Force must be crushed by Force, The power of Evil by the power of Good, Ere Order bless the suffering world once more, Or Peace return again. Hold then right on in your auspicious course, Ye Princes, and ye People, hold right on! Your task not yet is done; Pursue the blow,-ye know your foe,— Complete the happy work so well begun. Hold on, and be your aim, with all your strength, Loudly proclam'd and steadily pursued; So shall this fatal Tyranny at length Before the arms of Freedom fall subdued. Then, when the waters of the flood abate, The Dove her resting-place secure may find; And France restored, and shaking off her chain, Shall join the Avengers in the joyful strain, Glory to God! Deliverance for Mankind! NOTES. That no weak heart, no abject mind possessed Her counsels. - IV. "Can any man of sense," said the Edinburgh Review, "does any plain, unaffected man, above the level of a drivelling courtier, or a feeble fanatic, dare to say he can look at this impending contest, without trembling, every inch of him, for the result?"— No. XXIV. p. 441. With all proper deference to so eminent a critic, I would venture to observe, that trembling has been usually supposed to be a symptom of feebleness, and that the case in point has certainly not belied the received opinion. Onoro's Springs. — V. Fuentes d'Onoro. This name has sometimes been rendered Fountains of Honor, by an easy mistake, or a pardonable license. Bear witness, those Old Towers. - VI. Torres Vedras. Turres Veteres, a name so old as to have been given when the Latin tongue was the language of Portugal. This town is said to have been founded by the Turduli, a short time before the commencement of the Christian era. In remembering the lines of Torres Vedras, the opinion of the wise men of the North ought not to be forgotten -"If they (the French) do not make an effort to drive us out of Portugal, it is because we are better there than any where else. We fear they will not leave us on the Tagus many days longer than suits their own purposes."- Edinburgh Rev. No. XXVII. p. 263. The opinion is delivered with happy precision of language. -Our troops were indeed, to use the same neat and felicitous expression, better there than any where else.' And thou, Busaco, on whose sacred height While those unwonted thunders shook his cell, Join'd with his prayers the fervor of the fight. — VI. Of Busaco, which is now as memorable in the military, as it has long been in the monastic history of Portugal, I have given an account in the second volume of Omniana. Doña Bernarda Ferreira's poem upon this venerable place contains much interesting and some beautiful description. The first intelligence of the battle which reached England was in a Es pequeña aquella Iglesia, Con que el rico suele ornarse. Telas y sedas no valen Los demas tiene por males, El soberano estandarte, Se adereçan los altares (por manos de aquellos santos) En toscos vasos de corcho La florida rama verde Que en aquellos bosques nace, En dias de mayor fiesta Esto con excessos hazen, Y al suelo por alcatifas Diversas flores reparten. Huele el divino aposento, Hurtando sutil el ayre De aquellos humildes padres, Encierra pobreza grande, Que en competencia sus dueños El de las fuentes y arroyos, Do apenas tendidos caben, Una Cruz, y calavara Que tienen siempre delante, Y en aquellas soledades Suelen tal vez aliviarse; Que a los hijos de Theresa Tanto los libros aplacen, Que en los yermos mas remotos Tiene cada qual un huerto (porque en el pueda ocuparse) De arboles de espino, y flores Siempre de olor liberales. Libres ansi del tumulto Que embaraça los mortales, Mandan a Dios cada instante. Sus devotos exercicios No se los perturba nadie; Tan duras como diamantes, Asperrimas, intractables, Aquel divino desierto Que Busaco denomina, Para servirles de sillas, En las entrañas benignas De nuestra madre comun Que humilde se las inclina. Qual en las concavidades De las rocas escondida, Que labro naturaleza Con perfecion infinita. Qual entre las arboledas De verde rama vestida, Informandoles de gracias Sus formas vegetativas. Qual del cristalino arroyo Las bellas margenes pisa, Dentro en sus cortezas mismas, Unas aprieta con lazos Aquella planta lasciva Que hasta las piedras abraça Con ser tan duras y frias. Otras de amarillos musgos Por el techo se matizan, De yerva y moho se pintan, Tiene una pequeña esquila, De alguna piedra metida, Tagus and Zezere, in secret night, Ye saw the baffled ruffian take his flight! — VI. Where cowardice and cruelty unite, To damn with double shame their ignominious flight. O, triumph for the Fiends of lust and wrath! The hoary priest even at the altar shot, Childhood and age given o'er to sword and flame, By which inventive demons might proclaim The rudest sentinel, in Britain born, With horror paused to view the havock done, No cruelties recorded in history exceed those which were systematically committed by the French during their retreat from Portugal. "Their conduct, (says Lord Wellington, in his despatch of the 14th of March, 1811,) throughout this retreat, has been marked by a barbarity seldom equalled, and never surpassed. "Even in the towns of Torres Novas, Thomar, and Pernes, in which the head-quarters of some of the corps had been for four months, and in which the inhabitants had been induced, by promises of good treatment, to remain, they were plundered, and many of their houses destroyed on the night the enemy withdrew from their position; and they have since burnt every town and village through which they have passed. The Convent of Alcobaça was burnt by order from the French head-quarters. The Bishop's Palace, and the whole town of Leyria, in which General Drouet had had his head-quarters, shared the same fate; and there is not an inhabitant of the country, of any class or description, who has had any dealing or communication with the French army, who has not had reason to repent of it, or to complain of them. This is the mode in which the promises have been performed, and the assurances have been fulfilled, which were held out in the proclamation of the French commander-in-chief, in which he told the inhabitants of Portugal, that he was not come to make war upon them, but with a powerful army of one hundred and ten thousand men to drive the English into the sea. It is to be hoped that the example of what has occurred in this country will teach the people of this and other nations what value they ought to place on such promises and assurances, and that there is no security for life, or for any thing that renders life valuable, except in decided resistance to the enemy." As exact an account of these atrocities was collected as it was possible to obtain, and that record will forever make the French name detested in Portugal. In the single diocese of Coimbra, 2969 persons, men, women, and children, were murdered, every one with some shocking circumstance of aggravated cruelty. - Nem huma só das 2969 mortes commettidas pelo inimigo, deixou de ser atroz e dolorosissima. (Breve Memoria dos Estragos Causados no Bispado de Coimbra pelo Exercito Francez, commandado pelo General Massena. Extrahida das Enformaçoens que deram os Reverendos Parocos, e remettida a Junta dos Socorros da Subscripsam Britannica, pelo Reverendo Provisor Governador do mesmo Bispado, p. 12.) Some details are given in this brief Memorial. A de tel forfaits, says J. J. Rousseau, celui qui detourne ses regards est un lâche, un deserteur de la justice: la veritable humanité les envisage pour les connoitre, pour les juger, pour les detester. (Le Levite d'Ephraim.) I will not, however, in this place repeat abominations which at once outrage humanity and disgrace human nature. When the French, in 1792, entered Spire, some of them began to commit excesses which would soon have led to a general sack. Custine immediately ordered a captain, two officers, and a whole company to be shot. This dreadful example, he told the National Convention, he considered as the only means of saving the honor of the French nation,— and it met with the approbation of the whole army. But the French armies had not then been systematically brutalized. | them under known leaders, and supplies them by systematic It was reserved for Bonaparte to render them infamous, as well as to lead them to destruction. The French soldier, says Capmany, is executioner and robber at the same time he leaves the unhappy wretch, who is delivered over to his mercy, naked to the skin, -stripping off the clothes that they may not be torn by the musket-shot! -The pen falls from my hand, and I cannot proceed! Para que se junte a esta crueldad la mayor infamia, el soldado Frances es verdugo y ladron en una pieza; dera en cueros vivos al malaventurado que entregan a su discrecion, quitandole la ropa antes que los fusilazos se la destrozen. La pluma se cac de la mano, y no puede proseguir.-Centinela, contra Franceses, P. 2, p. 35. Yet the Edinburgh Review says, "The hatred of the name of a Frenchman in Spain has been such as the reality will by no means justify; and the detestation of the French government has, among the inferior orders, been carried to a pitch wholly unauthorized by its proceedings towards them." No. XXVII. p. 262. This passage might be read with astonishment, if any thing absurd, any thing mischievous, or any thing false, could excite surprise when it comes from that quarter. What though the Tyrant, drunk with power, Lord and Disposer of this earthly ball? — VII. arrangements: - a proposition so plain and obvious, that if it escaped ridicule as a truism, it might have been reasonably expected to avoid the penalties of heresy and paradox. The event has indeed wofully proved its truth."- Edinburgh Rev. No. XXVII. p. 246. These gentlemen could see no principle of permanence in the character of the Spaniards, and no proof of it in their history; and they could discover no principle of dissolution in the system of Bonaparte ;- a system founded upon force and falsehood, in direct opposition to the interests of his own subjects and to the feelings of human nature. The Campeador. — VIII. The Cid, Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar. The word has been variously explained, but its origin seems to be satisfactorily traced by Verstegan in his explanation of some of our English surnames. "Cemp or Kemp, properly one that fighteth hand to hand, whereunto the name in Teutonic of Kemp-fight accordeth, and in French of Combat. "Certain among the ancient Germans made profession of being Camp-fighters or Kemp-fighters, for all is one; and among the Danes and Swedes were the like, as Scarcater, Arngrim, Arnerod, Haldan, and sundry others. They were also called Kempanas, whereof is derived our name of Campion, which, after the French orthography, some pronounce Champion." "Dene or Den is the termination of sundry of our surnames, as for example of Camden, which I take anciently to have been Campden, and signifieth the Dene or Dale belonging to some Cemp or Camp-fighter (for both is one) in our now used language called a Champion, but in the Teutonic a Campion. A Campden may also have been some place up encounter each other. And so the place became afterward to be the surname of him and his family that owned it, as others in like sort have done." "Kemp, of his profession of being a Kemper or Combatfighter, as divers in old times among our ancestors were." Lo he dicho varias veces, y lo repito ahora, que las tres epocas terribles en los annales del mundo son, el diluvio universal, Mahoma, y Buonaparte. Aque pretendia convertir todas las religi ones en una, y este todas las naciones, para ser el su cabeza. Aquel predicaba la unidad de Dios con la cimitarra; y este no le nombra uno ni trino, pues solo predica, o hace predicar su propia divinidad, derandose dar de sus infames y sacrilegos adoradores, los periodistas Franceses, el dictado de Todo-poderoso. El mismo se ha llegado a creer tal, y se ha hecho creer la cobar-pointed for Campions, Combat-fighters, or men of arms to dia y vileza de las naciones que se han dexado subyugar. Solo la España le ha obligado a reconnocerse, que no era antes, ni es akora, sino un hombre, y hombre muy pequeno, a quien la fortuna ciega ha hecho grande a los ojos de los pueblos espantados del terror de su nombre, que miden la grandeza del poder por la de las atrocidades. - Centinela, contra Franceses, p. 48. "I have sometimes said, and I repeat it now, that the three terrible epochs in the annals of the World are the General Deluge, Mahommed, and Bonaparte. Mahommed pretended to convert all religions into one, and this man all nations into one, in order to make himself their head. Mahommed preached the unity of God with the cimeter; and this man neither his Unity nor his Trinity, for he neither preaches, nor causes to be preached, any thing except his own Divinity, letting his infamous and sacrilegious adorers, the French journalists, give him the appellation of Almighty. He has gone so far as to believe himself such, and the cowardice and baseness of the nations who have suffered themselves to be subdued, have made him believe it. Spain alone has compelled him to know himself, that he neither was formerly nor is now any thing more than a mere man, and a very little one, whom blind Fortune has made appear great in the eyes of people astonished at the terror of his name, and measuring the greatness of his power by that of his atrocities." Knowing that nought could e'er appall The Spaniard's fortitude. — VII. Vengeance was the word.-X. This feeling is forcibly expressed by Capmany. O Visperas Sicilianas tan famosas en la historia, quando os podremos acompanar con completas, para que los Angeles canten laudes en el cielo. - Centinela, contra Franceses, p. 96. O Sicilian Vespers! so famous in history, when shall we be able to accompany you with Complines, that the Angels may sing Lauds in Heaven? Behold the awaken'd Moscovite Meets the tyrant in his might. — XVII. Ecce iterum Crispinus! What says the Edinburgh Review concerning Russia? "Considering how little that power has shown itself capable of effecting for the salvation of Europe -how wretched the state of its subjects is under the present government how trifling an acquisition of strength the common enemy could expect to obtain from the entire possession of its resources we acknowledge that we should contemplate with great composure any change which might lay the foundation of future improvement, and scatter the forces of France over the dominion of the Czars." -No. XXVIII. "The fate of Spain, we think, is decided, and that fine and misguided country has probably yielded, by this time, to the fate which has fallen on the greater part of continental Eu- | p. 460. Her European dominions have yielded already to the unrelaxing grasp of the insatiable conqueror.". Edinburgh Review, No. XXVI. p. 298. rope. "The fundamental position which we ventured to lay down respecting the Spanish question was this: that the spirit of the people, however enthusiastic and universal, was in its nature more uncertain and short-lived, more likely to be extinguished by reverses, or to go out of itself amidst the delays of a protracted contest, than the steady, regular, moderate feeling which calls out disciplined troops, and marshals This is a choice passage. The reasoning is worthy of the writer's judgment, the feeling perfectly consistent with his liberality, and the conclusion as consistent with his politics. Up, Germany. She rose as from the dead; She broke her chains upon the oppressor's head. - XVI. Hear the Edinburgh Reviewer! "It would be as chimerical to expect a mutiny among the vassal states of France, who are the most impatient of her yoke, as amongst the inhabitants of Bourdeaux, or the conscripts of the years 1808 and 1809. In making this comparison, we are indeed putting the case much more strongly against France than the facts warrant; for, with the exception of Holland, and the States into which the conscription has been introduced, either immediately, or by means of large requisitions of men made to their Governments,* the changes effected by the French invasion have been favorable to the individual happiness of the inhabitants, so that the hatred of France is liable to considerable diminution, inasmuch as the national antipathy and spirit of independence are gradually undermined by the solid benefits which the change of masters has conferred."- No. XXVIII. p. 458. Great as a statesman, profound as a philosopher, amiable as an optimist of the Pangloss school,— but not altogether fortunate as a Prophet! My fortune has been somewhat remarkable in this respect, that, bestowing less attention than most men upon contemporary literature, I am supposed to concern myself with it in a degree which would leave me no time for any worthier occupation. Half the persons who are wounded in the Quarterly Review fix upon me as the object of their resentment; some, because they are conscious of having deserved chastisement at my hands; others because they give credit to an empty report, a lying assertion, or their own conceited sagacity in discovering a writer by his style. As for the former, they flatter themselves egregiously in supposing that I should throw away my anger upon such subjects. But by the latter I would willingly have it understood, that I heartily disapprove the present fashion of criticism, and sincerely wish that you, Sir, and your friend, had taken out an exclusive patent for it, when you brought it into vogue. With regard to literary assailants, I should as little think of resenting their attacks in anger, as of making war upon midges and mosquitoes. I have therefore never noticed your amiable colleague in his critical capacity. Let him blunder, and misquote, and misrepresent, and contradict himself in the same page, or in the same sentence, with as much ingenuity as he will: ""Tis his vocation, Hal!" and some allowances must be made for habit. I remember what Lord Anson's linguist said to him at Canton, upon the detection of some notable act of dishonesty: Chinaman very great rogue truly: but hab fashion: no can help. Concerning me, and any composition of mine, it is impossible that this gentleman can write wisely unless his nature should undergo a radical change, for it is written in the wisest book which ever proceeded from mere humanity, that "into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter." You may have seen a mastiff of the right English breed assailed by a little impertinent, noisy, meddling cur, who runs behind him, snapping and barking at his heels, and sometimes gets staggered by a chance-whisk of his tail. The mastiff continues his way peaceably; or, if he condescends to notice the yelper, it is only by stopping half a minute, and lifting his leg over him. Just such, Sir, is the notice which I bestow upon your colleague in his critical character. But for F. J. Philomath, and Professor of the Occult Sciences, he is a grave personage, whose political and prophetical pretensions entitle him to high consideration in these days. He N. B. These little exceptions include all the countries which were annexed to the French Empire, all Italy, and all the States of the Confederation of the Rhine. Particularly the commercial part of them. is as great a man as Lilly in the time of the Commonwealth, or as Partridge after him. It is well known what infinite pains he bestowed in casting the nativities of Lord Wellington, Bonaparte, and the Emperor of Russia, - all for the good of mankind! and it is also notorious that he mistook the aspects, and made some very unfortunate errors in his predictions. At a time when he was considerably indisposed in consequence of this mortification, I took the liberty of administering to him a dose of his own words, mixed, perhaps, Sir, with a few of yours, for you were his fellow-student in astrology, and are known to have assisted him in these his calculations. The medicine was given in the form of extract ; but the patient could not have used more wry faces had it been extract of coloquintida. And indeed it produced a most unpleasant effect. Ever since that time his paroxysms have been more violent, and he has been troubled with occasional ravings, accompanied with periodical discharges of bile in its most offensive state. Nevertheless, dreadfully bilious as he is, and tormented with acrid humors, it is hoped that by a cool diet, by the proper use of refrigerants, above all, by paying due attention to the state of the prima vie, and observing a strict abstinence from the Quarterly Review, the danger of a cholera morbus may be averted. I have not been travelling out of the record while thus incidentally noticing a personage with whom you, Sir, are more naturally and properly associated than I have been with Mr. Wordsworth, this your colleague and you being the Gog and Magog of the Edinburgh Review. Had it not been for a difference of opinion upon political points between myself and certain writers in that journal who laid claim to the faculty of the second sight, I suspect that I should never have incurred your hostility. What those points of difference were, I must here be permitted to set forth for the satisfaction of those readers who may not be so well acquainted with them as you are they related to the possibility of carrying on the late war to an honorable and successful termination. It was in our state of feeling, Sir, as well as in our state of knowledge that we differed, in our desires as much as in our judgment. They predicted for us nothing but disgrace and defeat: predicted is the word; for they themselves assured us that they were “seriously occupied with the destinies of Europe and of mankind :” — "As who should say, I am Sir Oracle!" They ridiculed “the romantic hopes of the English nation,” and imputed the spirit by which the glory of that nation has been raised to its highest point, and the deliverance of Europe accomplished, to "the tricks of a paltry and interested party." They said that events had "verified their predictions," had "more than justified their worst forebodings." They told us in 1810 that the fate of Spain was decided, and that that "misguided" country (misguided in having ventured to resist the most insolent usurpation that ever was attempted) "had yielded to the Conqueror." This manner of speaking of an event in the preter-pluperfect tense, before it has come to pass, may be either a slight grammatical slip, or a prophetical figure of speech; but, as old Dr. Eachard says, "I hate all small ambiguous surmises, all quivering and mincing conjectures give me the lusty and bold thinker, who, when he undertakes to prophesy, does it punctually," "It would be blood-thirsty and cruel," they said, "to foment petty insurrections, (meaning the war in Spain and Portugal,) after the only contest is over from which any good can spring in the present unfortunate state of affairs." "France has conquered Europe. This is the melancholy truth. Shut our eyes to it as we may, there can be no doubt about the matter. For the present, peace and submission must be the lot of the vanquished.” “Let us hear no more of objections to a Bonaparte ruling in Spain." "Harry, the wish was father to that thought!" They told us that if Lord Wellington was not driven out of Portugal, it was because the French government thought him "better there than any where else." They told us they were prepared to " contemplate with great composure the conquest of Russia, by Bonaparte, as a "change which would lay the foundation of future improvement in the dominions of the Czars." "Si mens sit læta tibi crederis esse propheta," says an old Leonine rhymester. And as for expecting "a MUTINY (bear Germany! for so they qualified it!) amongst the vassal states of France, it would be as chimerical," they said, "as to expect one amongst the inhabitants of Bourdeaux." And here these lucky prophets were peculiarly felicitous; the inhabitants of Bourdeaux having been the first people in France who threw off the yoke of Bonaparte's tyranny, and mounted the white cockade. "Omnia jam fiunt, fieri quæ posse negabam." Poor Oracle! the face is double-bronzed; and yet it is but a wooden head! I stood upon firm ground, while they were sticking in the Slough of Despond. Hinc ille lacryme! I charged them at Rolls on, no longer now to be repress'd; When innocent blood From the four corners of the world cries out For justice upon one accursed head; When Fredoom hath her holy banners spread Over all nations, now in one just cause United; when, with one sublime accord, Europe throws off the yoke abhorr'd, And Loyalty, and Faith, and Ancient Laws Follow the avenging sword! 2. If this heroic land, the time with ignorance, presumption, and pusillanimity. Woe, woe to England! woe and endless shame, And now, Sir, I ask of you, were they or were they not ignorant? Here are their assertions! Were they or were they not presumptuous? Here are their predictions! - Were they or were they not pusillanimous? Have they or have they not been confuted, and confounded, and exposed, and shamed, and stultified, by the event? False to her feelings and unspotted fame, Hold out the olive to the Tyrant's hand! Woe to the world, if Bonaparte's throne Be suffer'd still to stand! They who know me will bear witness, that, before a rumor of war was heard from the Peninsula, I had looked toward For by what names shall Right and Wrong be that quarter as the point where we might hope first to see the horizon open; and that, from the hour in which the strug known, What new and courtly phrases must we feign For Falsehood, Murder, and all monstrous crimes, If that perfidious Corsican maintain Still his detested reign, gle commenced, I never doubted of its final success, provided England should do its duty: this confidence was founded upon a knowledge of the country and the people, and upon the principles which were then and there first brought into action against the enemy. At the time when every effort was made And France, who yearns even now to break her (as you, Sir, well know) to vilify and disgust our allies, to discourage the public, to impede the measures of government, to derange its finances, and thereby cut off its means, to paralyze the arm and deaden the heart of England; when we were told of the irresistible power and perfect policy of Bonaparte, the consummate skill of his generals, and the invincibility of his armies, my language was this: "The one business of England is to abate the power of France: that power she must beat down, or fall herself; that power she will beat down, if she do but strenuously put forth her own mighty means." And again,- -"For our soldiers to equal our seamen, it is only necessary for them to be equally well commanded. They have the same heart and soul, as well as the same flesh and blood. Too much, indeed, may be exacted from them in a retreat; but set their face toward a foe, and there is nothing within the reach of human achievement which they cannot perform." And again, “Carry on the war with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, of this mighty empire, and you will beat down the power of France." Was I wrong, Sir? Or has the event corresponded to this confidence? Αμέραι ἐπιλοιποι Μάρτυρες σοφώτατοι. chain, Beneath his iron rule be left to groan? No! by the innumerable dead, Whose blood hath for his lust of power been shed, Death only can for his foul deeds atone; That peace which Death and Judgment can bestow, That peace be Bonaparte's, that alone! 3. For sooner shall the Ethiop change his skin, Or from the Leopard shall her spots depart, Than this man change his old, flagitious heart. Have ye not seen him in the balance weigh'd, And there found wanting? On the stage of blood Foremost the resolute adventurer stood; And when, by many a battle won, He placed upon his brow the crown, Curbing delirious France beneath his sway, Then, like Octavius in old time, Fair name might he have handed down, Effacing many a stain of former crime. Fool! should he cast away that bright renown! Fool! the redemption proffer'd should he lose! When Heaven such grace vouchsafed him that the way To Good and Evil lay 4. But Evil was his Good, For all too long in blood had he been nursed, And ne'er was earth with verier tyrant cursed. Bold man and bad, Remorseless, godless, full of fraud and lies, And black with murders and with perjuries, Himself in Hell's whole panoply he clad; No law but his own headstrong will he knew, No counsellor but his own wicked heart. From evil thus portentous strength he drew, And trampled under foot all human ties, All holy laws, all natural charities. |