This was perhaps the severest engagement of cavalry ever fought on a modern field, and though the Greys eventually conquered by miracles of valour, they might well exclaim with Pyrrhus,—“Another such victory would ruin us.”
Stanza XII.
“The gallant Byng.”—General Byng.
“While Saltoun.”—Lord Saltoun.
Stanza XIII.
“Th’ heroic Ponsonby.”—Sir William Ponsonby.
As Sir William Ponsonby was gallopping after his impetuous regiments, he had to cross a field lately ploughed, and of a very soft soil, and being badly mounted, his horse sunk in it. At that very moment he perceived a troop of lancers coming at full speed, and seeing all was over, took the picture of his wife from his bosom, and was giving the melancholy token to his aid-de-camp, to bear to his family, when the lancers coming up, killed both of them. To make the story more poetically affecting, I have taken the almost unpardonable licence of altering the facts.
Stanza XXI.
“Melted to love before a brother’s name.”
Not so by the ties of love, but friendship.