"TRUTH AND VIRTUE, HOLY FLOWERS, WHOSE VERDURE REACHETH HEAVEN."-ROBERT SOUTHEY.

The triumph, and the vanity,
The rapture of the strife—
The earthquake voice of Victory,
To thee the breath of life;
The sword, the sceptre, and that sway

Which man seemed made but to obey,
Wherewith renown was rife—
All quelled!-Dark Spirit! what must be
The madness of thy memory!

* Written after the abdication of the Emperor Napoleon I. in 1815.

FOR WORTHIER FEELINGS SHOULD BE THINE."-SOUTHEY.

"POVERTY IS A HOLLOW-EYED FRIEND, THE CHILD OF WEALTH AND POWER."-ROBERT SOUTHEY.

"MY THOUGHTS ARE WITH THE DEAD: WITH THEM I LIVE IN LONG-PAST YEARS."-ROBERT SOUTHEY.

TWILIGHT AND MOONLIGHT, DIMLY MINGLING, GAVE

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

193

The Desolator desolate !

The Victor overthrown!
The Arbiter of others' fate

A suppliant for his own!
Is it some yet imperial hope,

That with such change can calmly cope?
Or dread of death alone?
To die a prince-or live a slave-
Thy choice is most ignobly brave!

Then haste thee to thy sullen Isle,*
And gaze upon the sea;

"(BOOKS) MY NEVER FAILING FRIENDS ARE THEY, WITH WHOM I CONVERSE NIGHT AND DAY."-SOUTHEY.

*St. Helena, in the Atlantic, where Napoleon was confined, and where he died, May 5, 1821.

"FREEDOM HALLOWS WITH HER TREAD THE SILENT CITIES OF THE DEAD."-LORD BYRON.

* Dionysius I., after ruling at Syracuse with tyrannical sway, was constrained to resign his sceptre, and retire to Corinth, where he gained a livelihood as a schoolmaster.

+ Timour, the great Tartar chief, having defeated and taken prisoner, at the battle of Angora, the Turkish emir, Bajazet I. (July 28, 1402), imprisoned him in an iron cage until his death, nine months afterwards, at Antioch, in Pisidia. So runs the story.

↑ Nebuchadnezzar (or Nabu-kudari-utsur), the most famous of the kings of Babylon, died about 561 B.C. (See Daniel iii.)

§ According to the ancient legend, the Titan hero, Prometheus, son of Capetus, stole fire from heaven, and taught its use to the sons of men. At this the gods were so enraged that they caused him to be bound to a rock, where a vulture constantly preyed upon his liver. This story-whose esoteric meaning cannot here be developed-suggested to the Greek dramatist Eschylus his finest tragedy. It is also the subject of a poetic drama by Mrs. E. B. Browning, and of the "Prometheus Unbound," of Shelley.

A WORD'S ENOUGH TO RAISE MANKIND TO KILL."-BYRON.

"ALAS! THE BREAST THAT INLY BLEEDS HATH NOUGHT TO DREAD FROM OUTWARD BLOW."-BYRON.

NO WORDS SUFFICE THE SECRET SOUL TO SHOW,

NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 195

He in his fall preserved his pride,

And, if a mortal, had as proudly died.

[GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON, born 1788, died 1824, at Missolonghi, in Greece, whither he had gone to assist the Greeks in their struggle for independence. He has been called, and not inaptly, the Poet of Passion. A misanthropical colouring pervades all his works, which reflect, moreover, in a singular degree, the peculiarities of his own temperament—the faults as well as merits of his own character. He is himself the great sublime he draws. No poet, however, has surpassed him in the force, vigour, and graphic truth with which he has depicted certain moods of nature, and if there mingles in his poems much that is base and mean, there is also much that is lofty and even sublime. His principal works are "Bride of Abydos," "Giaour," "Lara," "Corsair," "Siege of Corinth," "Parisina,” "Childe Harold;" the wild, irregular, but wonderful serio-comic poem of "Don Juan;" the tragedies of "Sardanapalus," "The Two Foscari," and "Marino Faliero;" and the lyric dramas of "Heaven and Earth," "Cain," and "Manfred." His minor poems are very numerous.]

"SUCH HATH IT BEEN, SHALL BE, BENEATH THE SUN, THE MANY STILL MUST LABOUR FOR THE ONE."-BYRON.

"DREAMS IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT HAVE BREATH, AND TEARS, AND TORTURES, AND THE TOUCH OF JOY."-BYRON.

NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

HERE was a sound of revelry by night,

And Belgium's capital had gathered then
Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage-bell:

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell !

Did ye not hear it? No; 'twas but the wind,
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street:
On with the dance; let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet :

FOR TRUTH DENIES ALL ELOQUENCE TO WOE."-BYRON.

"SHE WAS A FORM OF LIFE AND LIGHT, THAT, SEEN, BECAME A PART OF SIGHT; "-(BYRON)

"OH, TOO CONVINCING, DANGEROUSLY DEAR,

196 NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

But, hark! that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!
Arm! arm! it is-it is-the cannon's opening roar !

Within a windowed niche of that high hall
Sate Brunswick's fated Chieftain; he did hear
That sound the first amidst the festival,
And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear;
And when they smiled because he deemed it near,
His heart more truly knew that peal too well
Which stretched his father on a bloody bier,
And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell;
He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.

Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro,
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago
Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness;
And there were sudden partings, such as press
The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs
Which ne'er might be repeated; who could guess
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise?
And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war ;
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar;
And near, the beat of the alarming drum
Roused up the soldier ere the morning star;
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb,

Or whispering, with white lips-"The foe! they come !

they come !"

IN WOMAN'S EYE THE UNANSWERABLE TEAR!"-BYRON.

"AND ROSE, WHERE'ER I TURNED MINE EYE, THE MORNING-STAR OF MEMORY."-BYRON.