Don Juan

Canto the Eighth

{331}[412] ["La nuit tait obscure; un brouillard pais ne nous

permettait de distinguer autre chose que le feu de notre artillerie,

dont l'horizon tait embras de tous cts: ce feu, partant du milieu du

Danube, se rflchissait sur les eaux, et offrait un coup d'oeil

trs-singulier."-_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 209.]

{332}[413] [" peine eut-on parcouru l'espace de quelques toises au-del

des batteries, que les Turcs, qui n'avaient point tir pendant toute la

nuit s'apperevant de nos mouvemens, commencrent de leur ct un feu

trs-vif, qui embrasa le reste de l'horizon: mais ce fut bien autre

chose lorsque, avancs davantage, le feu de la mousqueterie commena

dans toute l'tendue du rempart que nous appercevions. Ce fut alors que

la place parut 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 rptait tout autour de la

ville, vint encore rendre plus extraordinaire cet instant, dont il est

impossible de se faire une ide."--_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 taient en mouvement; celles qui attaquaient

par eau commandes par le gnral Arsniew, essuyrent un feu

pouvantable, 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, _c*****e 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 bless au genou; le Duc de Richelieu eut

une balle entre le fond de son bonnet et sa tte."--_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 Franois 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 _Socit Impriale d'Histoire de Russie_, 1886,

tom. liv. pp. 111-198. See for further mention of the manuscript, _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 emportt le

prince bless, reut un coup de fusil qui lui fracassa le pied."--_Hist.

de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 210.]

[420] ["Trois cents bouches feu vomissaient sans interruption, et

trente mille fusils alimentaient sans relche une grle de

balles."--_Ibid._, p. 210.]

{335}[421] ["Les troupes, dja dbarques, se portrent droite pour

s'emparer d'une batterie; et celles dbarques plus bas, principalement

composes 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 boire."

[In the _London Gazette Extraordinary_ of June 22, 1815, Captain Grove,

1st Guards, is among the list of killed. In the supplement to the

_London Gazette_, published July 3, 1815, the mistake was corrected, and

the entry runs, "1st Guards, 3d Batt. Lieut. Edward Grose, (Captain)." I

am indebted to the courtesy of the Registrar of the University of

Cambridge for the information that Edward Grose matriculated at St.

John's College as a pensioner, December 7, 1805. Thanks to the

"misprint" in the _Gazette_, and to Byron, he is "a name for

ever."--_Vir null non donatus lauru!_]

{337}[423] [At the Battle of Mollwitz, April 10, 1741, "the king

vanishes for sixteen hours into the regions of Myth 'into Fairyland,'

... of the king's flight ... the king himself, who alone could have told

us fully, maintained always rigorous silence, and nowhere drops the

least hint. So that the small fact has come down to us involved in a

great bulk of fabulous cobwebs, mostly of an ill-natured character, set

a-going by Voltaire, Valori, and others."--Carlyle's _Frederick the

Great_, 1862, iii. 314, 322, sq.]

[424] See General Valancey and Sir Lawrence Parsons.

[Charles Vallancey (1721-1812), general in the Royal Engineers,

published an "Essay on the Celtic Language," etc., in 1782. "The

language [the Iberno-Celtic]," he writes (p. 4), "we are now going to

explain, had such an affinity with the Punic, that it may be said to

have been, in a great degree, the language of Hanibal (_sic_), Hamilcar,

and of Asdrubal." Sir Laurence Parsons (1758-1841), second Earl of

Rosse, represented the University of Dublin 1782-90, and afterwards

King's County, in the Irish House of Commons. He was an opponent of the

Union. In a pamphlet entitled _Defence of the Antient History of

Ireland_, published in 1795, he maintains (p. 158) "that the

Carthaginian and the Irish language being originally the same, either

the Carthaginians must have been descended from the Irish, or the Irish

from the Carthaginians."]

{338}[425] The Portuguese proverb says that "hell is paved with good

intentions."--[See _Vision of Judgment_, stanza xxxvii. line 8,

_Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 499, note 2.]

[ib] _At least the sharp faints of that "burning marle."_--[MS. erased.]

{339}[426] ["The Nervii marched to the number of sixty thousand, and

fell upon Csar, as he was fortifying his camp, and had not the least

notion of so sudden an attack. They first routed his cavalry, and then

surrounded the twelfth and the seventh legions, and killed all the

officers. Had not Csar snatched a buckler from one of his own men,

forced his way through the combatants before him, and rushed upon the

barbarians; or had not the tenth legion, seeing his danger, ran from the

heights where they were posted, and mowed down the enemy's ranks, not

one Roman would have survived the battle."--Plutarch, _Csar_,

Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 502.]

[427]

["As near a field of corn, a stubborn ass ...

E'en so great Ajax son of Telamon."

_The Iliad_, Lord Derby's translation, bk. xi. lines 639, 645.]

{339}[ic] _Nor care a single damn about his corps_.--[MS. erased.]

[428] ["N'apercevant plus le commandant du corps dont je faisais partie,

et ignorant o je devais porter mes pas, je crus reconnatre le lieu o

le rempart tait situ; on y faisait un feu assez vif, que je jugeai

tre celui ... du gnral-major de Lascy."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle

Russie_, ii. 210. The speaker is the Duc de Richelieu. See, for

original, his _Journal de mon Voyage, etc., Soc. Imp. d'Hist. de

Russie_, tom. liv. p. 179]

[id]

_For he was dizzy, busy, and his blood_

_Lightening along his veins, and where he heard_

_The liveliest fire, and saw the fiercest flood_

_Of Friar Bacon's mild discovery, shared_

_By Turks and Christians equally, he could_

_No longer now resist the attraction of gunpowder_

_But flew to where the merry orchestra played louder_.--[MS. erased.]

[429] Gunpowder is said to have been discovered by this friar. [N.B.

Though Friar Bacon seems to have discovered gunpowder, he had the

_humanity_ not to record his discovery in intelligible language.]

{341}[ie]

---- _whose short breath, and long faces_

_Kept always pushing onwards to the Glacis_.--[MS. erased.]

{342}[430] [_I Henry IV._, act iii. sc. 1, line 53.]

[if] _And that mechanic impulse_----.--[MS. erased.]

[431] [_Hamlet_, act iii, sc. 1, lines 79, 80.]

{343}[432] ["_Talus:_ the slope or inclination of a wall, whereby,

reclining at the top so as to fall within its base, the thickness is

gradually lessened according to the height."--_Milit. Dict._]

[433] ["Appelant ceux des chasseurs qui taient autour de moi en assez

grand nombre, je m'avanai et reconnus ne m'tre point tromp dans mon

calcul; c'tait en effet cette colonne qui l'instant parvenait au

sommet du rempart. Les Turcs de derrire les travers et les flancs des

bastions voisins fasaient sur elle un feu trs-vif de canon et de

mousqueterie. Je gravis, avec les gens qui m'avaient suivi, le talus

intrieur du rempart."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 210.]

{344}[434] [Baron Menno van Coehoorn (circ. 1641-1704), a Dutch military

engineer, the contemporary and rival of Vauban, invented a mortar which

bore his name. He was the author of a celebrated work on fortification,

published in 1692.]

[435] ["Ce fut dans cet instant que je reconnus combien l'ignorance du

constructeur des palissades tait importante pour nous; car, comme elles

taient places au milieu du parapet," etc.--_Hist. de la Nouvelle

Russie_, ii. 211.]

[436] They were but two feet above the level.--[MS.]

["Il y avait de chaque ct neuf dix pieds sur lesquels on pouvait

marcher; et les soldats, aprs tre monts, avaient pu se ranger

commodment sur l'espace extrieur et enjamber ensuite les palissades,

qui ne s'levaient que d'-peu-prs deux pieds au-dessus du niveau de la

terre."--_Ibid._, p. 211.]

{345}[437] [Friederich Wilhelm, Baron von Blow (1755-1816), was in

command of the 4th corps of the Prussian Army at Waterloo. August

Wilhelm Antonius Neidhart von Gneisenau (1760-1831) was chief of staff,

and after Blcher was disabled by a fall at Ligny, assumed temporary

command, June 16-17, 1815. He headed the triumphant pursuit of the

French on the night of the battle. For Blcher's official account of the

battles of Ligny and Waterloo (subscribed by Gneisenau), see W.H.

Maxwell's _Life of the Duke of Wellington_, 1841, iii. 566-571; and for

Wellington's acknowledgment of Blcher's "cordial and timely

assistance," see _Dispatches_, 1847, viii. 150. See, too, _The Life of

Wellington_, by the Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., 1899, ii. 88,

et passim.]

{346}[ig]

---- _as feminine of feature_.--[MS.]

_Led him on--although he was the gentlest creature_,

_As kind in heart as feminine of feature_.--[MS. erased.]

{347}[438] [Pistol's "_Bezonian_" is a corruption of _bisognoso_--a

rogue, needy fellow. Byron, quoting from memory, confuses two passages.

In _2 Henry VI._, act iv. sc. 1, line 134, Suffolk says, "Great men oft

die of vile bezonians;" in _2 Henry IV._, act v. sc. 3, line 112, Pistol

says, "Under which King, Besonian? speak or die."]

[439] ["Le Gnral Lascy, voyant arriver un corps, si -propos son

secours, s'avana vers l'officier qui l'avait conduit, et, le prenant

pour un Livonien, lui fit, en allemand, les complimens les plus

flatteurs; le jeune militaire (le Duc de Richelieu) qui parlait

parfaitement cette langue, y rpondit avec sa modestie

ordinaire."-_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 211.]

{348}[440] [_The Task_, bk. i. line 749. It was pointed out to Cowper

that the same thought had been expressed by Isaac Hawkins Browne, in

_The Fire-side, a Pastoral Soliloquy_, lines 15, 16 (_Poems_, ed. 1768,

p. 125)--

"I have said it at home, I have said it abroad,

That the town is Man's world, but that this is of God."

There is a parallel passage in M.T. Varro, _Rerum Rusticarum_, lib. iii.

I. 4, "Nee minim, quod divina natura dedit agros, ars humami aedificavit

urbes."--See _The Task, etc._, ed. by H.T. Griffith, 1896, ii. 234.]

[441] [Sulla spoke of himself as the "fortunate," and in the

twenty-second book of his Commentaries, finished only two days before

his death, "he tells us that the Chaldeans had predicted, that after a

life of glory he would depart in the height of his prosperity." He was

fortunate, too, with regard to his funeral, for, at first, a brisk wind

blew which fanned the pile into flame, and it was not till the fire had

begun to die out that the rain, which had been expected throughout the

day, began to fall in torrents.--Langhorne's _Plutarch_, 1838, pp. 334,

335. See, too, _Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte_, stanza vii. _Poetical

Works_, 1900, in. 308, note I.]

[442] [Daniel Boone (1735-1820) was the grandson of an English settler,

George Boone, of Exeter. His great work in life was the conquest of

Kentucky. Following in the steps of another pioneer, John Finley, he

left his home in North Carolina in May, 1769, and, after numerous

adventures, effected a settlement on the Kentucky river. He constructed

a fort, which he named Boonesborough, and carried on a protracted

campaign with varying but final success against the Indians. When

Kentucky was admitted into the Union, February 4, 1791, he failed to

make good his title to his property at Boonesborough, and withdrew to

Mount Pleasant, beyond the Ohio. Thence, in 1795, he removed to

Missouri, then a Spanish possession. Napoleon wrested Missouri from the

Spaniards, only to sell the territory to the United States, with the

result that in 1810 he was confirmed in the possession of 850 out of the

8000 acres which he had acquired in 1795. "Boone was then seventy-five

years of age, hale and strong. The charm of the hunter's life clung to

him to the last, and in his eighty-second year he went on a hunting

excursion to the mouth of the Kansas river."--Appleton's _Encyclopedia,

etc_., art. "Boone." His fine and gracious nature reveals itself in his

autobiography (_The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boon, Formerly a

Hunter; Containing a Narrative of the Wars of Kentucky_; Imlay's _North

America_, 1793, ii. 52-54). "One day," he writes (pp. 330, _sq_.), "I

undertook a tour through the country, and the diversity and beauties of

nature ... expelled every gloomy and vexatious thought. Just at the

close of day the gentle gales retired, and left the place to the

disposal of a profound calm. Not a breeze shook the most tremulous leaf.

I had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, and, looking round with

astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains, the beauteous tracts

below. On the other hand, I surveyed the famous river Ohio, that rolled

in silent dignity, marking the western boundary of Kentucky with

inconceivable grandeur. ... All things were still. I kindled a fire near

a fountain of sweet water, and feasted on the loins of a buck, which a

few hours before I had killed.... No populous city, with all the

varieties of commerce and stately structures, could afford so much

pleasure to my mind as the beauties of nature I found here." (See, too,

_The Kentucky Pioneers_, by John Brown, _Harper's New Monthly Magazine_,

1887, vol. lxxv. pp. 48-71.)]

{350}[443] [For John Kyrle, "the Man of Ross" (1635-1724), see Pope's

_Moral Essays_, epist. iii. lines 249-284. See, too, _Letters of S.T.

Coleridge_, 1895 (letter to R. Southey, July 13, 1794), i. 77.]

{351}[444] [Byron seems to have derived his knowledge of Catherine's

_vie intime_ from the _Mmoires Secrets sur la Russie_, of C.F.P.

Masson, which were published in Amsterdam in 1800, and translated into

English in the same year.]

[445] [Michailo Smolenskoi Koutousof (1743-1813), who was raised to

eminence through the influence of Potemkin, was in command of the

Austro-Russian Army at Austerlitz. During the retreat from Moscow he

repulsed Napoleon at Malo-yaroslavetz, and pursued the French to Kalisz.

Tolstoi introduces Koutousof in his novel, _War and Peace_, and dwells

on his fatalism.]

{352}[446] ["Parmi les colonnes, une de celles qui souffrirent le plus

tait commande par le gnral Koutouzow (aujourd'hui Prince de

Smolensko). Ce brave militaire runit l'intrpidit un grand nombre de

connaissances acquises; il marche au feu avec la mme gaet qu'il va

une fte; il sait commander avec autant de sang froid qu'il dploie

d'esprit et d'amabilit dans le commerce habituel de la vie."--_Hist. de

la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 212.]

[447] ["Ce brave Koutouzow se jeta dans le foss, fut suivi des siens,

et ne pntra jusqu'au haut du parapet qu'aprs avoir prouv des

difficults incroyables. (Le brigadier de Ribaupierre perdit la vie dans

cette occasion: il avail fix l'estime gnrale, et sa mort occasionna

beaucoup de regrets.) Les Turcs accoururent en grand nombre; cette

multitude repoussa deux fois le gnral jusqu'au foss."--_Ibid._, p.

212.]

[448] ["Quelques troupes russes, emportes par le courant, n'ayant pu

dbarquer sur le terrain qu'on leur avait prescrit," etc.--_Ibid._, p.

213.]

[449] ["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._]

{353}[450] [" ... longrent le rempart, aprs la prise du cavalier, et

ouvrirent la porte dite _de Kilia_ aux soldats du gnral

Koutouzow."--_Hist, de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 213.]

[451] ["Il tait rserv aux Kozaks de combler de leurs corps la partie

du foss o ils combattaient; leur colonne avail t divise entre MM.

Platow et d'Orlow ..."--_Ibid._, p. 213.]

[452] [" ... la premire partie, devant se joindre la gauche du

gnral Arsniew, fut foudroye par le feu des batteries, et parvint

nanmoins au haut du rempart."--_Ibid._, p. 213.]

[453] ["Les Turcs la laissrent un peu s'avancer, dans la ville, et

firent deux sorties par les angles saillans des bastions."--_Ibid._, p.

213.]

[ih] _Fatal to warriors as to women--these_.--[MS.]

{354}[454] ["Alors, se trouvant prise en queue, elle fut crase;

cependant le Lieutenant-colonel Yesousko, qui commandait la rserve

compose d'un bataillon du rgiment de Polozk, traversa le foss sur les

cadavres des Kozaks ..."--_Hist. de la Nouvell Russia_, ii. 212.]

[455] [" ... et extermina tous les Turcs qu'il eut en tte: ce brave

homme fut tu pendant l'action."--_Ibid._, p. 213.]

[456] ["L'autre partie des Kozaks, qu' Orlow commandait, souffrit de la

manire la plus cruelle: elle attaqua maintes reprises, fut souvent

repousse, et perdit les deux tiers de son monde (c'est ici le lieu de

placer une observation, que nous prenons dans les mmoires qui nous

guident; elle fait remarquer combien il est raal vu de donner beaucoup

de cartouches aux soldats qui doivent emporter un poste de vive force,

et par consquent o la baonnette doit principalement agir; ils pensent

ne devoir se servir de cette derniere arme, que lorsque les cartouches

sont epuises: dans cette persuasion, ils retardent leur marche, et

restent plus long-temps exposs au canon et la mitraille de

l'ennemi)."--_Ibid._, p. 214.]

{355}[457] ["La jonction de la colonne de Meknop--(le gnral fut nial

second et tu)--ne put s'effectuer avec celle qui l'avoisinait, ... ces

colonnes attaqurent un bastion, et prouvrent une rsistance

opinitre; raais bientt des cris de victoire se font entendre de toutes

parts, et le bastion est emport: le sraskier dfendait cette

partie."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 214.]

[458] [" ... un officier de marine Anglais veut le faire prisonnier, et

reoit un coup de pistolet qui l'tend roide mort."--_Ibid._, p. 214.]

[459] ["Les Russes passent trois mille Turcs au fil de l'pe; seize

baonnettes percent la fois le sraskier."--_Ibid._, p. 214.]

[460] ["La ville est emporte; l'image de la mort et de la dsolation se

reprsente de tous les cts le soldat furieux n'coute plus la voix de

ses officiers, il ne respire que le c*****e; altr de sang, tout est

indiffrent pour lui."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 214.]

{356}[ii] _As do the subtle snake's denounced of old_.--[MS.]

{357}[ij] _Which most of all doth man characterise_.--[MS. Alternative

reading.]

[ik] _As Autumn winds disperse the yellow leaves_.--[MS. erased.]

[461] [See _The Blues_, ecl. i. line 25, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv.

574, note 3.]

{358}[462] ["Je sauvai la vie une fille de dix ans, don't l'innocence

et la candeur formaient un contraste bien frappant avec la rage de tout

ce qui m'environnait. En arrivant sur le bastion o commena le c*****e,

j'aperus un groupe de quatre femmes gorges, entre lesquelles cet

enfant, d'une figure charmante, cherchait un asile contre la fureur de

deux Kozaks qui taient sur le point de la massacrer,"--Duc de

Richelieu. (See _Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 217.)]

[463] ["Who never mentions Hell to ears polite."--Pope, _Moral Essays_,

ep. iv, line 150.]

{359}[464] ["Ce spectacle m'attira bientt, et je n'hsitai pas, comme

on peut le croire, prendre entre mes bras cette infortune, que les

barbares voulaient y poursuivre encore. J'eus bien de la peine me

retenir et ne pas percer ces misrables du sabre que je tenais

suspendu sur leur tte:--je me contentai cependant de les loigner, non

sans leur prodiguer les coups et les injures qu'ils mritaient...."--Duc

de Richelieu, _vide Hist, de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 217.]

[465] [" ... J'eus le plaisir d'apercevoir que ma petite prisonnire

n'avait d'autre mal qu'une coupure legere que lui avail faite au visage

le mme fer qui avail perc sa mre."--Duc de Richelieu, _ibid_.

The Turks clamoured for the child, and Richelieu was forced to give way.

But in the original the story ends unhappily.

"Je fus oblig de cder leurs instances et celles de l'officier qui

parlementait avec eux; ... ce ne fut pas sans de grandes difficults et

sans une promesse expresse de la parl de cet officier [Colonel Ribas] de

me la faire rendre aussitt que les Tures auraient mis bas les armes. Je

me sparai donc de cet enfant qui m'tait dj devenu trs-cher, et mme

a prsent, je ne puis penser ce moment sans amertume, puisque malgr

toutes les recherches et les peines que je me donnai pour la retrouver,

il me fut impossible d'y russir, el je n'ai que trop sujet de craindre

qu'elle n'ait pri malheureusement."--_Socit Impriale d'Histoire de

Russie_, tom. liv. p. 185.]

{360}[466] [Sir Walter Scott (_Quarterly Review_, October, 1816, vol.

xvi. p. 177) says that a "brother-poet" compared Byron's features to the

sculpture of a beautiful alabaster vase, only seen to perfection when

lighted up from within. Byron alludes to this comparison in his

_Detached Thoughts_, October 15, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 408. It may

be noted that Lorenzo Bartolini, the Italian sculptor who took a bust of

Byron at Pisa, in the spring of 1822, had been employed by Napoleon, in

1814, to design marble vases for a terrace at Elba, which were to be

illuminated at night "from within."]

[467] A Russian military order.

{362}[468] ["Le sultan prit dans l'action en brave homme, digne d'un

meilleur destin; ce fut lui qui rallia les Turcs lorsque l'ennemi

pntra dans la place ... ce sultan, d'une valeur prouve, surpassait

en gnrosit les plus civiliss de sa nation; cinq de ses fils

combattaient ses cts, il les encourageait par son exemple."--_Hist.

de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 215.]

[469] ["When Charles XII. reached Bender, August 1, 1709, he refused, in

the first instance, to cross the river Dniester, and on yielding to the

representations of the Turks, he declined to enter the town, but decided

on remaining encamped on an island, in spite of the assurances of the

inhabitants that it was occasionally flooded." But, perhaps, Byron had

in mind Voltaire's remarks on Charles's _Opinitret_. (See _Histoire de

Charles XII._, 1772, p. 377. See, too, _Charles XII._, by Oscar

Browning, 1899, pp. 231-234.)]

[il]---- _like celestial patience_.--[MS. erased.]

[im] _Because a hunchback_----.--[MS. erased.]

{364}[in] _In battle to old age and ugliness_.--[MS. erased.]

{365}[io] _In one immortal glance, and then he died_.--[MS. erased]

[470] ["Tous cinq furent tous tus sous ces yeux: il ne cessa point de

se battre, rpondit par des coups de sabre aux propositions de se

rendre, et ne fut atteint du coup mortel qu'aprs avoir abattu de sa

main beaucoup de Kozaks des plus acharne sa prise; le reste de sa

troupe fut massacr."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 215.]

{366}[471] ["Quoique les Russes fussent rpandus dans la ville, le

bastion de pierre rsistait encore; il tait dfendu par un vicillard,

pacha trois queues, et commandant les forces runies Ismal. On lui

proposa une capitulation; il demanda si le reste de la ville tait

conquis; sur cette rponse, il autorisa quelques-uns de ces officiers

capituler avec M. de Ribas."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 215.]

[472] ["Pendant ce colloque, il resta tendu sur des tapis placs sur

les ruines de la forteresse, fumant sa pipe avec la mme tranquillit et

la mme indiffrence que s'il et t tranger tout ce qui se

passait."--_Ibid._, p. 215.]

{367}[ip]

_Of burning cities, those full moons of slaughter_

_Was imaged back in blood instead of water_.--[MS. Alternative reading.]

[iq] _Would_ you _do less_, "pro focis et pro aris"?--[MS. erased.]

{368}[473] [Compare--

"Spread--spread for Vitellius, the royal repast,

Till the gluttonous despot be stuffed to the gorge!"

_The Irish Avatar_, stanza 20, _Poetical Works_, 1891, iv. 559.]

[474] ["On gorgea indistinctement, on saccagea la place; et la rage du

vainqueur ... se rpandit comme un torrent furieux qui a renvers les

digues qui le rtenaient: personne obtint de grce, et _trente huit

mille huit cent soixante_ Turcs prirent dans cette journe de

sang."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 216.]

[ir]---- _of my peroration_.--[MS. erased.]

{369}[is]

---- _the cause I cannot guess_--

_I hardly think it was commiseration_.--[MS. erased.]

{370}[475] In the original Russian--

"Slava bogu! slava vam!

Krpost vzata i ya tam;"

a kind of couplet; for he was a poet.

[J.H. Castra (_Vie de Catherine II._, 1797, ii. 374) relates this

incident in connection with the fall of Turtukey (or Tutrakaw) in

Bulgaria, giving the words in French, "Gloire Dieu! Louange

Catherine! Toutoukai est pris. Souwaroff y est entr." W. Tooke (_Life

of Catherine II._, 1800, iii. 278). Castra's translator, gives the

original Russian with an English version. But according to Spalding

(_Suvroff_, 1890, pp. 42, 43), the words, which were written on a scrap

of paper, and addressed to Soltikoff, ran thus: "Your Excellency, we

have conquered. Glory to God! Glory to you! Alexander Suvroff." When

Ismail was taken he wrote to Potemkin, "The Russian standard floats

above the walls of Ismail," and to the Empress, "Proud Ismail lies at

your Majesty's feet." The tenour of the poetical message on the fall of

Tutrakaw recalls the triumphant piety of the Emperor William I. of

Germany. See, too, for "mad Suwarrow's rhymes," Canto IX. stanza lx.

lines 1-4.]