Alas! their flight is vain[62]—
Now this is a puzzler.
The sentry’s cry—
Was it a whoop, a yell, a shriek, a halloo—but fiddle! Who ever heard a sentry cry? Why soldiers are brave men, and never weep. That is unquestionably a poetical li-cence.
—the roll of drums.
What on earth were the drums rolled for? It looks to me as though the Hottentots were drummed out of camp.
Alas! their flight is vain—
I don’t believe there was a flight of the Hottentots. What authority[63] is there for the flight? What made them fly anyhow? Well, I must move on:
Behold![64] a thousand torches flash
Like meteors into view!