from Canto VIII

41

But Johnson only ran off, to return
     With many other warriors, as we said,
Unto that rather somewhat misty bourn,
     Which Hamlet tells us is a pass of dread.
To Jack howe’er this gave but slight concern:
    His soul (like Galvanism upon the dead)
Acted upon the living as on wire,
And led them back into the heaviest fire.

42

Egad! they found the second time what they
     The first time thought quite terrible enough
To fly from, malgr all which people say
     Of glory, and all that immortal stuff
Which fills a regiment (besides their pay,
     That daily shilling which makes warriors tough)—
They found on their return the self-same welcome,
Which made some think, and others know, a Hell come.

43

They fell as thick as harvests beneath hail,
    Grass before scythes, or corn below the sickle,
Proving that trite old truth, that life’s as frail
     As any other boon for which men stickle.
The Turkish batteries thrashed them like a flail
     Or a good boxer, into a sad pickle,
Putting the very bravest, who were knocked
Upon the head, before their guns were cocked.

44

The Turks behind the traverses and flanks
     Of the next bastion, fired away like devils,
And swept, as gales sweep foam away, whole ranks:
     However, Heaven knows how, the Fate who levels
Towns, nations, worlds, in her revolving pranks,
    So ordered it, amidst these sulphury revels,
That Johnson and some few who had not scampered,
Reached the interior talus of the rampart.

45

First one or two, then five, six, and a dozen
     Came mounting quickly up, for it was now
All neck or nothing, as, like pitch or rosin,
     Flame was showered forth above as well’s below,
So that you scarce could say who best had chosen,
     The gentlemen that were the first to show
Their martial faces on the parapet,
Or those who thought it brave to wait as yet.

46

But those who scaled, found out that their advance
     Was favoured by an accident or blunder.
The Greek or Turkish Cohorn’s ignorance
    Had palisadoed in a way you’d wonder
To see in forts of Netherlands or France—
     (Though these to our Gibraltar must knock under)—
Right in the middle of the parapet
Just named, these palisades were primly set:

47

So that on either side some nine or ten
     Paces were left, whereon you could contrive
To march; a great convenience to our men,
     At least to all those who were left alive,
Who thus could form a line and fight again;
     And that which further aided them to strive
Was, that they could kick down the palisades,
Which scarcely rose much higher than grass blades.

48

Among the first,—I will not say the first,
     For such precedence upon such occasions
Will oftentimes make deadly quarrels burst
     Out between friends as well as allied nations:
The Briton must be bold who really durst
     Put to such trial John Bull’s partial patience,
As say that Wellington at Waterloo
Was beaten,—though the Prussians say so too;—

49

And that if Blcher, Bulow, Gneisenau,
     And God knows who besides in “au” and “ou,”
Had not come up in time to cast an awe
     Into the hearts of those who fought till now
As tigers combat with an empty craw,
     The Duke of Wellington had ceased to show
His orders, also to receive his pensions,
Which are the heaviest that our history mentions.

50

But never mind;—”God save the king!” and kings!
     For if he don’t, I doubt if men will longer—
I think I hear a little bird, who sings
     The people by and bye will be the stronger:
The veriest jade will wince whose harness wrings
     So much into the raw as quite to wrong her
Beyond the rules of posting,—and the Mob
At last fall sick of imitating Job: