CXVI.

To aid thy mind's developement, to watch
Thy dawn of little joys, to sit and see
Almost thy very growth, to view thee catch
Knowledge of objects,—wonders yet to thee!
To hold thee lightly on a gentle knee,

And print on thy soft cheek a parent's kiss,-
This, it should seem, was not reserved for me;
Yet this was in my nature: as it is,

I know not what is there, yet something like to this.

CXVII.

Yet, though dull Hate as duty should be taught,
I know that thou wilt love me; though my name
Should be shut from thee, as a spell still fraught
With desolation, and a broken claim:
Though the grave closed between us, 'twere the same,
I know that thou wilt love me; though to drain

My blood from out thy being were an aim,

And an attainment,-all would be in vain,—

Still thou would'st love me, still that more than life retain.

CXVIII.

The child of love, though born in bitterness,
And nurtured in convulsion. Of thy sire
These were the elements, and thine no less.
As yet such are around thee, but thy fire
Shall be more temper'd, and thy hope far higher.
Sweet be thy cradled slumbers! O'er the sea
And from the mountains where I now respire,
Fain would I waft such blessing upon thee,

NOTES TO CANTO THE THIRD.

1.-Page 129.

CANTO THE THIRD.

["Begun July 10th, 1816. Diodati, near Lake of Geneva."-MS.]

2. Stanza i., line 2.

ADA! sole daughter of my house and heart?

[In a letter, dated Verona, November 6, 1816, Lord Byron says--"By the way, Ada's name (which I found in our pedigree, under king John's reign), is the same with that of the sister of Charlemagne, as I redde, the other day, in a book treating of the Rhine."]

3. Stanza i., line 8.

Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by,

[Lord Byron quitted England, for the second and last time, on the 25th of April, 1816, attended by William Fletcher and Robert Rushton, the yeoman" and "page" of Canto I.; his physician, Dr. Polidori; and a Swiss valet.]

4.-Stanza ii., line 6.

And the rent canvass fluttering strew the gale,

["And the rent canvass tattering."-MS.]

5.-Stanza xv., line 1.

But in Man's dwellings he became a thing

[The reason, he used to say, why he disliked society was because the follies and passions of others excited the evil qualities of his own nature.]

6. Stanza xviii., line 5.

In "pride of place" here last the eagle flew,

"Pride of place" is a term of falconry, and means the highest pitch of flight. See Macbeth, &c.:

"An eagle towering in his pride of place," &c.

[In the original draught of this stanza the lines stood-
"Here his last flight the haughty eagle flew,
Then tore with bloody beak the fatal plain "-

Mr. Reinagle, the artist, sketched an eagle, grasping the earth with his talons, upon which Lord Byron remarked-"Reinagle is a better poet and a better ornithologist than I am eagles, and all birds of prey, attack with their talons, and not with their beaks; and I have altered the line thus:

'Then tore with bloody talon the rent plain.'

This is, I think, a better line, besides its poetical justice."]

7.-Stanza xx., line 9.

Such as Harmodius drew on Athens' tyrant lord.

See the famous song on Harmodius and Aristogiton. The best English translation is in Bland's Anthology, by Mr. (since Lord Chief Justice) Deaman:

"With myrtle my sword will I wreathe," &c.

8. Stanza xxi., line 8.

And all went merry as a marriage-bell;

On the night previous to the action, it is said that a ball was given at Brussels.-The Duke of Wellington had at first intended that the ball should be put off, but thinking it important to keep the people of Brussels in ignorance, he allowed it to proceed, and ordered the general officers to appear there. At ten o'clock they slipped away quietly, and hastened after their respective divisions.]

9.-Stanza xxiii., line 9.

He rush'd into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.

[The Duke of Brunswick fell at Quatre Bras; his father received his death-wound at Jena.]

10. Stanza xxvi., line 2.

The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's hills

[Lochiel is the chief of the Cameron clan. Albyn is the Gælic name for Scotland.]

11.-Stanza xxvi., line 9.

And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears!

Sir Evan Cameron, and his descendant Donald, the "gentle Lochiel " of the "forty-five."

12.-Stanza xxvii., line 1.

And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves,

The wood of Soignies is supposed to be a remnant of the forest of Ardennes, famous in Boiardo's Orlando, and immortal in Shakspeare's "As you like it." It is also celebrated in Tacitus, as being the spot of successful defence by the Germans against the Roman encroachments. I have ventured to adopt the name connected with nobler associations than those of mere slaughter. [Shakspeare's forest of Arden was not the Ardennes of Belgium, but a woodland district of Warwickshire, of which several places, such as Henley-in-Arden, still retain the name.]

13. Stanza xxviii., line 6.

The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent

[There was a thunder-storm on the morning of the battle.]

14.-Stanza xxix., line 4.

And partly that I did his sire some wrong,

[The Earl of Carlisle, by satirising him in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.]

15.-Stanza xxix., line 9.

They reach'd no nobler breast than thine, young, gallant Howard!

["In the late battles, like all the world, I have lost a connection-poor Frederick Howard, the best of his race. I had little intercourse of late years with his family; but I never saw or heard but good of him."Lord B. to Mr. Moore.]

16.-Stanza xxx., line 9.

I turn'd from all she brought to those she could not bring.

My guide from Mount St. Jean over the field seemed intelligent and accurate. The place where Major Howard fell was not far from two tall and solitary trees (there was a third cut down, or shivered in the battle), which stand a few yards from each other at a pathway's side. Beneath these he died and was buried. The body has since been removed to England. A small hollow for the present marks where it lay, but will probably soon be effaced; the plough has been upon it, and the grain is. After pointing out the different spots where Picton and other gallant men had perished; the guide said, "Here Major Howard lay: I was near him when wounded." I told him my relationship, and he seemed then still more anxious to point out the particular spot and circumstances.