[XLIX]–[LI]
The first is from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (canto iii. stanza 2, and canto iv. stanzas 8, 9, 10). The third canto was published in 1816, and the fourth in 1818. Byron left England—never to return—on April 24, 1816.
l. 22. The poet’s body was sent home to England, and was buried in the family vault at Hucknall Torkard, near Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire.
32. The answer of the mother of Brasidas, the Spartan General, to the strangers who praised the memory of her son.
The second is from the third canto of Don Juan (1821).
The third is from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (canto iii. stanzas 21–28). The Duchess of Richmond’s famous ball took place on June 15, 1815, the eve of Quatre Bras, at the Duke’s house in the Rue de la Blanchisserie, Brussels.
20. Brunswick’s fated chieftain. The Duke of Brunswick (1771–1815) was killed at Quatre Bras. His father, author of the famous manifesto against the French Republic (July 15, 1792), had fallen at Jena (1806).
54. Evan’s—Donald’s. Sir Evan Cameron (1629–1719) and his grandson Donald Cameron of Lochiel (1695–1748). The former fought at Killiecrankie (1689), and the latter, celebrated by Campbell in Lochiel’s Warning, was wounded at Culloden (1746).
55. Ardennes. The general term is applied to the forest of Soignies, which at this time occupied the whole country between Brussels and Waterloo.