25] A Private Soldier's Account, &c. [26 enty sought a refuge at this shrine from l'on ne goute plus de cette vie, on la To be continued. A PRIVATE SOLDIER'S ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF SIR, EREWITH HEREW WATERLOO. you of the battle of Waterloo, never before published. It appears plain, that Bonaparte,by dint of his cannon and cavary, (whose attacks compelled the formation or squares, and prevented an earher charge of bayonets,) expected that he should so thin the British troops, as to render final resistance unavailing ; but he lost so many of his cavalry in this attempt, that his guards were cut to pieces in the final attack of the English by the bayonet and Lord Uxbridge's dragoons. CLERICUS. a Copy of a Letter from JOHN LEWIS, France, and not only that, bu in Paris, thank God, Dear Father and Mother, man was wounded by part of a shell have anecdotes through his foot, and he dropt as we was advancing; I covered the next man I saw, and had not walked twenty steps before a musket-shot came side-ways and took his nose clean off; and then I covered another man, which was the third; just after that the man that stood next to me on my left hand had his left arm shot off by a nine-pound shot, just above his elbow, and he turned round and caught hold of me with his right hand, and the blood run all over my trowsers; we was advancing, and he dropt directly. After this, was ordered to extend in front of all our large guns, and small arms was firing at the British lines in our rear, and I declare to God, with our guns and the French guns firing over our heads, my pen cannot explain any thing like it; it was not 400 I make no doubt but you have heard yards from the French lines to our Briof the glorious news, and I suppose you tish lines, and we was about 150 yards thought I was killed or wounded, hut in front of our's, so we was about 250 yesterday is the first day we have halted yards from the French, and sometimes since the beginning of the battle on the not 100 yards; so I leave you to judge of my 18th of June, and my hands are swelled if I had not a narrow escape life: so with walking day and night, that I as I just said, we now extended in front; scarce can hold my pen. I do not know Boney's imperial horse guards, all clothwhat the English Newspapers say about ed in armour, made a charge at us; we the battle, but, thank God, I am living, saw then coming, and we all closed in and was an eye-witness to the beginning and formed a square just as they came of the battle-to the ending of it; but within ten yards of us, and they found my pen cannot explain to you, nor twen- they could do no good with us; they ty sheets of paper would not contain,what fired with their carbine on us, and came I could say about it; for thank God, I to the right about direetly, and at that had my strength and health more on the toment the man on my right hand was days we was engaged than I had in my shot through the body, and the blood life; so what I am going to tell you is run out at his belly and back like a pig the real truth; but I think my brother stuck in the throat; he dropt on his side; Tom, as he is such a scholar, if he was I spoke to him, he just said, "Lewis. I to look in the Newspapers, he might see am done!" and died directly. All this what officers was killed and wounded time we kept up a constant fire at the of the 95th regiment; we have but six imperial guards as they retreated, but companions in the country, and after the they often came to the right-about and battle we were only 255 privates; 2 co- fired; and, as I was loading my rife, lonels, 1 major, 15 officers, 11 serjeants, one of their shots came and struck my -and 1 buglar, were killed; my first-rank rifle, not two inches above my left hand 1 A Private Soldier's Account of the Battle of Waterloo. [28 as I was ramming down the ball with city, for it is four o'clock, and the letters my right hand, and broke the stock, and go off at five; but I must say a little bent the barrel in such a manner that I more on the other side:-We was all could not get the ball down; just at very quiet in quarters till the 15th June, that time we extended again, and my when the orders came all at once, at rifle was no use to me; a nine-pound twelve o'clock at night, for every man to shot came and cut the sergeant of our be ready in one hour, and march at one company right in two, he was not above o'clock; there we was all in a bustle, three file from me, so I threw down my and off we goes, and it was not light, rifle and went and took his rifle, as it was there was no moon: the orders was, not hurt at the time. We had lost both that the French was making different our colonels, major, and two eldest cap- movements on our left, about twentytains, and only a young captain to take two leagues from us; mind the day of command of us; as for Colonel Wade the month,-I say this day, the 16th, he was sent to England about three we marched till eleven o'clock that night, weeks before the battle. Seeing we had which was twenty-two hours march for lost so many men and all our command- us the first day, and we walked thirteen ing officers, my heart began to fail, and leagues in that time, or thirty-nine EnBoney's guards made another charge on glish miles; being dark, General Clinton us; but we made them retreat as before, ordered us to lie down on the road-side and, while we was in square the second for two hours; so we halted, and every time, the Duke of Wellington and his man got half pint of real rum to keep up staff came up to us in all the fire, and his spirits; we set off again at ten o'clock saw we had lost all our commanding of in the morning on the 17th June, and ficers; he, himself, gave the word of marched nine leagues, about four o'clock command; the words he said to our in the afternoon; then we was in front regiment were this 95th, unfix your of the enemy, but the rain fell so hard swords, left face and extend yourselves that the oldest soldiers there never saw once more, we shall soon have them the like in their life, I really thought that over the other hill;-and then he rode heaven and earth was coming together. away on our right, and how he escaped There was a few shots fired on both being shot God only knows, for all that sides that night, but the guns would not time the shot was flying like hail-stones. go off. We was on one long high hill, This was about four o'clock on the 18th and the French on another, facing us; June, when Lord Wellington rode away there was a large wood behind us, and from our regiment; and then we advan- Lord Wellington told us to get wood, ced like Britons, but we could not go and make us large fires and dry our five steps without walking over dead and selves, and get our guns fit by day, as wounded; and Boney's horses of the the enemy could not hurt us. So we imperial guards, that the men was killed, made large fires, and they was about four was running loose about in all directions, miles in length; and when the French If our Tom had been a little behind in saw it, they did the same, and it was one the rear, he might have catched horses of the most beautiful sights I ever saw; enough to had a troop or two like Sir and the next morning, as soon as it was John Delapole. Lord Wellington de- light, we went at it dingdong, and drove clared to us this morning, that it was the all before us, till yesterday, the 7th July, hardest battle that he had ever seen that we entered Paris; but ever since fought in his life; but now, thank God, the 15th June, till 7th July, we have all is over, and we are very comfortable only laid down on the ground with our in Paris, and I hope we shall remain cloaths on; so leave you to judge if I here and have our Christmas dinner in am not fatigued out. Paris, for London cannot compare to it; Blucher rode by the side of Lord I hardly know how to spare time to Wellington yesterday, when we entered write this, for I want to go out about the Paris. As we was on the advance after 29] Defence of Lord Byron's Poems 30 the French army,every town we came to away, broke in the heads of the casks the people was all fled to Paris, and had and let it run about. We marched taken away what they could; and Bri- through towns as large as Exeter, and tish, Prussian, and Russian army, broke not a person to be seen, but all locked their houses open and plundered what up and window-shutters fastened. There was most good, and set fire to some. is, at this time, upwards of 700,000 solWine was more plentiful than water, for diers in Paris and the suburbs: but, as all their cellars was full of wine, the for Boney and his army, it is gone, God same as Tucker's is full of cyder, and knows where; when I have my answer that was the first place the soldiers broke to this, shall write you again. Hope to open. I have often been in cellars, and sleep sound to-night, so no more from what wine we could not drink and carry your affectionate son, JOHN LEWIS. 91B, DEFENCE OF BYRON'S POEMS. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. sion to " long poetical narratives" as to THE HE works of Lord Byron, Walter have read the poems he criticised. NoScott, Campbell, Southey, and the thing can be more captious and idle than other narrative poets of the present day, the objections which he makes to the have formed a new, and, in my opinion, characters, introduced in his lordship's a splendid era in the history of English poems. Lord Byron paints from napoetry. The narrative school (if I may ture; and, therefore, critics who seek use the expression) is distinguished by for those pretty, meek, unspotted chaits rejection of all those rules which have racters, ne'er saw," but with which the writings of our novelists and milk-and-water poets abound, will find themselves disappointed. The charge of uniformity, though a trite one, is quite groundless. Nothing can be more dissimilar, for instance, than the characters of the Giaour and Selim, of Lara and Otho; and, even where some similarity may be traced, as in Conrad, the Giaour, and Childe Harold, the uniformity is only in character, for the situations are totally distinct. no foundation in nature or in reason, but "Those faultless monsters which the world which owe their celebrity to almost immemorial prescription, and the authority of some great names of antiquity. We have at length, it may be hoped, shaken off our classic buskins, and begun to think and feel for ourselves, without losing any due reverence for the masters of ancient literature. Critical faith, like reigious, is best when founded on conviction, not accepted from the authority of others; and, whenever our admiration of former masters impels us to emulate their celebrity, let us remember the aphorism in your last number: "the less we copy the ancients, the more we shall resemble them." Lord Byron's finest female character is Gulnare. Young, and lovely, and in. telligent, irreconcileable in her hatred, I have been led into these remarks by but unshaken in her love; she is stained, observing an attack in your last on the with crimes of the deepest dye, but they poetry of the narrative school in general, have "left her woman still." Her love and of Lord Byron in particular. Your is natural, it has its origin in gratitude, correspondent W. N. considers the wri- it is disinterested, its object is in misfortings of this popular poet as neither nat- tune and captivity; it is constant, for she aral nor pleasing, abounding with pla- procures his release, accompanies him giarisms, and being withal "a mere jum- to distant lands, partakes his sorrows, ble of affectation and common-place." follows him in battle, receives his dying 'These are bold assertions; and W. N. breath, and at length would have done well, before making fhem, to have so far avercome his aver. 44 -----------lies by him she loved; Her tale untold, her truth two dearly proved, ing to your correspondent, "neither say or do any thing to mark their charac [32 And yet this is one of those who, accord- not therefore follow that all pieces which receive sudden and tumultuous approbation are of no real merit. But your correspondent is probably one of those, «Who so much hate the croud, that, if the throng ters." "By chance go right, they purposely go wrong." The detections which your correspondent thinks he has made of his lordship's plagiarisms are curious. They are in the very spirit of Lander, and will remind your readers of that correspondent In my humble opinion, it is long since of the Mirror, who charges him with England has possessed a writer so well plagiarism, and informs him that his last entitled to the name of poet, as Lord number is to be found, every word of Byron. He displays a power of lanit, in a book called Johnson's Diction- guage, and a choice of imagery, an inary." tensity of feeling, and a profundity of Whether Lord Byron is indebted to thought, to which our fashionable po try "the capricious dominion of fashion" had been too long a stranger; and his for any part of his present popularity, I style I will boldly pronounce to be the shall not enquire; for, if such be the most nervous and expressive rhyme in case, it only proves that fashion and the English language: good sense are for once, at least, in conjunction. That many pieces of no real merit receive "sudden and tumultuous approbation," is undoubted; but it does MA "Tis musical, but sadly sweet, MARTIN GUERRE, Or, THE MYSTERIOUS HUSBAND. H. N. ARTIN GUERRE was born in character, that she never did any thing Biscay, and married in his eleventh which deserved blame, nor provoked the year, January 1539, to Bertrande de tongue even of those who are ready to Rols, of Artigues, in the diocese of Rieux, censure without reason. At the end a damsel as young as himself, and equally of eight years she was congratulated by distinguished for beauty and good sense. her husband's four sisters, his uncle, and This couple lived together, in respect to her own relations on his return; she who being fortunate, comfortably enough, had sighed deeply for his absence was though for the first eight or nine years extremely joyful, and in the space of they had no children. However, after three years had two children by this the tenth year of her marriage, she renewal of marriage, one of which died brought him a son named Sanxi. Not as soon as it was born. During this long after, Martin, having defrauded his space she and her new restored husband father of a quantity of corn, thought fit lived with great tranquillity at Artigues, to withdraw in order to avoid his resent- where he transacted several affairs, sold ment. At first, in all probability, he did estates there and in Biscay, and signed not intend to absent himself long, but the contracts in due form. being either charmed with the liberty he enjoyed, or having conceived a dislike for his wife, which neither prudence nor beauty can always prevent, he for above eight years together forbore giving the least notice to her or his famil where This might well exasperate a young woman in Bertrande's circumstances; but so exceptionable was her he was. But after some time, all of a sudden, Bertrande caused him to be apprehended, and presented a bill of complaint against him before the criminal judge of Rieux, praying in the close thereof, "that he night be condemned to make satisfaction to the King for the breach of his laws. To demand pardon of God, the King, and her, in his shirt and a lighted torch 33] Story of Martin Guerre. [34 in his hand, declaring that he had falsely, by all his relations and acquaintance, not rashly,and traitorously imposed upon her, excepting this very Peter Guerre who has stirred up this present prosecution. in assuming the name and pressing himself upon her for Martin Guerre, and that That this man having very frequently he shou'd be further adjudged to pay her differed with him since his coming home, two thousand livres for cost and dama- their quarrels had sometimes produced ges." blows, and that once he would have This prosecution occasioned various killed him with a bar of iron had not his conjectures; many were of opinion that wife interposed. These particulars he it arose from some distaste the woman digested into his answer to the bill of had taken to the man, or that it was a complaint preferred by Bertrande de piece of revenge on account of a quarrel Rols, praying in the close thereof, "that between them, others considering the his wife might be confronted with him, good character which she had hitherto because he could not possibly believe borne, and that she was naturally of a that she was yet so wicked a woman as mild, complying temper, imagined that absolutely to deny the truth; that his she was at first easily prevailed on to calumniators might according to the believe this man her husband, and again laws of equity, be condemned to suffer as easily persuaded to give credit to the those punishments they would have insuggestions of Peter Guerre, her husband's flicted upon him; that Bertrande de uncle, who with some person in the town Rols should be taken out of the power pretended to have discovered him to be of his enemies, and be hindered from an impostor, and persuaded her to apply dissipating his effects; in fine, that he to the magistrate. They concluded thus, should be declared innocent of the crime because it is no uncommon thing for alledged against him, and the prosecution persons of an indolent disposition to act be dismissed with costs." He submitted like mere machines, as they are influenced to a long examination before the criminal by others. On the other hand, the man judge, who interrogated him as to matters exclaimed against the wicked conspiracy which happened in Biscay, the place of which his relations and his wife had Martin Guerre's birth, his father, his formed against him. He pleaded in his mother, brothers, sisters, and other reladefence before the judge of Rieux, that tions; as to the year, the month, and the Peter Guerre, his uncle, had contrived day of his (Martin Guerre's) marriage; this plot merely with a view to possess his father-in-law, mother-in-law, the himself of his effects, which were of the persons who were present at the nuptials, value of eight thousand livres; that he those who dined with them, their different had drawn in his wife through the weak- dresses, the priest who performed the 30 ness of her understanding to be a party ceremony, all the little circumstances that in this black affair, and that a more ex- happened that day and the next; even ecrable villainy was never heard of. naming the people who put them to-bed. He related the reasons which induced His answers were clear and distinct to him to leave his habitation, and his cach of these points; and as if he had adventures from the time he quitted it; not been satisfied with performing what he said that he served the King in his the judge required of him, he spoke of wars between seven and eight years, that his own accord of his son Sanxi, of the afterwards he enlisted himself in the day he was born, of his own departure, troops of the king of Spain, but that of the persons he met with on the road, most earnestly desiring to return to his of the towns he had passed through in dear wife and family, he quitted that France and Spain, of the persons he had service in a few months, and made the seen in both kingdoms, and that nothing best of his way to Artigues; that on his might be wanting to confirm his innoarrival he had the satisfaction of being cence, he named many persons wher received notwit.standing the alteration were able to testify the out of skatrimes which time and the cutting off his hair had declared. ue End of the World. might have made, with the utmost joy The cour ord D Eng. Mag. Vol. I. |