Their ravish'd toys though Romans mourn ; Oh! had they mark'd the avenging call1 Shall we, too, bend the stubborn head, Or brook a victor's scorn? No! though destruction o'er the land The sun, that sees our falling day, And set that night in blood. The allusion is to the massacre of the Swiss Guards, on the fatal 10th August, 1792. It is painful, but not useless, to remark, that the passive temper with which the Swiss regarded the death of their bravest countrymen, mercilessly slaughtered in discharge of their duty, encouraged and authorized the progressive injustice, by which the Alps, once the seat of the most virtuous and free people upon the continent, have, at length, been converted into the citadel of a foreign and military despot. A state degraded is half enslaved.-1812. For gold let Gallia's legions fight, Unbribed, unbought, our swords we draw, Nor shall their edge be vain. If ever breath of British gale Or footstep of invader rude, With rapine foul, and red with blood, Then farewell home! and farewell friends! Adieu each tender tie! Resolved, we mingle in the tide, Where charging squadrons furious ride, To conquer or to die. To horse! to horse! the sabres gleam; March forward, one and all!1 [Sir Walter Scott was, at the time when he wrote this song, Quartermaster of the Edinburgh Light Cavalry. See one of the Epistles Introductory to Marmion.-Ed.] |