_When Freedom_; the unwise and uncertain management of the campaign by
the English home Government has been set forth by Napier with so much
emphasis as, in some degree, to impair the reader's full conviction. Yet
the amazing superiority in energy and wisdom with which Wellington
towered over his contemporaries, (the field being, however, cleared by
the recent deaths of Nelson and Pitt), is so patent, that this attempt to
do justice to his greatness is offered with hesitation and apology.
_Orthez' Bridge_; crosses the river named Gave de Pau;--and covered
Soult's forces then lying north of it.
THE SOLDIERS' BATTLE
November 5: 1854
In the solid sombre mist
And the drizzling dazzling shower
They may mass them as they list,
The gray-coat Russian power;
They are fifties 'gainst our tens, they, and more!
And from the fortress-town
In silent squadrons down
O'er the craggy mountain-crown
Unseen, they pour.
On the meagre British line
That northern ocean press'd;
But we never knew how few
Were we who held the crest!
While within the curtain-mist dark shadows loom
Making the gray more gray,
Till the volley-flames betray
With one flash the long array:
And then, the gloom.
For our narrow line too wide
On the narrow crest we stood,
And in pride we named it _Home_,
As we sign'd it with our blood.
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