Trampler on Human Liberty! Thy plan Embraced no welfare save thine own; thy aim A pyramid--each stone a sword-hewn man,-- Rivers of blood o’er Earth to write thy name. Gigantic was thy crime--as great thy shame! Even now with gory talon to the North Thou fliest, the elements but canst not tame; And there, to teach the peaceful victor’s worth, Men rigid as their frosts have sent thee howling forth! XLIII. Scourge of the Nations! thy appointed time Is near its close--exhausted is thy quiver. Vain is thy complex thought, thy grasp sublime; Nor whirlwind, plague, nor tyrant lasts for ever! Couldst thou not from the ground one blade dissever Of joyous herbage, save with butchering steel, Nor give one glory to the Eternal Giver? Couldst thou but wound that mightst so nobly heal? I see thy end begin--for Man thou didst not feel! XLIV. And yet France loved thee--loved thy daring flight, Thy mighty genius--thy creative power; The soldier’s idol and the hind’s delight-- For ’twas the people made thee like a tower That topt all Nations! In thy happier hour A glorious code thou gav’st. Thy sway was just To France--thy monuments a deathless dower. No luxury turned thy energies to rust. A Conqueror why become? why serve Ambition’s lust? XLV. What are thy mightiest triumphs? Pages torn From bloodiest records. What thy phalanx armed? Assassins. Thy parade of Conquest? Shorn Of glare deceptive, plunder. Earth alarmed Saw the career, that dazzled it and charmed, Sunk in fell Tyranny. Thy potent rays, Melting all fetters, might have millions warmed With Freedom. Thou didst forge, to fiends’ amaze, New shackles for thy kind. Let Hell eclipse thy blaze! HISTORICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES TO CANTO III. This Canto describes the battles of Sauroren on the Pyrenees, with the leading incidents in the minor combats of Buenza, Doña Maria, Echallar and Ivantelly which followed. The first battle of Sauroren took place on the 28th July, 1813, the fourth anniversary of the battle of Talavera, and was remarkable for the extraordinary valour displayed by the French under Soult, which, having obtained a slight success at Buenza, they repeated with almost frantic efforts at Echallar and Ivantelly on the 2nd August, their principal object being to relieve San Sebastian. But in vain. Lord Wellington described the first of these actions as “bludgeon work.” The loss on both sides was very considerable; but it was here demonstrated by our soldiers, in the words of Napier “that their opponents however strongly posted could not stand before them.” The actions will be found detailed in his History, book xxi. chap. 5.