I have so many other and greater obligations to the author of ‘Marmion,’ that I should hardly have thought it worth while to notice this involuntary plagiarism, but that, by doing so, I obtain an opportunity of publicly acknowledging these obligations, and of expressing my humble, but most sincere admiration of the vigour, originality, and splendour, which distinguish, from all the other works of our day, the delightful poems of Mr. Scott. I have just noticed also, that the second line of the XIXth Stanza is copied verbatim from Marmion. St. XXXI. l. 5.--_Desolating fires._ This circumstance is mentioned in private letters; but not that the French set fire to the field _designedly_:--it would rather seem that the accidental bursting of their shells in the dry grass occasioned this conflagration, which ravaged a great extent of ground, and entirely consumed many of the dead, and (horrid to relate!) some of the wounded. This must have been a new and striking feature of war. St. XXXIII. l. 14.--_France moves her busy bands._ Immediately after the repulse of their general attack, the French began to retire; which they did in good order; and during the night effected their retreat towards Santa Olalla, leaving in the hands of the British 20 pieces of cannon, ammunition, tumbrils, and prisoners. St. XXXIII. l. 18.--_Windy car._ ‘Ventoso gloria curru.’ St. XXXIII. l. 34.--_Glory of the day._ If, says an eloquent writer in the Quarterly Review, we cherished, in _former_ circumstances of the war, a hope of the success of our efforts for the assistance of Spain, and of her final deliverance, ‘We own we cannot consent to abandon it _now_, when such a day as that of Talavera has re-established, in its old and romantic proportion, the relative scale of British and French prowess; when an achievement, the recital of which is alone sufficient to shame despondency, and to give animation to hope, has not only inspired us with fresh confidence in ourselves, but, by infusing into our allies a portion of that confidence, has furnished them with new means and new motives for exertion.’---- _Quarterly Review, No. III. p. 234._ St. XXXIV. l. 18. _For those that die_ _In honour’s high career._ I lament exceedingly that my plan and limits did not permit me to pay to those distinguished officers who fell in this action the tribute they individually deserved--but it is to be hoped that the Country will show its sense of their glorious services and fall by a public monument. St. XXXV. The author’s brother died a few months before the publication of this poem, at the age of twenty-two; at the moment when he, who had ever been a source of happiness to his family, was become its ornament and support, and had just entered on public life, with (for a person of his level) the fairest prospects, and under the happiest auspices. NOTES. _WAR SONG.--Page 61._