That morn it held the holy wine, Converted by Christ to his blood so divine, And round the sacred table glow A spoil-the richest, and the last. XXXIII. So near they came, the nearest stretch'd When old Minotti's hand Touch'd with the torch the train 'Tis fired! Spire, vaults, the shrine, the spoil, the slain, Hurl'd on high with the shiver'd fane, The shatter'd town-the walls thrown down- Proclaim'd the desperate conflict o'er Many a tall and goodly man, Scorch'd and shrivell'd to a span, When he fell to earth again Down the ashes shower like rain; Some fell in the gulf, which received the sprinkles Some fell on the shore, but, far away, More of human form or face Save a scatter'd scalp or bone: And down came blazing rafters, strown All blacken'd there and reeking lay. The nearer steed plunged o'er the plain, And mounted nearer to the sun, 10 The clouds beneath him seem'd so dun; Their smoke assail'd his startled beak, And made him higher soar and shriek— Thus was Corinth lost and won! NOTES TO THE SIEGE OF CORINTH. Note 1, page 338, line 22. The Turcoman hath left his herd, etc. The life of the Turcomans is wandering and patriarchal, they dwell in tents. Note 2, page 340, line 22. Coumourgi-he whose closing scene, etc Ali Coumourgi, the favourite of three sultans, and grand vizier to Achmet III., after recovering Peloponnesus from the Venetians in one campaign, was mortally wounded in the next, against the Germans, at the battle of Peterwaradin (in the plain of Carlowitz), in Hungary, endeavouring to rally his guards. He died of his wounds next day. His last order was the decapitation of General Breuner, and some other German prisoners; and his last words, «Oh that I could thus serve all the christian dogs!» a speech and act not unlike one of Caligula. He was a young man of great ambition and unbounded presumption: on being told that Prince Eugene, then opposed to him, « was a great general,» he said, « I shall become a greater, and at his expense.» Note 3, page 350, line 10. There shrinks no ebb in that tideless sea, etc. The reader need hardly be reminded that there are no perceptible tides in the Mediterranean. Note 4, page 351, line 15. And their white tusks crunch'd o'er the whiter skull, etc, This spectacle I have seen, such as described, beneath the walls of the seraglio at Constantinople, in the little cavities worn by the Bosphorus in the rock, a narrow terrace of which projects between the wall and the water. I think the fact is also mentioned in Hobhouse's Travels. The bodies were probably those of some refractory janizaries. Note 5, page 351, line 24. And each scalp had a single long tuft of hair, etc. This tuft, or long lock, is left from a superstition that Mahomet will draw them into Paradise by it. Note 6, page 353, line 18. Was it the wind, through some hollow stone, etc. I must here acknowledge a close, though unintentional, resemblance in these twelve lines to a passage in an unpublished poem of Mr Coleridge, called «Christabel. >> It was not till after these lines were written that I heard that wild and singularly original and beautiful poem recited; and the MS. of that production I never saw till very recently, by the kindness of Mr Coleridge himself, who, I hope, is convinced that I have not been a wilful plagiarist. The original idea undoubtedly pertains to Mr Coleridge, whose poem has been composed above fourteen years. Let me conclude by a hope that he will not longer delay the publication of a production, of which I can only add my mite of approbation to the applause of far more competent judges. Note 7, page 357, line 24. There is a light cloud by the moon, etc. I have been told that the idea expressed from lines 24 to 31, of the page above noted, has been admired by those whose approbation is valuable. I am glad of it: but it is not original—at least not mine; it may be found much better expressed in pages 182-3-4 of the English version of «Vathek» (I forget the precise page of the French), a work to which I have before referred; and never recur to, or read, without a renewal of gratification. |