[Footnote 25: This was published in the _Edinburgh Annual Register_ in 1815.--See _Poetical Works_ (Ed. 1834), vol. xi. p. 297 [Cambridge Ed. p. 421].] I shall close this chapter with a transcript of some _Notes_ on the proof sheets of The Field of Waterloo. John Ballantyne being at Abbotsford on the 3d of October, his brother the printer addressed the packet containing the sheets to him. John appears to have considered James's observations on the margin before Scott saw them; and the record of the style in which the Poet repelled, or yielded to, his critics, will at all events illustrate his habitual good-nature. John Ballantyne writes on the fly-leaf of the proofs, to his confidential clerk: "Mr. Hodgson, I beg these sheets and all the MS. may be carefully preserved just as they stand, and put in my father's desk. J. B." James prefaces his animadversions with this quotation:-- "Cut deep and spare not.--_Penruddock._" The _Notes_ are these:-- STANZA I.--"Fair Brussels, thou art far behind." _James Ballantyne._--I do not like this line. It is tame, and the phrase "far behind," has, to my feeling, some associated vulgarity. _Scott._--Stet. STANZA II.--"Let not _the_ stranger with disdain _The_ architecture view." _James._--These two words are cacophonous. Would not _its_ do? _Scott._--Th. is a bad sound. Ts. a much worse. Read _their_. STANZA IV.--"A stranger might reply." _James._--My objection to this is probably fantastical, and I state it only because, from the first moment to the last, it has always made me boggle. I don't like a _stranger_--Query, "The questioned"--The "spectator"--"gazer," etc. _Scott._--_Stranger_ is appropriate--it means stranger to the circumstances. {p.073} STANZA VI.--_James._--You had changed "garner-house profound," which I think quite admirable, to "garner under ground," which I think quite otherways. I have presumed not to make the change--must I? _Scott._--I acquiesce, but with doubts; _profound_ sounds affected. STANZA VIII.--"The deadly tug of war at length Must limits find in human strength, And _cease_ when these are passed. Vain hope!" etc. _James._--I must needs repeat, that the deadly tug _did_ cease in the case supposed. It lasted long--very long; but, when the limits of resistance, of human strength, were past--that is, after they had fought for ten hours, then the deadly tug _did_ cease. Therefore the "hope" was not "vain."