Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

330

And scenes of childhood dear, each farewell sound,
Once more and still once more-slow lingering on
Catching, till faint they die ;)-is ought so fair
As sweet society?—And now had fled
Grim Superstition, all her opiate drugs,
Her idols gorg'd with blood, and rites obscene,
To Thor and fabled Woden, gods abhorr'd,
Borne to her murky cell: the human gore
Then wrung she from her clotted locks, and yell'd
All her accursed song. Oppression dropp'd
His clanking fetters, and the scorpion whip
Crumbled to dust. His poniard stretch'd aloft,
Forth from his den and shaggy solitudes
The Spirit of freedom rose; then bar'd his arm,
And call'd upon the nations, and they heard
The echo of his trump. At that dread sound,
Bursting his sleep, in every breast awoke
The proud Divinity: athwart his brow
Stern Resolution sate; his eagle-wings
He imp'd afresh:-and now erect again
Man stands, his free-born dignity he claims,
His birth-right of equality, the seal

By which he looked superior, and was crown'd
Master and Judge and Lord of all below.

340

350

[blocks in formation]

FLUSH'D with Hesperia's golden prey,
When Gallia northward bent her way,
Eager to stretch her desolating brand
O'er the rich vales of happy Switzerland;
From beneath the piny steep,
Where he lay in slumber deep,
Lull'd by the water's tuneful fall,
And the goatherd's madrigal,

Sudden Helvetia's guardian Genius sprang;

High on * Adula's rock he fix'd his stand,

And clash'd his shield, and wav'd his banner'd hand,
And thus his war-song sang.

"Rise, my warriors!-see, advance
"The legions of perfidious France!

*Mount St. Gothard.

1

"Onward she bids the gathering tempest roll,
"Peace on her brow, but rancour in her soul.
"She envies us our upland gales,
"The treasures of our peaceful vales,
"The beechen grove, the sloping hill,
"Fresh with many a vernal rill,

"With many a simple spire and cottage grac'd; "Fain would she scatter from her venom❜d breath "Over this pleasant land the seeds of death, "And for our blooming Eden leave a hideous waste.

"And shall she?-no, my warriors, no!
"Though the proud insulting foe

"Full wide her conquering banners have unfurl'd
"O'er half the nations of the prostrate world ;-
"Hath she yet storm'd the mountain-rock,
"And stemm'd the mountain-torrent's shock,
"And scal'd the beetling precipice,
"Barrier'd with eternal ice?
"Warriors, hath fhe yet essay'd

"The fury of the freeman's blade,

"Of souls resolv'd to conquer or to die?"Then, Switzers, rise! each his stout breast-plate

gird,

"And each unsheath his blood-incrusted sword, "And rear his nervous arm, and strike for liberty."

He spake: obedient to the sound
Helvetia's warriors throng'd around.
Rous'd by the cry of long-forgotten war,
From the swift Limmat, and majestic Ar,
From where to the morning shine
The torrents of the infant Rhine;

And wintry Rhone's tumultuous tide
Cleaves the Forked-Mountain's side;
Hasli, from thy lovely dell;

From thy green hills, O Appenzell ;

From the

forest-crowned mere,

Where the hardy mountaineer

Chaunts the high feats of his compatriot Tell;

They hear the spirit-stirring call:
They burn to meet the' invading Gaul:
"Give us the foe !" they shout amain.
""Tis well;" the guardian Genius cries again :
"Such the port in days of yore,

"Warriors, your forefathers bore;
"Thus 'gainst many a giant foe,

66

66

They whirl'd the ax, and bent the bow.
Then the bull and sable bear

"Together swept the ranks of war,

"And Union led the way to victory:

"This quench'd the fury of the Austrian sword, "This crush'd the might of bold Burgundia's Lord, This chas'd proud Gallia's kings, this made our country free.

“Switzers, in virtue as in name,

86

Emulate your father's fame;

"Hark to your common country's sacred call, "And on your common foe with force united fall!

* Mount Furca.

The lake of the four cantons, or, agreeably to the name in the language of the country, of the four forest towns. William Tell was a native of Burglen, a small village not far from Altorf, in the canton of Uri.

The banners of the cantons of Uri and Berne; meant to denote the union between the small and great cantons.

"So may the songs of future days
"You to your fathers' glory raise!

66

Again may conquest crown your ranks "On rapid Birsa's holy banks,

*

The hospital of St. James, near Basle, not far from the conflu ence of the Birse with the Rhine, is celebrated for the stand made by the Swiss in 1444 against the Dauphin of France, afterwards Louis XI. Naefels and Morgarten, respectively in the cantons of Glarus and Schwitz, are no less famous as scenes of the Austrian defeats in 1388 and 1315. At Granson, towards the lower extremity of the lake of Neuchâtel, and at Morat, on the lake of Morat, were fought two battles, which effectually quelled the invasion of Switzerland by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in 1476. Near the latter place was erected a chapel, or charnel house, said to contain the bones of the Burgundians who fell in that decisive engage

ment.

This building contained several inscriptions commemorative of the event which occasioned it's erection. Amongst these was one in German verse by Haller, which probably gave rise to this poem. The sentiments of it are given here with tolerable correctness, though somewhat dilated from the original.

Helvetian, pause, and view this monument!
It speaks the fate of those redoubted troops,
Who on the pride of Liege had trod, and shook
The throne of Gallia's kings. Helvetian, know
Not by their numbers or their well-wrought arms
Our fathers conquer'd. Nature gave them force,
And Union made that force invincible.

Helvetians! Brothers! feel your proper strength
And be united! As your rocks ye stand

Unmoveable, if but that holy flame,

That warm'd your fathers' bosoms, glow in yours.

It was near this chapel that General d'Erlach, commander of the Swiss troops, was posted in 1798, when the French General Brune sent to summon him to surrender. "My ancestors," he replied, "never surrendered. Could I be base enough to think of it, yonder "monument would recall me to my duty." Brune, on becoming master of the spot, ordered the building to be destroyed, and not one stone of it now stands upon another.

VOL II.

« НазадПродовжити »