HISTORICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES TO CANTO II.
For the incidents from ancient Spanish history with which this Canto opens, the reader is referred to Livy (lib. xxi. et Epit.) or to Ferguson’s Roman Republic, where a full account will be found of the ever-memorable Sieges of Saguntum and Numantia. The ruins of Saguntum (Liv. loc. cit.) or Sagunthus (Sil. Ital. lib. i.) are still visible on the sea coast, a little to the north of Valencia. The site of Numantia, having a much more central position, a few miles north of Soria, capital of the small province of that name in the eastern part of Old Castile, is more conjectural than that of Sagunthus. The name of Numantia is erroneously spelled “Numantium” in Mr. Lockhart’s Ancient Spanish Ballads, a work of extraordinary merit, notwithstanding a few inaccuracies. The particulars of the siege of Numantia are to be found in the 57th Epitome of Livy’s lost books. The Moorish invasion under Tarik, the fall of Roderick, and the struggles of Pelayo, are described or alluded to by Byron, Scott, and Southey. The scene in the Vale of Covadonga is one of the finest passages in the latter’s poem of Roderick, where huge masses of rock are hurled down on the advancing Moorish host at the signal of the following words pronounced by the heroine:
—“In the name
Of God! For Spain and vengeance!”
Southey, Roderick. book xxiii.
The fight at Roncesvalles is the most memorable in the entire range of Romantic History, and has been alluded to, amongst other poets, by Pulci, Ariosto, Milton, Scott, and Lockhart. The siege of Zaragoza will be found described in detail in a succeeding canto. The ferocity displayed by the Moors in their invasion appears to have been not at all exaggerated by the Spanish chroniclers, and it is curious that this fierceness of aspect should have been noticed many centuries before by Horace:
Acer et Mauri peditis cruentum
Vultus in hostem.
Carm. i. 2.
The modern representations of Abd-el-Kader’s warriors by French artists square with the ancient notions of the Moorish ferocity of aspect. I myself have seen at Tangier and Gibraltar for the most part fine-looking men, but certainly with a tinge of ferocity, and here and therewith an expression worthy the “truculentus Maurorum vultus.” The introduction of Mohammedanism seems to have altered nothing in this respect, for in the days of Julius Cæsar, as Horace here attests, the same physiognomy was apparent; and Suetonius, speaking of the war between Cæsar and Juba, king of Mauritania, represents even the Roman legions as affrighted: “Famâ hostilium copiarum perterritos ... expectatio adventûs Jubæ terribilis.” cap. 66.
The part which I assign to the Basque boat-girls, and the strain of sentiment which pervades their oar-song, although not consonant with a peaceful state of cultivated society, is quite characteristic of Spain during the Peninsular War. The creed of Hippolytus was not very favourable to those literate pretensions which Molière has so pleasantly satirized in his “Précieuses Ridicules,” and the Basque barqueras would be quite to his taste. The persecuted of Phædra, whose uncompromising chastity caused his neck to be broken, said:—Σοφὴν δὲ μισῶ, “I hate a learned woman;” and Blanca and her sisters of the oar appear to have extended that hatred to both sexes.
Gen. Jones’s record of the seizure of the island of Santa Clara in the mouth of the harbour is as follows:—“A party of 200 men was landed this night on the high rocky island of Sta. Clara, and made prisoners of the enemy’s guard on it, of an officer and twenty-four men.” Journals, &c., Supp. Chapt. Napier makes the military party to consist of only 100 men—such difficulties does one meet in ascertaining the minute parts of even recent history. But probably Gen. Jones may have estimated that the seamen amounted to another hundred. “A heavy fire was opened on them,” says Napier, “and the troops landed with some difficulty, but the island was then easily taken, and a lodgment made with the loss of only twenty-eight men and officers.” Hist. book xxii. c. i. The historical fact of the supplies having been conveyed to the besiegers at San Sebastian by boat-girls gives warrant to the supposition that they may have assisted in the capture of the Island.
This Canto describes the principal warlike operations between the battle of Vittoria and the first battle of Sauroren, with a description of the first part of which it terminates. The incidents will be found in Napier’s History, book xxi. chap. 5.
The concluding incident is from the combat of Maya, which took place in the same neighbourhood a few days previously, and is thus described by Captain Norton, of the 34th regiment.—“The ninety-second met the advancing French column first with its right wing drawn up in line, and after a most destructive fire and heavy loss on both sides, the remnant of the right wing retired, leaving a line of killed and wounded that appeared to have no interval. The French column advanced up to this line and then halted, the killed and wounded of the ninety-second forming a sort of rampart; the left wing then opened its fire on the column, and as I was but a little to the right of the ninety-second, I could not help reflecting painfully how many of the wounded of their right wing must have unavoidably suffered from the fire of their comrades.” This frightful butchery appears to excite the enthusiasm of some of its military historians. “So dreadful was the slaughter,” says Napier, “that it is said the advancing enemy was actually stopped by the heaped mass of dead and dying; and then the left wing of that noble regiment coming down from the higher ground smote wounded friends and exulting foes alike, as mingled together they stood or crawled before its fire. * * The stern valour of the ninety-second, principally composed of Irishmen, would have graced Thermopylæ.”—Hist. War. Penins. book xxi. chap. 5.
III. “When Roland’s horn with its tremendous sound.”
La dove il corno sona tanto forte
Dopo la dolorosa rotta.
Pulci.
VIII. “Fired with the generous vintage, which gave all
The ruffian forth,” &c.
Κράτιστον μὲν τῆς ἀκμῆς τῶν χαιρῶν τυγχάνειν· ἐπειδὴ δὲ δυσκαταμαθέτως
ἔχουσιν. κ. τ. λ.
Isoc. ad Nicocl.
“It is most excellent to enjoy moderately the height of felicity; but this men find most difficult to learn.”
X. “Like Hebe for this flagrant Hercules.”
Τέρπεται ἐν θαλίῃς, καὶ ἔχει καλλίσφυρον Ἥβην,
Παῖδα Διὸς μεγάλοιο καὶ Ἥρης χρυσοπεδίλου.
Hom. Od. xi. 602.
“Flagrans amor Herculis Heben.”—Propert I. 13. 23.
XII. “Which like Camilla’s battle-axe, I ween.”
“Rapit indefessa bipennem.”—Virg. Æn. xi. 651.
“When fiery swift her footsteps past the steed.”
——“Pernicibus ignea plantis,
Transit equum cursu.”
—Ib. 718.
XIII. “Girt by her crescent-shielded Amazons.”
“Fœminea exsultant lunatis agmina peltis.”
—Virg. Æn. xi. 663.
XVII. “Hast thou not seen a clear and sparkling rill, &c.”
Qualis in aerii pellucens vertice montis
Rivus, muscoso prosilit e lapide;
Qui cùm de pronâ præceps est valle volutus,
Per medium densi transit iter populi.
Catul. lxvi.
XVIII. “A soldier frank, pellucid was his mind.”
Ἀλλ’ ἐνθάδ’, ἐν Τροίᾳ τ’, ἐλευθέραν φύσιν
Παρέχων, Ἄρη, τὸ κατ’ ἐμὲ, κοσμήσω δορί.
Eurip. Iphig. in Aul. 930.
“Achil. Both here and in Troy, displaying a frank mind, as far as in me lies, I will illustrate Mars in battle.”
XX. —“Nial led ’mid War’s alarms
A file of Rifles.”
—Sævam
Militiam puer, et Cantabrica bella tulisti
Sub Duce.
Horat. Epist. i. 18.
XXI. “The Spaniards oft declared he was a girl.”
Era Medoro un mozo de veinte años,
Ensortijado el pelo, y rubio el bozo,
De mediana estatura, y de ojos graves,
Graves mirados, y en mirar suaves.
Lope de Vega, Angelica, iii.
XXVII. “Till rapid Soult,” &c.
Rapidity of conception and execution were marked features in Marshal Soult’s military character. The decree by which Napoléon appointed him his Lieutenant in Spain was issued at Dresden on the 1st July, 1813, ten days after the battle of Vittoria. On the eleventh day he was in the midst of the army in Spain! “The 12th, Soult, travelling with surprising expedition, assumed the command of the armies of the ‘north,’ the ‘centre,’ and the ‘south,’ now reorganized in one body called ‘the Army of Spain.’ And he had secret orders to put Joseph forcibly aside if necessary, but that monarch voluntarily retired from the army.” Napier, Hist. War in the Penins. book xxi. chap. 4. “Marshal Soult was one of the few men whose indefatigable energy rendered them worthy lieutenants of the emperor; and with singular zeal, vigour, and ability he now served.”—Ibid. “Such was Soult’s activity that on the 16th all the combinations for a gigantic offensive movement were digested.”—Ibid.
XXIX. “His rugged spine full many a peak doth bear,
His ribs, huge ridges, part on either hand.”
This is the actual formation of the Pyrenees. A great spinal ridge runs diagonally across this entire mountain tract, trending westward. From this spine sierras shoot forth on both sides, and the communications between the valleys formed by these ridges pass over breaks in the sierras, called puertos by the Spaniards, and cols by the French.
XXXI. “What clattering steed doth gallop fleet as air.”
On the 27th July, Wellington, having been unable to learn any thing of the movements of Picton and Cole, who had been left in the valley of Zubiri and on the adjoining heights of Linzoain, on the evening preceding, and dreading lest Soult’s combinations should cut them off, quitted Sir Rowland Hill’s quarters in the Bastan at a very early hour in the morning (these early matutinal movements have been always characteristic of his Grace) and descending the valley of Lanz, reached Ostiz, a few miles from Sauroren, where he met General Long with his brigade of light cavalry, who informed him that Picton and Cole had abandoned the heights of Linzoain, and were moving on Huarte, “He left his quarter-master-general with instructions to stop all the troops coming down the valley of Lanz until the state of affairs at Huarte should be ascertained. Then at racing speed he made for Sauroren. As he entered that village he saw Clauzel’s divisions moving from Zabaldíca along the crest of the mountain, and it was clear that the allied troops in the valley of Lanz were intercepted, wherefore pulling up his horse, he wrote on the parapet of the bridge of Sauroren fresh instructions to turn every thing from that valley to the right, by a road which led through Lizasso and Marcalain behind the hills to the village of Oricain, that is to say in rear of the position now occupied by Cole. Lord Fitzroy Somerset, the only staff officer who had kept up with him, galloped with these orders out of Sauroren by one road, the French light cavalry dashed in by another, and the English general rode alone up the mountain to reach his troops,” &c.—Napier, Hist. book xxi. c. 5.
—“Thought-swift they make
Sauróren.”
I trust this Teutonism will be pardoned, believing these forms of expression to be more suited to the genius of our language than has been hitherto supposed, and likely to be more generally introduced into poetical diction.
XXXII. “Cole eagle-eyed and gallant Picton.”
The gallantry of Picton and the keen observation of Cole were eminent characteristics of those two generals respectively. The danger which they ran in this instance was very imminent. Picton “directed Cole to occupy some heights between Oricain and Arletta. But that general having with a surer eye, &c.”—Napier, Hist. book xxi. c. 5. Wellington’s rapid riding on this occasion defeated a very able combination of Soult’s. The Duke was always an expert and eager horseman, and it was not for nothing that he kept his pack of fox-hounds in the Peninsula.
XXXIII. “The advancing Chief * *
Their treasure-trove, their gold without alloy!”
Longas, ô utinam, dux bone, ferias
Præstes Hesperiæ!
Horat. Carm. iv. 5.
“The shout that ne’er was heard unmoved by Britain’s foes.”
“That stern and appalling shout which the British soldier is wont to give upon the edge of battle, and which no enemy ever heard unmoved.” Napier, Hist. book xxi. c. 5.
XXXIV. “Soult was now so near, &c.”
“Lord Wellington suddenly stopped in a conspicuous place, he desired that both armies should know he was there, and a double spy who was present pointed out Soult, then so near that his features could be plainly distinguished. The English general, it is said, fixed his eyes attentively upon this formidable man, and, speaking as if to himself, said: ‘Yonder is a great commander, but he is a cautious one and will delay his attack to ascertain the cause of these cheers; that will give time for the sixth division to arrive and I shall beat him.’ And certain it is that the French general made no serious attack that day.” Napier, ibid.
XXXVI. “But vain its poise ’gainst that enormous height.”
“Some guns were pushed in front of Zabaldíca, but the elevation required to send the shot upward rendered their fire ineffectual.” Napier, ibid.
“’Tis Nature’s storm-artillery ushers in the night.”
“A terrible storm, the usual precursor of English battles in the Peninsula, brought on premature darkness and terminated the dispute.” Napier, ibid.
XXXVII. “Dumb be your voices, while the thunder-chime, &c.”
Bedecke deinen himmel, Zeus,
Mit wolkendunst, und übe!
Goethe (Prometheus).
“Curtain thy heavens, Zeus, with clouds and mist, and exercise thy arm!”
“While roar the elements with rage sublime,” &c.
Nè quivi ancor dell’ orride procelle
Ponno appieno schivar la forza e l’ira;
Ma sono estinte or queste faci or quelle,
E per tutto entra l’acque, e’l vento spira * *
La pioggia ai gridi, ai venti, al tuon s’accorda
D’orribile armonía, che’l mondo assorda.
Tasso. Gerus. Lib. vii. 122.
—“Ye feel as feathers, dust.”
——La materia humana—
Viento, humo, polvo, y esperanza vana!
Lope de Vega, Sonetos.
XXXIX. “Pack’s corps, whose swift approach by Soult unguest.”
General Pack was in command of the sixth division till this battle, when he was wounded, and the command passed to general Pakenham.
XL. “Stern was the fight, and Gaul had battled ne’er so well.”
Throughout the entire Peninsular campaigns, the French never fought with such desperate valour as on this and the few preceding and following days. In Soult they had the utmost confidence; they saw that a crisis had arrived, and trembled for France. “The fight raged close and desperate on the crest of the position, charge succeeded charge, and each side yielded and recovered by turns; yet this astounding effort of French valour was of little avail.” Napier, ibid.
XLI. ——“Lusia’s rifles swell the fray.”
General Ross’s brigade of the fourth division was posted on this strongly contested height, having a Portuguese battalion (the seventh caçadores, tenth regiment) in his front, with its flank resting on the chapel. “The seventh caçadores shrunk abashed, and that part of the position was won.” Napier, ibid. The inequality with which the Portuguese fought was remarkable throughout the Peninsular War. They fought well, or gave way, in great measure according to the impulse of the movement. Here they gave way, then inspired by the example of Ross’s brigade renewed the combat, but again gave way. “Soon, however, they rallied upon General Ross’s brigade * * and the tenth Portuguese regiment fighting on the right of Ross’s brigade yielded to their fury.” Napier, ibid. Sometimes they fought extremely well.
XLIII. “Ev’n gallant Ross.”
This epithet was well deserved by general Ross, and is assigned to him by Napier. “That gallant officer.” Book xxi. c. 5. I am proud to record the exploits of my countryman, whose name and achievements are endeared to me by early recollections. A lofty column is erected in his honour at the beautiful village of Rosstrevor, within seven miles of which, at Newry, my early years from infancy to the period of my going to College were passed. All my summers were spent in and near Rosstrevor, one of the most charming sea-bathing spots in the British dominions. The noble Bay of Carlingford stretches before it, girt by an amphitheatre of lofty hills, and Killowen Point, the Wood-house, Greencastle, the light-house, and Grenore, with the ancient and picturesque town of Carlingford, the stupendous mountain overhanging it, and the bleak tract extending along to Omeath, contrasted with the sunny and wooded slopes beyond, have left impressions indelible even during much travel in foreign lands. I rejoice to perceive that a railway is about to open up this magnificent region, and trust that this new means of intercourse will be eminently beneficial to the warm-hearted inhabitants of all the surrounding district.
“But to return next instant with no lack
Of desperate courage.”
Φεύγειν μὲν οὐκ ἀνεκτὸν, οὐδ’ εἴωθαμεν.
Eurip. Iphig. in Taur. 104.
“For to fly is not tolerable, neither has it been our custom!”
“Each gains and yields by turns—the sod is dyed with gore.”
This action between Ross’s brigade and Clauzel’s second division was one of the most terrific during the war. “The fight,” says Napier “raged close and desperate on the crest of the position, charge succeeded charge, and each side yielded and recovered by turns.”
XLV. “So stood Leonides, with Persia’s life-blood red.”
ἐν Σπάρτᾳ δ’ ἐρέω
πρὸ Κιθαιρῶνος μάχαν:
ταῖσι Μήδειοι κάμον ἀγκυλότοξοι:
Pind. Pyth. i.
“In Sparta I will sing the fight before Cithæron, where the Median bowmen fell.” For the details of the battle, and of the Trachinian treason, see Herodotus, lib. 7. Pindar does not name Thermopylæ, but Cithæron being in its immediate neighbourhood would make the allusion at once intelligible. Pindar with instinctive good taste prefers the name “Cithæron” to that of “Thermopylæ,” the latter name, though to us so magnificent, sounding somewhat vulgar to Greek ears, as indicating the θερμὰ λουτρὰ, or hot-baths from which it was derived.
XLVII. “That now in spite of Hell she will be free.”
Siasi l’inferno e siasi il mondo armato.
Tasso, Gerus. Lib. xiii. 73.
IBERIA WON.