The Poems of Felicia Hemans
[209] The following was the ceremony of consecration with which Decius
devoted himself in battle:--He was ordered by Valerius, the Pontifex
Maximus, to quit his military habit, and put on the robe he wore in
the senate. Valerius then covered his head with a veil, commanded
him to put forth his hand under his robe to his chin, and, standing
with both feet upon a javelin, to repeat these words:--“O Janus,
Jupiter, Mars, Romulus, Bellona! and ye, Lares and Novensiles! All you
heroes who dwell in heaven! and all ye gods who rule over us and our
enemies--especially ye gods of hell!--I honour you, invoke you, and
humbly entreat you to prosper the arms of the Romans, and to transfer
all fear and terror from them to their enemies; and I do, for the
safety of the Roman people, and their legions, devote myself, and with
myself the army and auxiliaries of the enemy, to the infernal gods,
and the goddess of the earth.” Decius then, girding his robe around
them, mounted his horse, and rode full speed into the thickest of the
enemy’s battalions. The Latins were, for a while, thunderstruck at
this spectacle; but at length recovering themselves, they discharged a
shower of darts, under which the Consul fell.
[210] See Gibbon’s animated description of the arrival of five
Christian ships, with men and provisions, for the succour of the
besieged, not many days before the fall of Constantinople.--_Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire_, vol. xii. p. 215.
[211] “The summits of the lofty rocks in the Carnatic, particularly
about the Ghauts, are sometimes covered with the bamboo tree, which
grows in thick clumps, and is of such uncommon aridity that, in
the sultry season of the year, the friction occasioned by a strong
dry wind will literally produce sparks of fire, which, frequently
setting the woods in a blaze, exhibit to the spectator stationed in a
valley surrounded by rocks, a magnificent though imperfect circle of
fire.”--_Notes to_ Kindersley’s _Specimens of Hindoo Literature_.
[212] Those who steer their westward course through the middle of the
Propontis may at once descry the high lands of Thrace and Bithynia, and
never lose sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus, covered with
eternal snows.--_Decline and Fall_, &c. vol. iii. p. 8.
[213] Mohammed II. was greatly addicted to the study of astrology. His
calculations in this science led him to fix upon the morning of the
29th of May, as the fortunate hour for a general attack upon the city.
[214] Constantine Palæologus was betrothed to a Georgian princess, and
the very spring which witnessed the fall of Constantinople had been
fixed upon as the time for conveying the imperial bride to that city.
[215] Many of the adherents of Constantine, in his last noble stand
for the liberties, or rather the honour, of a falling empire, were
foreigners, and chiefly Italians.
[216] This and the next line are an almost literal translation from a
beautiful song of Goethe’s:--
“Kennst du das land, wo die zitronen bluhn Mit dunkeln laub die gold
orangen gluhn?” etc.
[217] The idea expressed in this stanza is beautifully amplified in
Schiller’s poem, “Das Lied der Glocke.”
[218] It is said to be a Greek superstition that the plague is
announced by the heavy rolling of an invisible chariot, heard in the
streets at midnight; and also by the appearance of a gigantic spectre,
who summons the devoted person by name.
[219] Many instances of such banquets, given and shared by persons
resolved upon death, might be adduced from ancient history. That of
Vibius Virius, at Capua, is amongst the most memorable.
[220] For a minute description of the marbles, jaspers, and porphyries,
employed in the construction of St Sophia, see _The Decline and Fall_,
&c., vol. vii. p. 120.
[221] The assault of the city took place at daybreak, and the
Turks were strictly enjoined to advance in silence, which had also
been commanded, on pain of death, during the preceding night. This
circumstance is finely alluded to by Miss Baillie, in her tragedy of
_Constantine Palæologus_:--
“Silent shall be the march; nor drum, nor trump,
Nor clash of arms, shall to the watchful foe
Our near approach betray: silent and soft
As the pard’s velvet foot on Libya’s sands,
Slow stealing with crouch’d shoulders on her prey.”
Constantine Palæologus, act iv.
“The march and labour of thousands” must, however, as Gibbon observes,
“have inevitably produced a strange confusion of discordant clamours,
which reached the ears of the watchmen on the towers.”
[222] “After a conflict of two hours, the Greeks still maintained and
preserved their advantage,” says Gibbon. The strenuous exertions of the
janizaries first turned the fortune of the day.
[223] “A circumstance that distinguishes the siege of Constantinople
is the union of the ancient and modern artillery. The bullet and
the battering-ram were directed against the same wall; nor had
the discovery of gunpowder superseded the use of the liquid and
inextinguishable fire.”--_Decline and Fall_, &c., vol. xii., p. 213.
[224] “The immediate loss of Constantinople may be ascribed to the
bullet, or arrow, which pierced the gauntlet of John Justiniani, (a
Genoese chief.) The sight of his blood and exquisite pain appalled the
courage of the chief, whose arms and counsels were the firmest rampart
of the city.”--_Decline and Fall_, &c., vol. xii. p. 229.
[225] Mohammed II., on entering, after his victory, the palace of
the Byzantine emperors, was strongly impressed with the silence and
desolation which reigned within its precincts. “A melancholy reflection
on the vicissitudes of human greatness forced itself on his mind, and
he repeated an elegant distich of Persian poetry: ‘The spider has wove
his web in the imperial palace, and the owl hath sung her watch-song on
the towers of Afrasiab.’”--_Decline and Fall_, &c., vol. xii. p. 240.
[226] One of the ceremonies by which the battle of Platæa was annually
commemorated was, to crown with wine a cup called the _Bowl of
Liberty_, which was afterwards poured forth in libation.
[227] The Comneni were amongst the most distinguished of the families
who filled the Byzantine throne in the declining years of the Eastern
Empire.
ANNOTATION ON “THE LAST CONSTANTINE.”
[It may seem necessary to mention that “The Last Constantine” first
appeared in a volume (Murray, 1823) along with “Belshazzar’s Feast,”
the “Siege of Valencia,” and some lyrical miscellanies.
“The present publication appears to us, (Dr Morehead in _Constable’s
Magazine_, Sept. 1823,) in every respect superior to any thing Mrs
Hemans has yet written: more powerful in particular passages--more
interesting in the narrative part--as pathetic and delicate in
the reflective--as elaborately faultless in its versification--as
copious in imagery. Of the longer poems, ‘The Last Constantine’ is
our favourite.... The leading features of Constantine’s character
seem to be taken from the unequal, but, on the whole, admirable play
of _Constantine Palæologus_, by the gifted rival of our authoress,
Joanna Baillie; and the picture of that enduring and Christian courage
which, in the midst of a ruined city and a fallen state, sustained the
last of the Cæsars, when all earthly hope and help had failed him, is
eminently touching and poetical. The following stanzas appear to us
particularly beautiful:--
‘Sounds from the waters, sounds upon the earth,
Sounds in the air, of battle,’ etc.
The following stanzas, too, in which the leading idea of Constantine’s
character is still more fully brought out, are likewise excellent:--
‘It was a sad and solemn task to hold
Their midnight watch on that beleaguer’d wall,’ etc.
These are splendid passages, justly conceived, admirably expressed,
full of eloquence and melody; and the poem contains many others
equally beautiful. As we have already hinted, the story might have
been better told--or rather, there is scarcely any story at all; but
the reader is borne down the stream of pensive reflection so gently,
and so easily, that he scarcely perceives the want of it.”]
THE LEAGUE OF THE ALPS;
OR, THE MEETING ON THE FIELD OF GRUTLI.
[It was in the year 1308 that the Swiss rose against the tyranny of
the bailiffs appointed over them by Albert of Austria. The field
called the Grutli, at the foot of the Seelisberg, and near the
boundaries of Uri and Unterwalden, was fixed upon by three spirited
yeomen, Walter Furst, (the father-in-law of William Tell,) Werner
Stauffacher, and Erni (or Arnold) Melchthal, as their place of meeting
to deliberate on the accomplishment of their projects.
“Hither came Furst and Melchthal, along secret paths over the heights,
and Stauffacher in his boat across the Lake of the Four Cantons. On
the night preceding the 11th of November 1307, they met here, each
with ten associates, men of approved worth; and while at this solemn
hour they were wrapt in the contemplation that on their success
depended the fate of their whole posterity, Werner, Walter, and Arnold
held up their hands to heaven, and in the name of the Almighty, who
has created man to an inalienable degree of freedom, swore jointly
and strenuously to defend that freedom. The thirty associates heard
the oath with awe; and with uplifted hands attested the same God, and
all his saints, that they were firmly bent on offering up their lives
for the defence of their injured liberty. They then calmly agreed on
their future proceedings, and for the present each returned to his
hamlet.”--Planta’s _History of the Helvetic Confederacy_.
On the first day of the year 1308, they succeeded in throwing off the
Austrian yoke, and “it is well attested,” says the same author, “that
not one drop of blood was shed on this memorable occasion, nor had one
proprietor to lament the loss of a claim, a privilege, or an inch of
land. The Swiss met on the succeeding Sabbath, and once more confirmed
by oath their ancient, and (as they fondly named it) their perpetual
league.”]
I.
’Twas night upon the Alps. The Senn’s wild horn,[228]
Like a wind’s voice, had pour’d its last long tone,
Whose pealing echoes, through the larch-woods borne,
To the low cabins of the glens made known
That welcome steps were nigh. The flocks had gone
By cliff and pine bridge to their place of rest;
The chamois slumber’d, for the chase was done;
His cavern-bed of moss the hunter press’d,
And the rock-eagle couch’d high on his cloudy nest.
II.
Did the land sleep? The woodman’s axe had ceased
Its ringing notes upon the beech and plane;
The grapes were gather’d in; the vintage feast
Was closed upon the hills, the reaper’s strain
Hush’d by the streams; the year was in its wane,
The night in its mid watch--it was a time
E’en mark’d and hallow’d unto slumber’s reign;
But thoughts were stirring, restless and sublime,
And o’er his white Alps moved the spirit of the clime.
III.
For there, where snows, in crowning glory spread,
High and unmark’d by mortal footstep lay;
And there, where torrents, mid the ice-caves fed,
Burst in their joy of light and sound away;
And there, where freedom, as in scornful play,
Had hung man’s dwellings midst the realms of air,
O’er cliffs the very birthplace of the day--
Oh! who would dream that tyranny could dare
To lay her withering hand on God’s bright works e’en there?
IV.
Yet thus it was. Amidst the fleet streams gushing
To bring down rainbows o’er their sparry cell,
And the glad heights, through mist and tempest rushing
Up where the sun’s red fire-glance earliest fell,