AND is it among rude untutored Dales, Is it by rocks and woods that man prevails? O'ER THE WIDE EARTH, ON MOUNTAIN AND ON PLAIN. The truth was felt Of fiercely-breathing war. 221 Palafox-y-Melzi, Don Joseph (1780-1847), immortalized by his heroic defence of Saragossa in 1808-9. He was of an old Arragon family, and entered the Spanish army at an early age. In 1808, when twenty-nine years of age, he was appointed governor of Saragossa, by the people of the town, who were menaced by the French armies. He defended it with a few men, against immense odds, and compelled the French to abandon the siege, after sixty-one days attack, and the loss of thousands. Saragossa, however, was too important to lose, and Marshals Mortier and Moncy renewed the siege with a large army. Palafox (twice defeated outside) retired to the fortress as before, where the men, women, and children fought in defence, till the city was almost a heap of ruins. Typhus attacked the garrison within, while the French army assailed it from without. Palafox, smitten by the fever, had to give up the command to another, who signed a capitulation next day. He was sent a prisoner to Vincennes, and kept there for nearly five years, till the restoration of Ferdinand VII., when he was sent back on a secret mission to Madrid. In 1814 he was appointed Captain-General of Arragon; but for about thirty years-till his death in 1847-he took no part in public affairs.-ED. O'ER the wide earth, on mountain and on plain, A Godhead, like the universal PAN ; But more exalted, with a brighter train: Such doom' awaits us. Nay, forbid it, Heaven! Even to the death:-else wherefore should the eye HAIL, Zaragoza! If with unwet eye See note to sonnet (p. 221). Saragossa surrendered February 20, 1809, after a heroic defence, which may recal the sieges of Numantia or Saguntum. Every street, almost every house, had been hotly contested; the monks, and even the women, had taken a conspicuous share in the defence; more than 40,000 bodies of both sexes and every age testified to the obstinate courage of the besieged. (See Dyer's History of Modern Europe, Vol. IV. p. 496.)-ED. * The beginning is imitated from an Italian sonnet. 1815. SAY, what is Honour ?-Tis the finest sense. And guard the way of life from all offence BRAVE Schill! by death delivered, take thy flight 2 A meteor wert thou crossing a dark night: Alas! it may not be: for earthly fame Is Fortune's frail dependant; yet there lives In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed. Ferdinand von Schill, a distinguished Prussian officer, born 1773, entered the army 1789, was seriously wounded in the battle of Jena, but took the field again at the head of a free corps. Indignant at the subjection of his country to Bonaparte, he resolved to make a great effort for the liberation of Germany, collected a small body of troops, and commenced operations on the Elbe; but after a few successes was overpowered and slain at Stralsund, in May 1809.-Ed. CALL not the royal Swede unfortunate, And hence, wherever virtue is revered, He sits a more exalted Potentate, Throned in the hearts of men. Should Heaven ordain That this great Servant of a righteous cause Must still have sad or vexing thoughts to endure, Yet may a sympathizing spirit pause, Admonished by these truths, and quench all pain The royal Swede, "who never did to fortune bend the knee," was Gustavus IV. He abdicated in 1809, and came to London at the close of the year 1810. See note to another sonnet on the same King of Sweden, beginning The Voice of song from distant lands shall call. (Vol. II. p. 294.) |