Dreamt of Heroic beings; hoped to find
Some extant spirit of chivalric kind;
And scorning wealth, looked cold e’en on the claim
Of manly worth, that lacked the wreath of fame.
“Her younger brother, sixteen summers old,
And much her likeness both in mind and mould,
Had gone, poor boy! in soldiership to shine,
And bore an Austrian banner on the Rhine.
’Twas when, alas! our Empire’s evil star
Shed all the plagues, without the pride, of war;