"Le roi alla par un autre chemin avec quelques cavaliers. "Le carrosse, où il était, rompit dans la marche; on le remit " à cheval. Pour comble de disgrace, il s'égara pendant la "nuit dans un bois; là, son courage ne pouvant plus suppléer " à ses forces épuisées, les douleurs de sa blessure devenues "plus insupportable par la fatigue, son cheval étant tombé "de lassitude, il se coucha quelques heures au pied d'un "arbre, en danger d'être surpris à tout moment par les "vainqueurs qui le cherchaient de tout côtés."—Voltaire, Histoire de Charles XII. p. 218. MAZEPPA. I. 'TWAS after dread Pultowa's day, When fortune left the royal Swede, Around a slaughter'd army lay, No more to combat and to bleed. The power and glory of the war, Faithless as their vain votaries, men, Had pass'd to the triumphant Czar, Should give to slaughter and to shame A mightier host and haughtier name; A shock to one-a thunderbolt to all. 10 II. Such was the hazard of the die; And not a voice was heard t'upbraid Ambition in his humbled hour, When truth had nought to dread from power. His horse was slain, and Gieta gave His own-and died the Russians' slave. This too sinks after many a league Of well sustain'd, but vain fatigue; And in the depth of forests, darkling The watch-fires in the distance sparkling The beacons of surrounding foesA king must lay his limbs at length. Are these the laurels and repose For which the nations strain their strength? They laid him by a savage tree, In out-worn nature's agony; His wounds were stiff-his limbs were stark- The heavy hour was chill and dark; 20 30 The fever in his blood forbade A transient slumber's fitful aid: And thus it was; but yet through all, III. A band of chiefs !-alas! how few, Had thinn'd it; but this wreck was true' Each sate him down, all sad and mute, Beside his monarch and his steed, For danger levels man and brute, 40 50 But first, outspent with this long course, And smooth'd his fetlocks and his mane, For until now he had the dread His wearied courser might refuse To browze beneath the midnight dews: But he was hardy as his lord, And little cared for bed and board; But spirited and docile too; Whate'er was to be done, would do. Shaggy and swift, and strong of limb, And knew him in the midst of all: Though thousands were around, and Night, His chief would follow like a fawn. 60 70 |