No More Learning

What though his Name a wider empire found
Than his Ambition, though with scarce a bound;
Though first in glory, deepest in reverse,
He tasted Empire's blessings and its curse;
Though kings, rejoicing in their late escape
From chains, would gladly be _their_ Tyrant's ape;
How must he smile, and turn to yon lone grave,
The proudest Sea-mark that o'ertops the wave! 100
What though his gaoler, duteous to the last,
Scarce deemed the coffin's lead could keep him fast,
Refusing one poor line[271] along the lid,
To date the birth and death of all it hid;
That name shall hallow the ignoble shore,
A talisman to all save him who bore:
The fleets that sweep before the eastern blast
Shall hear their sea-boys[272] hail it from the mast;
When Victory's Gallic column[273] shall but rise,
Like Pompey's pillar[274], in a desert's skies, 110
The rocky Isle that holds or held his dust,
Shall crown the Atlantic like the Hero's bust,
And mighty Nature o'er his obsequies
Do more than niggard Envy still denies.
But what are these to him? Can Glory's lust
Touch the freed spirit or the fettered dust?
Small care hath he of what his tomb consists;
Nought if he sleeps--nor more if he exists:
Alike the better-seeing Shade will smile
On the rude cavern[275] of the rocky isle, 120
As if his ashes found their latest home
In Rome's Pantheon or Gaul's mimic dome[276].
He wants not this; but France shall feel the want
Of this last consolation, though so scant:
Her Honour--Fame--and Faith demand his bones,
To rear above a Pyramid of thrones;
Or carried onward in the battle's van,
To form, like Guesclin's dust, her Talisman[277].
But be it as it is--the time may come
His name shall beat the alarm, like Ziska's drum[278]. 130


V.

Oh Heaven! of which he was in power a feature;
Oh Earth! of which he was a noble creature;
Thou Isle! to be remembered long and well,
That saw'st the unfledged eaglet chip his shell!
Ye Alps which viewed him in his dawning flights
Hover, the Victor of a hundred fights!
Thou Rome, who saw'st thy Caesar's deeds outdone!
Alas!
why passed he too the Rubicon--
The Rubicon of Man's awakened rights,
To herd with vulgar kings and parasites? 140
Egypt! from whose all dateless tombs arose
Forgotten Pharaohs from their long repose,
And shook within their pyramids to hear
A new Cambyses thundering in their ear;
While the dark shades of Forty Ages stood
Like startled giants by Nile's famous flood[279];
Or from the Pyramid's tall pinnacle
Beheld the desert peopled, as from hell,
With clashing hosts, who strewed the barren sand,
To re-manure the uncultivated land! 150
Spain! which, a moment mindless of the Cid,
Beheld his banner flouting thy Madrid[280]!
Austria! which saw thy twice-ta'en capital[281]
Twice spared to be the traitress of his fall!
Ye race of Frederic! --Frederics but in name
And falsehood--heirs to all except his fame:
Who, crushed at Jena, crouched at Berlin[282], fell
First, and but rose to follow! Ye who dwell
Where Kosciusko dwelt, remembering yet
The unpaid amount of Catherine's bloody debt[283]! 160
Poland! o'er which the avenging Angel past,
But left thee as he found thee,[284] still a waste,
Forgetting all thy still enduring claim,
Thy lotted people and extinguished name,
Thy sigh for freedom, thy long-flowing tear,
That sound that crashes in the tyrant's ear--
Kosciusko! [285] On--on--on--the thirst of War
Gasps for the gore of serfs and of their Czar.
The half barbaric Moscow's minarets
Gleam in the sun, but 'tis a sun that sets! 170
Moscow! thou limit of his long career,
For which rude Charles had wept his frozen tear[286]
To see in vain--_he_ saw thee--how?