IDEM LATINE. Perpetua rigidus glacie, nivibusque profundis, Et tempestates crepitanti grandine format. M. E. YEATMAN. THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS. THE night was spent in a manner which prognosticated the event of the following day. On the part of the Normans it was spent in prayer, and in a cool and steady preparation for the engagement; on the side of the English in riot and a vain confidence that neglected all the necessary preparations. The two armies met in the morning; from seven to five the battle was fought with equal vigour; until, at last, the Norman army pretending to break in confusion, a stratagem to which they had been regularly formed, the English suffered that firm order to dissipate in which their security consisted: which when William observed, he gave the signal to his men to regain their former disposition, and fall upon the English broken and dispersed. Harold, in this emergency, did all that became him, everything possible to collect his troops and to renew the engagement; but whilst he flew from place to place and in all places renewed the battle, an arrow pierced his brain, and he died a king in a manner worthy of a warrior. The English immediately fled; the rout was total and the slaughter prodigious. The consternation which this defeat and death of Harold produced over the kingdom was more fatal than the fate itself. If William had marched directly to London, all contest had probably been at an end, but he judged it more prudent to secure the sea-coast, to make way for reinforcements, distrusting his fortune in his success more than he had done in his first attempts. BURKE. IDEM LATINE. PRÆSAGIEBAT ea nox qua eventuræ postero die res essent, deos implorantibus, omnia ad pugnam præparantibus Normannis, Anglis immodice comissantibus quum ita viribus suis non diffiderent, ut et ea quæ necessaria erant omnia negligerent. At hercule! quum mane consertum esset præium a prima diei hora ad undecimam æqua marte pugnatum. Tum demum Normanni se recipere jussi, ut simulatione fugæ Anglos elicerent; ut ex olim meditatis insidiis omnia ad nutum fiunt, nec diutius quisque in suo gradu obniti hostis, in quo uno salus eorum erat posita Quod ubi videt Gulielmus, signum suis dat ut ordinibus redintegratis in turbatam hostium aciem et fluctuantia signa impetum faciant. Tum Haroldius omnia quæ ducis, omnia quæ viri erant in tali discrimine ad restituendas acies et iterandam pugnam molitur; sed huc illuc advolantem, ubique aciem adventu suo firmanten, fixa cerebro sagitta pugnæ subtraxit et morte duce vel maximo digna rex est absumptus. Terga Angli extemplo dederunt; et in fuga effusa ingens erat cædes. Nuntiata illa clades regisque mors per totam insulam majorem atque exitiosiorem quam res erat terrorem excivit; et si recto itinere Gulielmus Londinum contendisset hand dubie eo die debellatum fuisset; sed ut subsidiis iter pareret maritimam oram prius occujpare tutius est ratus, quum jam in prospero successu omnium magis fortunæ suæ diffideret quam eo tempore quo Britanniam primum est aggressus. OVID METAMORPHOSES, v. 576-606. Pars ego nymharum, quae sunt in Achaide, dixit, una fui: nec me studiosius altera saltus legit, nec posuit studiosius altera casses. Sed quamvis formae numquam mihi fama petita est, quamvis fortis eram, formosae nomen habebam. Nec mea me facies nimium laudata iuvabat: quaque aliae gaudere solent, ego rustica dote corporis erubui, crimenque placere putavi. Lassa revertebar, memini, Stymphalide silva. Aestus erat, magnumque labor geminaverat aestum. Invenio sine vortice aquas, sine murmure euntes, perspicuas ad humum, per quas numerabilis alte calculus omnis erat, quas tu vix ire putares. Cana salicta dabant nutritaque populus unda sponte sua natas ripis declivibus umbras. Accessi, primumque pedis vestigia tinxi, poplite deinde tenus: neque eo contenta, recingor, molliaque impono salici velamina curvae, nudaque mergor aquis: quas dum ferioque trahoque, mille modis labens, excussaque brachia iacto, nescio quod medio sensi sub gurgite murmur, territaque insisto propioris margine ripae. Quo properas, Arethusa? suis Alpheus ab undis, quo properas? iterum rauco mihi dixerat ore. Sicut eram, fugio sine vestibus: altera vestes ripa meas habuit. Tanto magis instat et ardet; et quia nuda fui, sum visa paratior illi. Sic ego currebam, sic me ferus ille premebat, ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbae, ut solet accipiter trepidas urgere columbas. IDEM ANGLICE. "One of Achaia's nymphs, of yore, 'T was summer, and the summer heat A stream's clear water I descry Far in the liquid stream below O'er shelving banks their shadows throw. "Close to the brink I came and first My feet scarce in the stream immersed, I stood, nor yet was satisfied. |