The Works of Lord Byron Volume VI Part 78

Much did they slay, more plunder, and no less Might here and there occur some violation In the other line;--but not to such excess As when the French, that dissipated nation, Take towns by storm: no causes can I guess, Except cold weather and commiseration;[is]

But all the ladies, save some twenty score, Were almost as much virgins as before.

Cx.x.x.

Some odd mistakes, too, happened in the dark, Which showed a want of lanterns, or of taste-- Indeed the smoke was such they scarce could mark Their friends from foes,--besides such things from haste Occur, though rarely, when there is a spark Of light to save the venerably chaste: But six old damsels, each of seventy years, Were all deflowered by different grenadiers.

Cx.x.xI.

But on the whole their continence was great; So that some disappointment there ensued To those who had felt the inconvenient state Of "single blessedness," and thought it good (Since it was not their fault, but only fate, To bear these crosses) for each waning prude To make a Roman sort of Sabine wedding, Without the expense and the suspense of bedding.

CXXII.

Some voices of the buxom middle-aged Were also heard to wonder in the din (Widows of forty were these birds long caged) "Wherefore the ravishing did not begin!"

But while the thirst for gore and plunder raged, There was small leisure for superfluous sin; But whether they escaped or no, lies hid In darkness--I can only hope they did.

Cx.x.xIII.

Suwarrow now was conqueror--a match For Timour or for Zinghis in his trade.

While mosques and streets, beneath his eyes, like thatch Blazed, and the cannon's roar was scarce allayed, With b.l.o.o.d.y hands he wrote his first despatch; And here exactly follows what he said:-- "Glory to _G.o.d_ and to the Empress!" (_Powers Eternal! such names mingled!_) "Ismail's ours."[475]

Cx.x.xIV.

Methinks these are the most tremendous words, Since "MENE, MENE, TEKEL," and "UPHARSIN,"

Which hands or pens have ever traced of swords.

Heaven help me! I'm but little of a parson: What Daniel read was short-hand of the Lord's, Severe, sublime; the prophet wrote no farce on The fate of nations;--but this Russ so witty Could rhyme, like Nero, o'er a burning city.

Cx.x.xV.

He wrote this Polar melody, and set it, Duly accompanied by shrieks and groans, Which few will sing, I trust, but none forget it-- For I will teach, if possible, the stones To rise against Earth's tyrants. Never let it Be said that we still truckle unto thrones;-- But ye--our children's children! think how we Showed _what things were_ before the World was free!

Cx.x.xVI.

That hour is not for us, but 't is for you: And as, in the great joy of your Millennium, You hardly will believe such things were true As now occur, I thought that I would pen you 'em; But may their very memory perish too!-- Yet if perchance remembered, still disdain you 'em More than you scorn the savages of yore, Who _painted_ their _bare_ limbs, but _not_ with gore.

Cx.x.xVII.

And when you hear historians talk of thrones, And those that sate upon them, let it be As we now gaze upon the mammoth's bones, And wonder what old world such things could see, Or hieroglyphics on Egyptian stones, The pleasant riddles of futurity-- Guessing at what shall happily be hid, As the real purpose of a pyramid.

Cx.x.xVIII.

Reader! I have kept my word,--at least so far As the first Canto promised. You have now Had sketches of Love--Tempest--Travel--War,-- All very accurate, you must allow, And _Epic_, if plain truth should prove no bar; For I have drawn much less with a long bow Than my forerunners. Carelessly I sing, But Phoebus lends me now and then a string,

Cx.x.xIX.

With which I still can harp, and carp, and fiddle.

What further hath befallen or may befall The hero of this grand poetic riddle, I by and by may tell you, if at all: But now I choose to break off in the middle, Worn out with battering Ismail's stubborn wall, While Juan is sent off with the despatch, For which all Petersburgh is on the watch.

CXL.

This special honour was conferred, because He had behaved with courage and humanity-- Which last men like, when they have time to pause From their ferocities produced by vanity.

His little captive gained him some applause For saving her amidst the wild insanity Of carnage,--and I think he was more glad in her Safety, than his new order of St. Vladimir.

CXLI.

The Moslem orphan went with her protector, For she was homeless, houseless, helpless; all Her friends, like the sad family of Hector, Had perished in the field or by the wall: Her very place of birth was but a spectre Of what it had been; there the Muezzin's call To prayer was heard no more!--and Juan wept, And made a vow to shield her, which he kept.

FOOTNOTES:

{331}[412] ["La nuit etait obscure; un brouillard epais ne nous permettait de distinguer autre chose que le feu de notre artillerie, dont l'horizon etait embrase de tous cotes: ce feu, partant du milieu du Danube, se reflechissait sur les eaux, et offrait un coup d'oeil tres-singulier."-_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 209.]

{332}[413] ["a peine eut-on parcouru l'es.p.a.ce de quelques toises au-dela des batteries, que les Turcs, qui n'avaient point tire pendant toute la nuit s'appercevant de nos mouvemens, commencerent de leur cote un feu tres-vif, qui embrasa le reste de l'horizon: mais ce fut bien autre chose lorsque, avances davantage, le feu de la mousqueterie commenca dans toute l'etendue du rempart que nous appercevions. Ce fut alors que la place parut a nos yeux comme un volcan dont le feu sortait de toutes parts."-_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 209.]

[414] ["Un cri universel d'_allah_, qui se repetait tout autour de la ville, vint encore rendre plus extraordinaire cet instant, dont il est impossible de se faire une idee."--_Ibid._, p. 209.]

[415] Allah Hu! is properly the war-cry of the Mussulmans, and they dwell on the last syllable, which gives it a wild and peculiar effect.

[See _The Giaour_, line 734, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 120, note 1; see, too, _Siege of Corinth_, line 713, ibid., p. 481.]

[416] ["Toutes les colonnes etaient en mouvement; celles qui attaquaient par eau commandees par le general a.r.s.eniew, essuyerent un feu epouvantable, et perdirent avant le jour un tiers de leurs officiers."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 209.]

[417]

"But _Thy_[*] most dreaded instrument, In working out a pure intent, Is Man--arrayed for mutual slaughter,-- Yea, _Carnage is thy daughter!_"

Wordsworth's _Thanksgiving Ode_ (January 18, 1816), stanza xii. lines 20, 23.

[*]To wit, the Deity's: this is perhaps as pretty a pedigree for murder as ever was found out by Garter King at Arms.--What would have been said, had any free-spoken people discovered such a lineage?

[Wordsworth omitted the lines in the last edition of his poems, which was revised by his own hand.]

{333}[ia] _The Duc de Richelieu_----.--[MS. erased.]

[418] ["Le Prince de Ligne fut blesse au genou; le Duc de Richelieu eut une balle entre le fond de son bonnet et sa tete."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 210.

For the gallantry of Prince Charles de Ligne (died September 14, 1792) eldest son of Prince Charles Joseph de Ligne (1735-1814), see _The Prince de Ligne_, 1899, ii. 46.

Armand Emanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, born 1767, a grandson of Louis Francois Duc de Richelieu, the Marshal of France (1696-1780), served under Catherine II., and afterwards under the Czar Paul. On the restoration of Louis XVIII. he entered the King's household; and after the battle of Waterloo took office as President of the Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs. His _Journal de mon Voyage en Allemagne_, which was then unpublished, was placed at the disposal of the Marquis de Castelnau (see _Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, 1827, i. 241). It has been printed in full by the _Societe Imperiale d'Histoire de Russie_, 1886, tom. liv. pp. 111-198. See for further mention of the ma.n.u.script, _Le Duc de Richelieu_, par Raoul de Cisternes, 1898, Preface, p. 3, note 1.

He died May 17, 1822, two months before Cantos VI., VII., VIII. were completed.]

{334}[419] ["Le brigadier Markow, insistant pour qu'on emportat le prince blesse, recut un coup de fusil qui lui fraca.s.sa le pied."--_Hist.

de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 210.]

[420] ["Trois cents bouches a feu vomissaient sans interruption, et trente mille fusils alimentaient sans relache une grele de balles."--_Ibid._, p. 210.]

{335}[421] ["Les troupes, deja debarquees, se porterent a droite pour s'emparer d'une batterie; et celles debarquees plus bas, princ.i.p.alement composees des grenadiers de Fanagorie, escaladaient le retranchement et la palissade."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 210.]

[422] A fact: see the Waterloo Gazettes. I recollect remarking at the time to a friend:--"_There_ is _fame!_ a man is killed, his name is Grose, and they print it Grove." I was at college with the deceased, who was a very amiable and clever man, and his society in great request for his wit, gaiety, and "Chansons a boire."