ANOTHER ORIGINAL OF "NOT A DRUM WAS HEARD."
Our readers will recollect that in our first number the facetious priest of Water-grass-hill made a notable discovery that the Rev. Mr. Wolfe's celebrated lyric on the burial of Sir John Moore was not original, but a translation from a French poem written to commemorate the loss of a certain Colonel de Beaumanoir, who fell in India while defending Pondicherry against the forces of Coote. Father Prout, it is well known, loves a joke, and we must be cautious how we receive his evidence, more especially as another claim to the original of Mr. Wolfe's lines has been set up on behalf of a German poet. The following verses were found, it is said, in the monastery of Oliva, near Danzig, where it is well known that, during the Swedish war in Germany under Gustavus Adolph, a Swedish general of the name of Thorstenson fell on the ramparts of Danzig, and was buried during the night on the spot. Our readers must determine the question for themselves. Our own mind is thoroughly made up as to this controversy.
Kein Grabgesang, keine Trommel erscholl
Als zum Wall' seine Leiche wir huben;
Kein Krieger schoss ihm sein Lebewohl
Wo wir still unsern Helden begruben.
Wir gruben in stummer Nacht ihn ein
Mit Bayonetten in Erd' und in Trümmer,
Bey des trüben Mondlichts schwankendem Schein