LXV.

He was not all alone: around him

grew

A sylvan tribe of children of the chase,
Whose young, unwaken'd world was ever new,
Nor sword nor sorrow yet had left a trace
On her unwrinkled brow, nor could you view
A frown on Nature's or on human face ;-
The free-born forest found and kept them free,
And fresh as is a torrent or a tree.

LXVI.

And tall, and strong, and swift of foot were they,
Beyond the dwarfing city's pale abortions,
Because their thoughts had never been the prey
Of care or gain: the green woods were their portions;
No sinking spirits told them they grew grey,

No fashion made them apes of her distortions ;' Simple they were, not savage; and their rifles, Though very true, were not yet used for trifles.

LXVII.

Motion was in their days, rest in their slumbers,
And cheerfulness the handmaid of their toil;
Nor yet too many nor too few their numbers;
Corruption could not make their hearts her soil;
The lust which stings, the splendour which encumbers,
With the free foresters divide no spoil;
Serene, not sullen, were the solitudes
Of this unsighing people of the woods.

LXVIII.

So much for Nature:-by way of variety,
Now back to thy great joys, Civilisation!
And the sweet consequence of large society,
War, pestilence, the despot's desolation,
The kingly scourge, the lust of notoriety,

The millions slain by soldiers for their ration, The scenes like Catherine's boudoir at threescore, With Ismail's storm to soften it the more.

LXIX.

The town was enter'd: first one column made
Its sanguinary way good-then another;
The reeking bayonet and the flashing blade
Clash'd 'gainst the scimitar, and babe and mother
With distant shrieks were heard Heaven to upbraid:—
Still closer sulphury clouds began to smother
The breath of morn and man, where foot by foot
The madden'd Turks their city still dispute.

LXX.

Koutousow, he who afterward beat back

(With some assistance from the frost and snow) Napoleon on his bold and bloody track,

It happen'd was himself beat back just now: He was a jolly fellow, and could crack

His jest alike in face of friend or foe,

Though life, and death, and victory were at stake;(1) But here it seem'd his jokes had ceased to take:

(1) ["Parmi les colonnes, une de celles qui souffrirent le plus était commandée par le Général Koutouzow (aujourd'hui Prince de Smolensko).

LXXI.

For having thrown himself into a ditch,
Follow'd in haste by various grenadiers,
Whose blood the puddle greatly did enrich,
He climb'd to where the parapet appears;
But there his project reach'd its utmost pitch
('Mongst other deaths the General Ribaupierre's
Was much regretted), for the Moslem men
Threw them all down into the ditch again. (1)

LXXII.

And had it not been for some stray troops landing They knew not where, being carried by the

stream

To some spot, where they lost their understanding,
And wander'd up and down as in a dream,
Until they reach'd, as daybreak was expanding,
That which a portal to their eyes did seem,
The great and gay Koutousow might have lain
Where three parts of his column yet remain. (2)

Ce brave militaire réunit l'intrépidité à un grand nombre de connaissances acquises; il marche au feu avec la même gaieté qu'il va à une fête; il sait commander avec autant de sang froid qu'il déploie d'esprit et d'amabilité dans le commerce habituel de la vie."-Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie, tom. iii. p. 212.]

(1) ["Ce brave Koutouzow se jeta dans le fossé, fut suivi des siens, et ne pénétra jusqu'au haut du parapet qu'après avoir éprouve des difficultés incroyables. (Le brigadier Ribaupierre perdit la vie dans cette occasion: il avait fixé l'estime générale, et sa mort occasionna beaucoup de regrets.) Les Turcs accoururent en grand nombre; cette multitude repoussa deux fois le général jusqu'au fossé."-Ibid. p. 212.]

(2) "Quelques troupes Russes, emportées par le courant, n'ayant pu débarquer sur le terrein qu'on leur avait préscrit, &c."— Ibid. p. 213.]

LXXIII.

And scrambling round the rampart, these same troops,
After the taking of the " Cavalier," (')
Just as Koutousow's most "forlorn" of "hopes"
Took, like chameleons, some slight tinge of fear,
Open'd the gate call'd " Kilia," to the groups (2)
Of baffled heroes, who stood shyly near,
Sliding knee-deep in lately frozen mud,
Now thaw'd into a marsh of human blood.

LXXIV.

The Kozacks, or, if so you please, Cossacques(I don't much pique myself upon orthography, So that I do not grossly err in facts,

Statistics, tactics, politics, and geography)— Having been used to serve on horses' backs, And no great dilettanti in topography Of fortresses, but fighting where it pleases Their chiefs to order,—were all cut to pieces. (3)

LXXV.

Their column, though the Turkish batteries thunder'd Upon them, ne'ertheless had reach'd the rampart, (4) And naturally thought they could have plunder'd The city, without being farther hamper'd;

(1) [A" Cavalier" is an elevation of earth, situated ordinarily in the gorge of a bastion, bordered with a parapet, and cut into more or fewer embrasures, according to its capacity."— Milit. Dict.]

(2) [..." longèrent le rempart, après la prisé du cavalier, et ouvrirent la porte dite de Kilia aux soldats du Général Koutouzow."- Hist. de la N. R. p. 213.]

(3) [" Il était réservé aux Kozaks de combler de leur corps la partie du fossé où ils combattaient; leur colonne avait été divisée entre MM. Platow et d'Orlow..."- Ibid. p. 213.]

(4) [.., "La première partie, devant se joindre à la-gauche du Général Arsénieu, fut foudroyée par le feu des batteries, et parvint néanmoins au haut du rempart."— Ibid. p. 213.]

But as it happens to brave men, they blunder'dThe Turks at first pretended to have scamper'd, Only to draw them 'twixt two bastion corners, (1) From whence they sallied on those Christian scorners.

LXXVI.

Then being taken by the tail-a taking
Fatal to bishops as to soldiers-these
Cossacques were all cut off as day was breaking,
And found their lives were let at a short lease-
But perish'd without shivering or shaking,
Leaving as ladders their heap'd carcasses,

O'er which Lieutenant-Colonel Yesouskoi
March'd with the brave battalion of Polouzki:- (2)

LXXVII.

This valiant man kill'd all the Turks he met,
But could not eat them, being in his turn
Slain by some Mussulmans, (3) who would not yet,
Without resistance, see their city burn.
The walls were won, but 'twas an even bet

Which of the armies would have cause to mourn: 'Twas blow for blow, disputing inch by inch, For one would not retreat, nor t'other flinch.

(1) ["Les Turcs la laissèrent un peu s'avancer dans la ville, et firent deux sorties par les angles saillans des bastions."— Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie, tom. ii. p. 213.]

(2) ["Alors, se trouvant prise en queue, elle fut écrasée; cependant le lieutenant-colonel Yesouskoï, qui commandait la réserve composée d'un bataillon du régiment de Polozk, traversa le fossé sur les cadavres des Kozaks. "Ibid. p. 213.]

(3) [..." et extermina tous les Turcs qu'il eut en tête: ce brave homme fut tué pendant l'action."— Ibid, p. 213.]