends_.

_Where there was Ocean--there he was at home_.--[MS.]

[gw] {224} _Like the Chaldean he could gaze on stars_.--[MS.]

----_adored the stars_.--[MS. erased.]

[gx] _That keeps us from that Heaven on which we love to think_.--[MS.]

[gy]

_But in Man's dwelling--Harold was a thing_ _Restless and worn, and cold and wearisome_.--[MS.]

[286] {225} [In this stanza the mask is thrown aside, and "the real Lord Byron" appears _in propria persona_.]

[287] [The mound with the Belgian lion was erected by William I. of Holland, in 1823.]

[gz] {226} _None; but the moral truth tells simpler so_.--[MS.]

[288] [Stanzas xvii., xviii., were written after a visit to Waterloo.

When Byron was in Brussels, a friend of his boyhood, Pryse Lockhart Gordon, called upon him and offered his services. He escorted him to the field of Waterloo, and received him at his house in the evening. Mrs.

Gordon produced her alb.u.m, and begged for an autograph. The next morning Byron copied into the alb.u.m the two stanzas which he had written the day before. Lines 5-8 of the second stanza (xviii.) ran thus--

"Here his last flight the haughty Eagle flew, Then tore with b.l.o.o.d.y beak the fatal plain, Pierced with the shafts of banded nations through ..."

The autograph suggested an ill.u.s.tration to an artist, R. R. Reinagle (1775-1863), "a pencil-sketch of a spirited chained eagle, grasping the earth with his talons." Gordon showed the vignette to Byron, who wrote in reply, "Reinagle is a better poet and a better ornithologist than I am; eagles and all birds of prey attack with their talons and not with their beaks, and I have altered the line thus--

"'Then tore with b.l.o.o.d.y talon the rent plain.'"

(See _Personal Memoirs of Pryse Lockhart Gordon_, 1830, ii. 327, 328.)]

[ha] ----_and still must be_.--[MS.]

[hb] ----_the fatal Waterloo_.--[MS.]

[hc]

_Here his last flight the haughty eagle flew_.--[MS.]

_Then bit with b.l.o.o.d.y beak the rent plain_.--[MS. erased.]

_Then tore with b.l.o.o.d.y beak_----.--[MS.]

[hd] {227} _And Gaul must wear the links of her own broken chain_.--[MS.]

[289] [With this "obstinate questioning" of the final import and outcome of "that world-famous Waterloo," compare the _Ode from the French_, "We do not curse thee, Waterloo," written in 1815, and published by John Murray in _Poems_ (1816). Compare, too, _The Age of Waterloo_, v. 93, "Oh, b.l.o.o.d.y and most bootless Waterloo!" and _Don Juan_, Canto VIII.

stanzas xlviii.-l., etc. Sh.e.l.ley, too, in his sonnet on the _Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte_ (1816), utters a like lament (Sh.e.l.ley's _Works_, 1895, ii. 385)--

"I know Too late, since thou and France are in the dust, That Virtue owns a more eternal foe Than Force or Fraud: old Custom, legal Crime, And b.l.o.o.d.y Faith, the foulest birth of Time."

Even Wordsworth, after due celebration of this "victory sublime," in his sonnet _Emperors and Kings, etc._ (_Works_, 1889, p. 557), solemnly admonishes the "powers"--

"Be just, be grateful; nor, the oppressor's creed Reviving heavier chastis.e.m.e.nt deserve Than ever forced unpitied hearts to bleed."

But the Laureate had no misgivings, and in _The Poet's Pilgrimage_, iv.

60, celebrates the national apotheosis--

"Peace hath she won ... with her victorious hand Hath won thro' rightful war auspicious peace; Nor this alone, but that in every land The withering rule of violence may cease.

Was ever War with such blest victory crowned!

Did ever Victory with such fruits abound!"]

[he] {228} _Or league to teach their kings_----.--[MS.]

[290] [The most vivid and the best authenticated account of the d.u.c.h.ess of Richmond's ball, which took place June 15, the eve of the Battle of Quatrebras, in the duke's house in the Rue de la Blanchisserie, is to be found in Lady de Ros's (Lady Georgiana Lennox) _Personal Recollections of the Great Duke of Wellington_, which appeared first in _Murray's Magazine_, January and February, 1889, and were republished as _A Sketch of the Life of Georgiana, Lady de Ros_, by her daughter, the Hon. Mrs.

J. R. Swinton (John Murray, 1893). "My mother's now famous ball," writes Lady de Ros (_A Sketch, etc._, pp. 122, 123), "took place in a large room on the ground-floor on the left of the entrance, connected with the rest of the house by an ante-room. It had been used by the coachbuilder, from whom the house was hired, to put carriages in, but it was papered before we came there; and I recollect the paper--a trellis pattern with roses.... When the duke arrived, rather late, at the ball, I was dancing, but at once went up to him to ask about the rumours. 'Yes, they are true; we are off to-morrow.' This terrible news was circulated directly, and while some of the officers hurried away, others remained at the ball, and actually had not time to change their clothes, but fought in evening costume."]

[hf] {229}

_The lamps shone on lovely dames and gallant men_.--[MS.]

_The lamps shone on ladies_----.--[MS. erased.]

[hg] {230} _With a slow deep and dread-inspiring roar_.--[MS. erased.]

[hh]

_Arm! arm, and out! it is the opening cannon's roar_.--[MS.]

_Arm--arm--and out--it is--the cannon's opening roar_.--[C.]

[291] [Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick (1771-1815), brother to Caroline, Princess of Wales, and nephew of George III., fighting at Quatrebras in the front of the line, "fell almost in the beginning of the battle." His father, Charles William Ferdinand, born 1735, the author of the fatal manifesto against the army of the French Republic (July 15, 1792), was killed at Auerbach, October 14, 1806. In the plan of the Duke of Richmond's house, which Lady de Ros published in her _Recollections_, the actual spot is marked (the door of the ante-room leading to the ball-room) where Lady Georgiana Lennox took leave of the Duke of Brunswick. "It was a dreadful evening," she writes, "taking leave of friends and acquaintances, many never to be seen again. The Duke of Brunswick, as he took leave of me ... made me a civil speech as to the Brunswickers being sure to distinguish themselves after 'the honour' done them by my having accompanied the Duke of Wellington to their review! I remember being quite provoked with poor Lord Hay, a dashing, merry youth, full of military ardour, whom I knew very well, for his delight at the idea of going into action ... and the first news we had on the 16th was that he and the Duke of Brunswick were killed."--_A Sketch, etc._, pp. 132, 133.]

[hi] {231} _His heart replying knew that sound too well_.--[MS.]

_And the hoped vengeance for a Sire so dear_ _As him who died on Jena--whom so well_ _His filial heart had mourned through many a year_ _Roused him to valiant fury nought could quell_.--[MS. erased.]

[hj] ----_tremors of distress_.--[MS.]

[hk]

----_which did press_ _Like death upon young hearts_----.--[MS.]

[hl] _Oh that on night so soft, such heavy morn should rise_.--[MS.]

[hm] {232} _And wakening citizens with terror dumb_ _Or whispering with pale lips--"The foe--They come, they come."_--[MS.]

_Or whispering with pale lips--"The Desolation's come."_--[MS. erased.]

[hn]

_And Soignies waves above them_----.--[MS.]

_And Ardennes_----.--[C.]

[292] {233} [_Vide ante, English Bards, etc._, line 726, note: _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 354.]

[ho] _But chiefly_----.--[MS.]