all but
invincible, when Blenheim and the surrender of the flower of the French
soldiery broke the spell': (Green: _History of the English People_: B.
VIII: ch. iii).
'The French and Bavarians, who numbered, like their opponents, some fifty
thousand men, lay behind a little stream which ran through swampy ground
to the Danube . . . It was not till midday that Eugene, who commanded on
the right, succeeded in crossing the stream. The English foot at once
forded it on the left.' They were repelled for the time. But, in the
centre, Marlborough, 'by making an artificial road across the morass
which covered it,' in two desperate charges turned the day.
A map of 1705 in the _Annals of Queen Anne's Reign_, shows vast hillsides
to the right of the Allies covered with wood. This map also specifies
the advance of the English in nine columns.
_Only less_; 'Marlborough,' says Lord Stanhope, 'was a humane and
compassionate man. Even in the eagerness to pursue fresh conquests he
did not ever neglect the care of the wounded.'
AT HURSLEY IN MARDEN
1712
We count him wise,
Timoleon, who in Syracuse laid down
That gleaming bait of all men's eyes,
And for his cottage changed the invidious crown;
Moving serenely through his grayhair'd day
'Mid vines and olives gray.
He also, whom
The load of double empire, half the world
His own, within a living tomb
Press'd down at Yuste,--Spain's great banner furl'd
His winding-sheet around him,--while he strove
The impalpable Above
Though mortal yet,
To breathe, is blazon'd on the sages' roll:--
High soaring hearts, who could forget
The sceptre, to the hermitage of the soul
Retired, sweet solitudes of the musing eye,
And let the world go by!
There, if the cup
Of Time, that brims ere we can reach repose,
Fill'd slow, the soul might summon up
The strenuous heat of youth, the silenced foes;
The deeds of fame, star-bright above the throne;
The better deeds unknown.
There, when the cloud
Eased its dark breast in thunder, and the light
Ran forth, their hearts recall the loud
Hoarse onset roar, the flashing of the fight;
Those other clouds piled-up in white array
Whence deadlier lightnings play.
There, when the seas
Murmur at midnight, and the dome is clear,
And from their seats in heaven the breeze
Loosens the stars, to blaze and disappear,
_And such as Glory_!
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