Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume IV.Scott, Walter
History
Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume IV.
Scott, Walter
France -- History -- 1789-1815; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
[81] Lucien landed at Portsmouth in December, 1810, and was conveyed to
Ludlow, which he soon after quitted for an estate called Thorngrove,
fifteen miles from that town. Restored to personal liberty by the peace
of Paris in 1814, he reached Rome in May; and was received by the
sovereign pontiff on the very night of his arrival. The holy father
immediately conferred on him the dignity of a Roman prince; and on the
next day all the nobles came to salute him, by the title of Prince of
Canino.
[82] Lucien's poem of "Charlemagne, ou l'Eglise Delivrée," an epic in
twenty-four books, commenced at Tusculum, continued at Malta, and
completed in England, appeared in 1814. It was translated into English
by Dr. Butler and Mr. Hodgson. From the eighteenth canto, which was
written at Malta, and which opens with a digression personal to the
poet, we shall make a short extract:--
"Je n'oublirai jamais ta bonté paternelle
Favori du très-haut, Clermont, Pontife-roi!
Au nouvel hémisphère entrainé loin de toi,
Je t'y conserverai le cœur le plus fidèle:
Confiant à la mer et ma femme et mes fils
Sur des bords ennemis,
J'espérai vainement un asile éphémère,
Par un triste refus rejetté sur les flots,
Après avoir long temps erré loin de la terre,
Mélite dans son port enferma nos vaisseaux.
"De la captivité je sens ici le poids!
Rien ne plait en ces lieux à mon ame abbattue;
Rien ne parle à mon cœur; rien ne s'offre à ma vue
Accourez, mes enfants: viens, épouse chérie.
Doux charme de ma vie,
D'un seul de tes regards viens me rendre la paix.
Il n'est plus de désert, ou brille ton sourire,
Fuyez, sombres chagrins, souvenirs inquiets,
Sur ce roc Africain, je resaissis ma lyre."
"Prince Pontiff! loved of heaven--O, Clermont, say,
What filial duties shall thy cares repay?
E'en on the shores that skirt the western main,
Still shall this heart its loyal faith maintain.
My precious freight confiding to the deep,
Children and wife, I left Frescati's steep,
And ask'd a short retreat--I sought no more--
But vainly sought it on a hostile shore.
Thence by refusal stern and harsh repell'd,
O'er the wide wat'ry waste my course I held,
In sufferings oft, and oft in perils cast,
Till Malta's port received our ships at last.
"Here sad captivity's dull weight I find;
Nought pleases here, nought soothes my listless mind:
Nought here can bid my sickening heart rejoice,
Speak to my soul, or animate my voice.
Run to my knees, my children! cherish'd wife,
Come, softest charm and solace of my life,
One look from thee shall all my peace restore:
Where beams thy smile, the desert is no more.
Hence, restless memory--hence, repinings vain!--
On Afric's rock I seize my lyre again."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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