It would appear, from the statement of the author of “Anecdotes of Waterloo,” that Shaw, though prostrated by a pistol shot, was yet alive on the morning of the 19th, but in articulo mortis, having received an immense number of lance-wounds after his fall from the French light-cavalry, armed Polish fashion, who galloped over the ground. A soldier of the 73rd gave the expiring hero a draught of water; but he was “past all surgery,” and soon afterwards expired without the possibility of removal to hospital.
“While martial pomps rise on the view,
And loud acclaim exalts the brave,
The tears of beauty shall bedew
The fallen victor’s laurell’d grave;
Flow, mournful flow, and sacred be the tear,
To grace the hero’s fall, whose bright career
Is clos’d in victory.”
“DULCE ET DECORUM EST PRO PATRIA MORI.”