us now acquainted with part of the horrors that attend invasion, and which the Providence of God, the valour of our navy, and perhaps the very efforts of these Spaniards, have hitherto diverted from us, it may be modestly questioned whether we ought to be too forward to estimate and condemn the feeling of temporary stupefaction which they create; lest, in so doing, we should resemble the worthy clergyman, who, while he had himself never snuffed a candle with his fingers, was disposed severely to criticise the conduct of a martyr who winced a little among his flames.

NOTES ON THE CONCLUSION.

While downward on the land his legions press,
Before them it was rich with vine and flock,
And smiled like Eden in her summer-dress ;-

Behind their wasteful march, a reeking wilderness.--St. II. p. 626.

I have ventured to apply to the movements of the French army that sublime pas sage in the Prophecies of Joel, chapter 2d, which seems applicable to them in more respects than that I have adopted in the text, and to which the reader is referred.

The rudest centinel, in Britain born,

Gave his poor crust to feed some wretch forlorn.-St. VII. p. 627.

Even the unexampled gallantry of the British army in the campaign of 1810-11, although they never fought but to conquer, will do them less honour in history than their humanity, attentive to soften, to the utmost of their power, the horrors which war, in its mildest aspect, must always inflict upon the defenceless inhabitants of the country in which it is waged, and which on this occasion were tenfold augmented by the barbarous cruelties of the French. Soup kitchens were established by subscription among the officers, wherever the troops were quartered for any length of time. The Commissaries contributed the heads, feet, &c. of the cattle slaughtered for the soldiery; rice, vegetables, and bread where it could be had, were purchased by the officers. Fifty or sixty starving peasants were daily fed at one of these regimental establishments, and carried home the reliques to their famished households. The emaciated wretches, who could not crawl from weakness, were speedily employed in pruning their vines. While pursuing Massena, the soldiers evinced the same spirit of humanity, and in many instances, when reduced themselves to short allowance, from having ontmarched their supplies, they shared their pittance with the starving inhabitants, who had ventured back to view the ruins of their habitations burned by the retreating enemy, and to bury the bodies of their relations whom they had butchered. Is it possible to know such facts without feeling a sort of confidence that those who so well deserve victory are most likely to attain it?—It is not the least of Lord Wellington's military merits, that the slightest disposition towards marauding meets immediate punishment. Independently of all moral obligation, the army which is most orderly in a friendly country, has always proved most formidable to an armed enemy.

Vain-glorious Fugitive!-St. VIII. p. 628.

The French conducted this memorable retreat with much of the fanfarronade proper to their country, by which they attempt to impose upon others, and perhaps on themselves, a belief that they are triumphing in the very moment of their discomfiture. On the 30th May, 1811, their rear-guard was overtaken, near Pega, by the British cavalry. Being well posted, and conceiving themselves safe from infantry (who were, indeed, many miles in the rear,) and from artillery, they indulged

themselves in parading their bands of music, and actually performed " God save the King." Their minstrelsy was, however, deranged by the undesired accompaniment of the British horse-artillery, on whose part in the concert they had not calculated. The surprise was sudden, and the rout complete, for the artillery and cavalry did execution upon them for about four miles, pursuing at the gallop as often as they got beyond the range of the guns.

Vainly thy squadrons hide Assuava's plain,

And front the flying thunders as they roar,

With frantic charge and ten-fold odds, in vain !—St. X. p. 628.

In the severe action of Fuentes d'Honoro, upon 5th May, 1811, the grand mass of the French cavalry attacked the right of the British position, covered by two guns of the horse-artillery and two squadrons of cavalry. After suffering considerably from the fire of the guns, which annoyed them in every attempt to formation, the enemy turned their wrath entirely towards them, distributed brandy among their troopers, and advanced to carry the field-pieces with the desperation of drunken fury. They were in no ways checked by the heavy loss which they sustained in this daring attempt, but closed and fairly mingled with the British cavalry, to whom they bore the proportion of ten to one. Captain Ramsay (let me be permitted to name a gallant countryman), who commanded the two guns, dismissed them at the gallop, and, putting himself at the head of the mounted artillerymen, ordered them to fall upon the French sabre-in-hand. This very unexpected conversion of artillerymen into dragoons contributed greatly to the defeat of the enemy, already disconcerted by the reception they met from the two British squadrons; and the appearance of some small reinforcements, notwithstanding the immense disproportion of force, put them to absolute rout. A colonel or major of their cavalry, and many prisoners, (almost all intoxicated), remained in our possession. Those who consider for a moment the difference of the services, and how much an artilleryman is accustomed necessarily and naturally to identify his own safety and utility with abiding by the tremendous implement of war, to the exercise of which he is chiefly, if not exclusively, trained, will know how to estimate the presence of mind which commanded so bold a manoeuvre, and the steadiness and confidence with which it was executed.

And what avails thee that, for Cameron slain,

Wild from his plaided ranks the yell was given.-St. X. p. 628. The gallant Colonel Cameron was wounded mortally during the desperate contest in the streets of the village called Fuentes de Honoro. He fell at the head of his native Highlanders, the 71st and 79th, who raised a dreadful shriek of grief and rage. They charged, with irresistible fury, the finest body of French grenadiers ever seen, being a part of Buonaparte's selected guard. The officer who led the French, a man remarkable for stature and symmetry, was killed on the spot. The Frenchman who stepped out of his rank to take aim at Colonel Cameron was also bayonetted, pierced with a thousand wounds, and almost torn to pieces by the furious Highlanders, who, under the command of Colonel Cadogan, bore the enemy out of the contested ground at the point of the bayonet. Massena pays my countrymen a singular compliment, in his account of the attack and defence of this village, in which, he says, the British lost many officers, and Scotch.

O who shall grudge him Albuera's bays,

Who brought a race regenerate to the field,
Roused them to emulate their fathers' praise,

Temper'd their headlong rage, their courage steel'd.-St. XIV. p. 629. Nothing during the war of Portugal seems, to a distinct observer, more deserving

of praise, than the self-devotion of Field-Marshal Beresford, who was contented to undertake all the hazard of obloquy which might have been founded upon any miscarriage in the highly important experiment of training the Portugueze troops to an improved state of discipline. In exposing his military reputation to the censure of imprudence from the most moderate, and all manner of unutterable calumnies from the ignorant and malignant, he placed at stake the dearest pledge which a military man had to offer, and nothing but the deepest conviction of the high and essential importance attached to success can be supposed an adequate motive. How great the chance of miscarriage was supposed, may be estimated from the general opinion of officers of unquestioned talents and experience, possessed of every opportunity of information, how completely the experiment has succeeded, and how much the spirit and patriotism of our ancient allies had been under-rated, is evident, not only from those victories in which they have borne a distinguished share, but from the liberal and highly honourable manner in which these opinions have been retracted. The success of this plan, with all its important consequences, we owe to the indefatigable exertions of Field Marshal Beresford.

a race renowned of old,

Whose war-cry oft has waked the battle-swell.-St. XVII. p. 629. This stanza alludes to the various achievements of the warlike family of Græme, or Grahame. They are said by tradition to have descended from the Scottish chief under whose command his countrymen stormed the wall built by the Emperor Severus, between the firths of Forth and Clyde, the fragments of which are still popularly called Græme's Dyke. Sir John the Graham," the hardy wight, and wise,” is well known as the friend of Sir William Wallace. Alderne, Kilsyth, and Tibbermuir, were scenes of the victories of the heroic Marquis of Montrose. The pass of Killie-crankie is famous for the action between King William's forces and the Highlanders in 1689,

"Where glad Dundee in faint huzzas expired."

It is seldom that one line can number so many heroes, and yet more rare when it can appeal to the glory of a living descendant in support of its ancient renown. The allusions to the private history and character of General Grahame may be illustrated by referring to the eloquent and affecting speech of Mr Sheridan, upon the vote of thanks to the Victor of Barosa.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

GARCI FERRANDEZ.

BY ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ.

1.

In an evil day and an hour of woe
Did Garci Ferrandez wed!
He wedded the Lady Argentine,
He loved the Lady Argentine,

The Lady Argentine hath fled.
In an evil day and an hour of woe

She hath left the husband who loved her so,
To go to Count Aymerique's bed.

Garci Ferrandez was brave and young,

The loveliest of the land;

There was never a knight of Leon in the fight

Who could meet the force of his matchless might,

There was never a foe in the infidel band

Who against his dreadful sword could stand;
And yet Count Garci's strong right hand
Was shapely, and soft, and white;

As white and as soft as a lady's hand
Was the hand of the beautiful knight.

In an evil day and an hour of woe
To Garci's Hall did Count Aymerique go,
In an evil hour and a luckless night
From Garci's Hall did he take his flight,
And bear with him that lady bright,

That lady false, his bale and bane.