No clarion marks their way, No victor trump is blown; Why march they on so silently, Told by their tread alone? Behold! in glittering show, A gorgeous car of state ! The white-plumed steeds, in cloth of gold, Bow down beneath its weight; And the noble warhorse, led Seems fiercely for his lord to ask, Who rideth on yon car? The incense flameth high,— No shout his minions raise, But by a lofty chapel dome A king is standing there, And with uncovered head Receives him in the name of France: Receiveth whom?-The dead! Was he not buried deep In island-cavern drear; Girt by the sounding ocean surge? Was there no rest for him That thus he brake his stony tomb, An echo, never to be heard A requiem for the chief, The banished who returned, The dead who rose again, And rode in his shroud the billows proud To the sunny banks of Seine. They laid him there in state, That warrior strong and bold, The imperial crown, with jewels bright, Upon his ashes cold, While round those columns proud The blazoned banners wave, That on a hundred fields he won, With the heart's blood of the brave; And sternly there kept guard His veterans scarred and old, Or purple Leipsic told. Slow pacing, night and day, A cloud is on their brow,- Of Borodino's blood? Of Beresina's wail? The horrors of that dire retreat, A cloud is on their brow,- Marked the poor conscripts' grave, The bravest of the brave.* An allusion to the disastrous retreat from Moscow, in which dreadful march the flower of the invading army of Napoleon was sacrificed. A thousand trembling lamps The gathered darkness mock, And velvet drapes his hearse, who died And from the altar near, A never-ceasing hymn Is lifted by the chanting priests Mysterious one, and proud! In the land where shadows reign, Oh, when the cry of that spectral host What will thine answer be to them? And what thy God's to thee? INDEX. -000 ADDISON, On the death of, Thomas Contentment, Hymn to, Thomas Par- Tickell, 144. Alexander's Feast, John Dryden, 264. | Althea, To, Richard Lovelace, 203. Angler's Wish, The, Isaac Walton, 244. Approach of Summer, Thomas Warton, Aurora, Ode to, Thomas Blacklock, BATTLE, The field of, Thomas Pen- Black-Eyed Susan, John Gay, 230. Burial of Sir John Moore, Rev. Charles Byron, Genius of, Robert Pollok, 190. CASA WAPPY, David Macbeth Moir, 4. Clifton Grove (extract from), H. Kirke Come whoam to thy Childer an' me, nell, 206. Cotter's Saturday Night, Robert Burns, |