No More Learning

The Imperial daughter, the Imperial bride,[346]
The imperial Victim--sacrifice to pride;
The mother of the Hero's hope, the boy,
The young Astyanax of Modern Troy;[347] 730
The still pale shadow of the loftiest Queen
That Earth has yet to see, or e'er hath seen;
She flits amidst the phantoms of the hour,
The theme of pity, and the wreck of power.
Oh, cruel mockery! Could not Austria spare
A daughter? What did France's widow there?
Her fitter place was by St. Helen's wave,
Her only throne is in Napoleon's grave.
But, no,--she still must hold a petty reign,
Flanked by her formidable chamberlain; 740
The martial Argus, whose not hundred eyes[348]
Must watch her through these paltry pageantries.
What though she share no more, and shared in vain,
A sway surpassing that of Charlemagne,
Which swept from Moscow to the southern seas!
Yet still she rules the pastoral realm of cheese,
Where Parma views the traveller resort,
To note the trappings of her mimic court.
But she appears! Verona sees her shorn
Of all her beams--while nations gaze and mourn-- 750
Ere yet her husband's ashes have had time
To chill in their inhospitable clime;
(If e'er those awful ashes can grow cold;--
But no,--their embers soon will burst the mould;)
She comes! --the Andromache (but not Racine's,
Nor Homer's,)--Lo! on Pyrrhus' arm[349] she leans! [ew]
Yes! the right arm, yet red from Waterloo,
Which cut her lord's half-shattered sceptre through,
Is offered and accepted? Could a slave
Do more? or less? --and _he_ in his new grave! 760
Her eye--her cheek--betray no inward strife,
And the _Ex_-Empress grows as _Ex_ a wife!
So much for human ties in royal breasts!
Why spare men's feelings, when their own are jests?


XVIII.

But, tired of foreign follies, I turn home,
And sketch the group--the picture's yet to come.
My Muse 'gan weep, but, ere a tear was spilt,
She caught Sir William Curtis in a kilt! [350]
While thronged the chiefs of every Highland clan
To hail their brother, Vich Ian Alderman! 770
Guildhall grows Gael, and echoes with Erse roar,
While all the Common Council cry "Claymore! "[351]
To see proud Albyn's tartans as a belt
Gird the gross sirloin of a city Celt,
She burst into a laughter so extreme,
That I awoke--and lo! it was _no_ dream!

Here, reader, will we pause:--if there's no harm in
This first--you'll have, perhaps, a second "Carmen. "

B. J^n 10^th^ 1823.


FOOTNOTES:

[dv] {535} _Annus Mirabilis_. --MS.

[253] [It has been suggested by Dr. Garnett (late keeper of the Printed
Books in the British Museum) that the motto to _The Age of Bronze_ may,
possibly, contain a reference to the statue of Achilles, "inscribed by
the women of England to Arthur, Duke of Wellington, and his brave
companions in arms," which was erected in Hyde Park, June 18, 1822. ]

[dw] {541} _Want nothing of the little, but their_ will. --[MS. ]

[254] [_Measure for Measure_, act ii. sc. 2, line 121. ]

[255] [Fox used to say, "_I_ never want _a_ word, but Pitt never wants
_the_ word. "]

[256] [The grave of Fox, in Westminster Abbey is within eighteen inches
of that of Pitt. Compare--

"Nor yet suppress the generous sigh.
Because his rival slumbers nigh;
Nor be thy _requiescat_ dumb,
Lest it be said o'er Fox's tomb.

Where,--taming thought to human pride! --
The mighty chiefs sleep side by side.
Drop upon Fox's grave the tear,
'Twill trickle to his rival's bier," etc.

_Marmion_, by Sir Walter Scott, Introduction to
Canto I. lines 125-128, 184-188.

Compare, too, Macaulay on Warren Hastings: "In that temple of silence
and reconciliation, where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried,
in the Great Abbey . . . the dust of the illustrious accused should have
mingled with the dust of the illustrious accusers. This was not to
be. "--_Critical and Historical Essays_, 1843, iii. 465. ]

[257] {542}[The Cleopatra whose mummy is preserved in the British Museum
was a member of the Theban Archon family. Her date was _circ. _ A. D.
100. ]

[258] [According to Strabo (_Rerum Geog. _, xvii. ed. 1807, ii. 1127),
Ptolemaeus Soter brought Alexander's body back from Babylon, and buried
it in Alexandria, in the spot afterwards known as the _Soma_. There it
lay, in Strabo's time, not in its original body-mask of golden
chase-work, which Ptolemaeus Cocces had stolen, but in a casket of
glass. Great men "turned to pilgrims" to visit Alexander's grave.
Augustus crowned the still life-like body with a golden laurel-wreath,
and scattered flowers over the tomb: Caligula stole the breastplate, and
wore it during his pantomimic triumphs; Septimius Severus buried in the
sarcophagus the writings of the priests, and a clue to the
hieroglyphics. Finally, the sarcophagus and its sacred remains
disappear, and Alexander himself passes into the land of fable and
romance. In 1801 a sarcophagus came into the possession of the English
Army, and was presented by George III. to the British Museum.
Hieroglyphics were as yet undeciphered, and, in 1805, the traveller
Edward Daniel Clarke published a quarto monograph (_The Tomb of
Alexander, etc. _), in which he proves, to his own satisfaction, that
"this surprising sarcophagus in one entire block of green Egyptian
_breccia_," had once contained the ashes of Alexander the Great. Byron
knew Clarke, and, no doubt, respected his authority (see letter December
15, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 308); and, hence, the description of
"Alexander's urn" as "a show. " The sarcophagus which has, since 1844,
been assigned to its rightful occupant, Nectanebus II. (Nekht-neb-f), is
a conspicuous object in the Egyptian Gallery of the British Museum. It
is a curious coincidence that in the Ethiopic version of the
Pseudo-Callisthenes, Alexander is said to have been the son of
Nectanebus II. , who threw a spell over Olympias, the wife of Philip of
Macedon, and won her love by the exercise of nefarious magic. (See the
_Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great_, by E. A. Wallis Budge,
Litt. D. , F. S. A. , Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the
British Museum, 1896, i, ix. )]

[259] {543}[Arrian (_Alexand. Anabasis_, vii. i, 4, ed. 1849, p. 165)
says that Alexander would never have rested content with what he had
acquired; "that if he had annexed Europe to Asia, and the British Isles
to Europe, he would have sought out some no-man's-land to conquer. " So
insatiable was his ambition, that when the courtly philosopher
Anaxarchus explained to him the theory of the plurality of worlds he
bemoaned himself because as yet he was not master of one. "_Heu me_,
inquit, _miserum, quod ne uno quidem adhuc potitus sum_. "--Valerius
Maximus, _De Dictis, etc. _, lib. viii. cap. xiv. ex. 2. See, too,
_Juvenal_, x. 168, 169. Burton (_Anatomy of Melancholy_, 1893, i. 64)
denies that this was spoken like a prince, but, as wise Seneca censures
him [on another occasion, however], 'twas _vox iniquissima et
stultissima_, "'twas spoken like a bedlam fool. "]

[260] [Compare _Werner_, act iii. sc. I, lines 288, 289, "When he
[Sesostris] went into the temple or the city, his custom was to cause
the horses to be unharnessed out of his chariot, and to yoke four kings
and four princes to the chariot-pole. "--Diodori Siculi _Bibl. Hist_. ,
lib. i. p. 37, C, ed. 1604, p. 53. ]

[261] {544}[In a speech delivered in the House of Commons, February 17,
1800, "On the continuance of the War with France," Pitt described
Napoleon as the "child and champion of Jacobinism. " Coleridge, who was
reporting for the _Morning Post_, took down Pitt's words as "nursling
and champion" (unpublished MS. note-book)--a finer and more original
phrase, but substituted "child" for "nursling" in his "copy. " (See
_Letters of S. T. Coleridge_, 1895, i. 327, note i. ) The phrase was
much in vogue, _e. g. _ "All that survives of Jacobinism in Europe looks
up to him as its 'child and champion. '"-_Quarterly Review_, xvi. 48. ]

[dx] Lines 55-58 not in MS.

[262] [O'Meara, under the dates August 19, September 5, September 7, 13,
etc. (see _Napoleon in Exile_, 1888, i. 95, 96, 114, 121, etc. ), reports
complaints on the part of Napoleon with regard to the reduction of
expenses suggested or enforced by Sir Hudson Lowe, and gives specimens
of the nature and detail of these reductions. For a refutation of
O'Meara's facts and figures (as given in _Napoleon in Exile_, 1822, ii.
Appendix V. ), see the _History of the Captivity of Napoleon_, by William
Forsyth, Q. C. , 1853, iii. 121, _sq_. ; see, too, _Sir Hudson Lowe and
Napoleon_, by R. C. Seaton, 1898. It is a fact that Sir Hudson Lowe, on
his own responsibility, increased the allowance for the household
expenses of Napoleon and his staff from ? 8000 to ? 12,000 a year, and it
is also perfectly true that opportunities for complaint were welcomed by
the ex-Emperor and his mimic court. It was _la politique de Longwood_ to
make the worst of everything, on the off-chance that England would get
to hear, and that Radical indignation and Radical sympathy would gild,
perhaps unbar, the eagle's cage. It is true, too, that a large sum of
money was spent on behalf of a prisoner of war whom the stalwarts of the
Tory party would have executed in cold blood. But it is also true that
Napoleon had no need to manufacture complaints, that he was exposed to
unnecessary discomforts, that useless and irritating precautions were
taken to prevent his escape, that the bottles of champagne and madeira,
the fowls and the bundles of wood were counted with an irritating
preciseness, inconsistent with the general scale of expenditure, which
saved a little waste, and covered both principals and agents with
ridicule. It is said that O'Meara, in his published volumes, manipulated
his evidence, and that his own letters give him the lie; but there is a
mass of correspondence, published and unpublished, between him and Sir
Thomas Reade, Sir Hudson Lowe, and Major Gorrequer (see Addit. MSS.
Brit. Mus. 20,145), which remains as it was written, and which testifies
to facts which might have been and were not refuted on the spot and at
the moment. With regard to "disputed rations," the Governor should have
been armed with a crushing answer to any and every complaint. As it was,
he was able to show that champagne was allowed to "Napoleon Buonaparte,"
and that he did not exceed his allowance. ]

[263] {545}[In his correspondence with Lord Bathurst, Sir Hudson Lowe
more than once quotes "statements" made by Dr. O'Meara (_vide post_, p.
546). But the surgeon may be William Warden (1777-1849), whose _Letters
written on board His Majesty's Ship the Northumberland, and at St,
Helena_, were published in 1816. ]

[264] [Henry, Earl of Bathurst (1762-1834), Secretary for War and the
Colonies, replied to Lord Holland's motion "for papers connected with
the personal treatment of Napoleon Buonaparte at St. Helena," March 18,
1817. _Parl. Deb. _, vol. 35, pp. 1137-1166. ]

[265] [A bust of Napoleon's son, the Duke of Reichstadt, had been
forwarded to St. Helena. O'Meara (_Napoleon in Exile, etc. _, 1822, i. p.
100) says "that it had been in the island fourteen days, during several
of which it was at Plantation House," before it was transferred to
Longwood. Forsyth (_History of Napoleon in Captivity_, 1853, ii. 146)
denies this statement. It was, no doubt, detained on board ship for
inspection, but not at Plantation House. ]

[266] [The book in question was _The Substance of some Letters written
by an Englishman in Paris_, 1816 (by J. C. Hobhouse). It was inscribed
"To the Emperor Napoleon. " Lowe's excuse was that Hobhouse had submitted
the work to his inspection, and suggested that if the Governor did not
think fit to give it to Napoleon, he might place it in his own library.
(See _Napoleon in Exile_, 1822, i. 85-87; and Forsyth, 1853, i. 193. )]

[dy] _Weep to survey the Tamer of the Great_. --[MS. ]

[267] [Lieutenant-General Sir Hudson Lowe, K. C. B. (1769-1844), was the
son of an army surgeon, John Hudson Lowe. His mother was Irish. He was
appointed Governor of St. Helena, August 23, 1815, and landed in the
island April 14, 1816. Byron met him at Lord Holland's, before he sailed
for St. Helena, and was not impressed by his remarks on Napoleon and
Waterloo (_Letters_, 1901, v. 429). He was well-intentioned, honourable,
and, in essentials, humane, but he was arrogant and tactless. The
following sentence, from a letter written by Lowe to O'Meara, October 3,
1816 (Forsyth, i. 318, 319), is characteristic: "With respect to the
instructions I have received, and my manner of making them known, never
having regarded General Bonaparte's opinions in any point whatever as to
_matter_ or _manner_, as an oracle or criterion by which to regulate my
own judgment, I am not disposed to think the less favourably of the
instructions, or my mode of executing them. " It must, however, be borne
in mind that this was written some time after Lowe's fifth and last
interview with his captive (Aug.
18, 1816); that Napoleon had abused him
to his face and behind his back, and was not above resorting to paltry
subterfuges in order to defy and exasperate his "paltry gaoler. "]

[268] {546}[There is reason to think that "the staring stranger" was the
traveller Captain Basil Hall (1788-1844), who called upon Byron at
Venice (see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 252), but did not see him. His account
of his interview with Napoleon is attached to his narrative of a _Voyage
to Java_, 1840. It is not included in the earlier editions of Hall's
_Voyage to the Corea and the Loochoo Islands_, but is quoted by Scott,
in his _Life of Napoleon_, 1827. ]

[269] [Barry Edward O'Meara (1786-1836) began life as assistant-surgeon
to the 62nd Regiment, then stationed in Sicily and Calabria. In 1815 he
was surgeon on board the _Bellerophon_, under Captain F. L. Maitland.
Napoleon took a fancy to him because he could speak Italian, and, as his
own surgeon Mengeaud would not follow him into exile, requested that
O'Meara might accompany him, in the _Northumberland_, to St. Helena. His
position was an ambiguous one. He was to act as Napoleon's medical and,
_quoad hoc_, confidential attendant, but he was not to be subservient to
him or dependent on him. At St. Helena Lowe expected him to be something
between an intermediary and a spy, and, for a time, O'Meara discharged
both functions to the Governor's satisfaction (statements by Dr. O'Meara
are quoted by Lowe in his letter to Lord Bathurst [_Life of Napoleon,
etc. _, by Sir W. Scott, 1828, p. 763]). As time went on, the surgeon
yielded to the glamour of Napoleon's influence, and more and more
disliked and resented the necessity of communicating private
conversations to Lowe. He "withheld his confidence," with the result
that the Governor became suspicious, and treated O'Meara with
reprobation and contempt. At length, on July 18, 1818, on a renewed
accusation of "irregularities," Lord Bathurst dismissed him from his
post, and ordered him to quit St. Helena. He returned to England, and,
October 28, 1818, addressed a letter (see Forsyth's _Napoleon, etc. _,
iii. 432, 433) to J. W. Croker, the Secretary to the Admiralty, in which
he argued against the justice of his dismissal. One sentence which
asserted that Lowe had dwelt upon the "benefit which would result to
Europe from the death of Napoleon," was seized upon by Croker as
calumnious, and in answer to his remonstrance, O'Meara's name was struck
off the list of naval surgeons. He published, in 1819, a work entitled
_Exposition of some of the Transactions that have taken place at St.
Helena since the appointment of Sir Hudson Lowe as Governor_, which was
afterwards expanded into _Napoleon in Exile, or a Voice from St. Helena_
(2 vols. , 1822). The latter work made a great sensation, and passed
through five editions. It was republished in 1888. O'Meara was able, and
generously disposed, but he was not "stiff" (_vide infra_, 489). "He
was," says Lord Rosebery (_Napoleon, The Last Phase_, 1900, p. 31), "the
confidential servant of Napoleon: unknown to Napoleon, he was the
confidential agent of Lowe; and behind both their backs he was the
confidential informant of the British Government. . . . Testimony from such
a source is . . . tainted. " Neither men nor angels will disentangle the
wheat from the tares. ]

[270] {547}[Buonaparte died the 5th of May, 1821. ]

[271] [At the end of vol. ii. of O'Meara's _Voice, etc. _ (ed. 5), there
is a statement, signed by Count Montholon, to the effect that he wished
the following inscription to be placed on Napoleon's coffin--

"Napoleon.

Ne a Ajaccio le 15 Aout, 1769,
Mort a Ste. Helene le 5 Mai, 1821;"

but that the Governor said, "that his instructions would not allow him
to sanction any other name being placed on the coffin than that of
'General Bonaparte. '" Lowe would have sanctioned "Napoleon Bonaparte,"
but, on his own admission, _did_ refuse the inscription of the one word
"Napoleon. "--Forsyth, iii. 295, 296, note 3. ]

[272] {548}[Hall, in his interview with Napoleon at St. Helena,
_Narrative of a Voyage to Java_, 1840, p. 77, testifies that, weeks
before the vessel anchored at St. Helena, August 11, 1817, "the
probability of seeing him [Napoleon] had engrossed the thoughts of every
one on board. . . . Even those of our number who, from their situation,
could have no chance of seeing him, caught the fever of the moment, and
the most cold and indifferent person on board was roused on the occasion
into unexpected excitement. "]

[273] [The Colonne Vendome, erected to commemorate the Battle of
Austerlitz, was inaugurated in 1810. ]

[274] [Pompey's, i. e. Diocletian's Pillar stands on a mound near the
Arabian cemetery, about three quarters of a mile from Alexandria,
between the city and Lake Mareotis. ]

[275] [Napoleon was buried, May 9, 1821, in a garden in the middle of a
deep ravine, under the shade of two willow trees. ]

[276] [Byron took for granted that Napoleon's remains would one day rest
under the dome of the Pantheon, where Mirabeau is buried, and where
cenotaphs have been erected to Voltaire and Rousseau. As it is (since
December 15, 1840) he sleeps under the Dome des Invalides. Above the
entrance are these words, which are taken from his will: "Je desire que
mes cendres reposent sur les bords de la Seine, au milieu de ce peuple
Francais que j'ai tant aime. "]

[277] {549} Guesclin died during the siege of a city; it surrendered,
and the keys were brought and laid upon his bier, so that the place
might appear rendered to his ashes. [Bertrand du Guesclin, born 1320,
first distinguished himself in the service of King John II. of France,
in defending Rennes against Henry Duke of Lancaster, 1356-57. He was
made Constable of France in 1370, and died before the walls of
Chateauneuf-de-Randon (Lozere). July 13, 1380. He was buried by the
order of Charles V. in Saint-Denis, hard by the tomb which the king had
built for himself. In _La Vie vaillant Bertran du Guesclin_ [_Chronique,
etc. _ (par E. Charriere), 1839, tom. ii. p. 321, lines 22716, _sq. _],
the English do not place the keys of the castle on Du Guesclin's bier,
but present them to him as he lies tossing on his death-bed ("a son lit
agite"). So, too, _Histoire de Messire Bertrand du Guesclin_, par Claude
Menard, 1618, 540: "Et Engloiz se accorderent a ce faire. Lors issirent
dudit Chastel, et vindrent a Bertran, et lui presenterent les clefs. Et
ne demora gueres, qu'il getta le souppir de la mort. "]

[278] [John of Trocnow, surnamed Zi? ka, or the "One-eyed," was born
circ. 1360, and died while he was besieging a town on the Moravian
border, October 11, 1424. He was the hero of the Hussite or Taborite
crusade (1419-1422), the _malleus Catholicorum_. The story is that on
his death-bed he was asked where he wished to be buried, and replied,
"that it mattered not, that his flesh might be thrown to the vulture and
eagles; but his skin was to be carefully preserved and made into a drum,
to be carried in the front of the battle, that the very sound might
disperse their enemies. " Voltaire, in his _Essai sur Les Moeurs et
L'Esprit des Nations_ (cap. lxxiii. s. f. _OEuvres Completes, etc. _,
1836, iii. 256), mentions the legend as a fact, "Il ordonna qu' apres sa
mort on fit un tambour de sa peau. " Compare _Werner_, act i. sc. I,
lines 693, 694. ]

[279] {550}["Au moment de la bataille Napoleon avait dit a ses troupes,
en leur montrant les Pyramides: 'Soldats, quarante siecles vous
regardent. '"--_Campagnes d'Egypte et de Syrie_, 1798-9, par le General
Bertrand, 1847, i. 160. ]

[280] [Madrid was taken by the French, first in March, 1808, and again
December 2, 1808. ]

[281] [Vienna was taken by the French under Murat, November 14, 1805,
evacuated January 12, 1806, captured by Napoleon, May, 1809, and
restored at the conclusion of peace, October 14, 1809. Her treachery
consisted in her hospitality to the sovereigns at the Congress of
Vienna, November, 1814, and her share in the Treaty of Vienna, March 25,
1815, which ratified the Treaties of Chaumont, March 1, and of Paris,
April 11, 1814. ]

[282] [At Jena Napoleon defeated Prince Hohenlohe, and at Auerstadt
General Davoust defeated the King of Prussia, October 14, 1806. Napoleon
then advanced to Berlin, October 27, from which he issued his famous
decree against British commerce, November 20, 1806. ]

[283] [The partition of Poland. "Henry [of Prussia] arrived at St.
Petersburg, December 9, 1770; and it seems now to be certain that the
first open proposal of a dismemberment of Poland arose in his
conversations with the Empress. . . . Catherine said to the Prince, 'I will
frighten Turkey and flatter England. It is your business to gain
Austria, that she may lull France to sleep;' and she became at length so
eager, that . . . she dipt her finger into ink, and drew with it the lines
of partition on a map of Poland which lay before them. "--_Edinburgh
Review_, November, 1822 (art. x. on _Histoire des Trois Demembremens de
la Pologne_, par M. Ferrand, 1820, etc. , vol. 37, pp. 479, 480. )]

[284] {551} [Napoleon promised much, but did little for the Poles. "In
speaking of the business of Poland he . . . said it was a whim (_c'etait
un caprice_). "--_Narrative of an Embassy to Warsaw_, by M. Dufour de
Pradt, 1816, p. 51. "The Polish question," says Lord Wolseley (_Decline
and Fall of Napoleon_, 1893, p. 19), "thrust itself most inconveniently
before him. In early life all his sympathies . . . were with the Poles,
and he had regarded the partition of their country as a crime. . . . As a
very young man liberty was his only religion; but he had now learned to
hate and to fear that term. . . . He had no desire . . . to be the Don
Quixote of Poland by reconstituting it as a kingdom. To fight Russia by
the re-establishment of Polish independence was not, therefore, to be
thought of. "]

[285] [The final partition of Poland took place after the Battle of
Maciejowice, October 12, 1794, when "Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko
fell. " Tyrants, _e. g. _ Napoleon in 1806, and Alexander in 1814 and again
in 1815, approached Kosciusko with respect, and loaded him with flattery
and promises, and then "passed by on the other side. "]

[286] [The reference is to Charles's chagrin when the Grand Vizier
allowed the Russians to retire in safety from the banks of the Pruth,
and assented to the Treaty of Jassy, July 21, 1711. Charles, "impatient
for the fight, and to behold the enemy in his power," had ridden above
fifty leagues from Bender to Jassy, swam the Pruth at the risk of his
life, and found that the Czar had marched off in triumph. He contrived
to rip up the Vizier's robe with his spur, "remonta a cheval, et
retourna a Bender le desespoir dans le coeur" (_Histoire de Charles
XII. _, Livre v. _s. f. _). ]

[287] {552}["Naples, October 29, 1822. Le Vesuve continue a lancer des
pierres et des cendres. "--From _Le Moniteur Universel_, November 21,
1822. ]

[dz] _For staring tourists_----. --[MS. ]

[288] [The material for this description of Napoleon on his return from
Moscow is drawn from De Pradt's _Narrative of an Embassy to Warsaw and
Wilna_, published in 1816, pp. 133-141. "I hurried out, and arrived at
the Hotel d'Angleterre. . . . [Warsaw, December 10, 1812]. I saw a small
carriage body placed on a sledge made of four pieces of fir: it had
stood some crashes, and was much damaged. . . . The ministers joined me in
addressing to him . . . wishes for the preservation of his health and the
prosperity of his journey. He replied, 'I never was better; if I carried
the devil with me, I should be all the better for that (_Quand j'aurai
le diable je ne m'en porterai que mieux_). ' These were his last words.
He then mounted the humble sledge, which bore Caesar and his fortune, and
disappeared. " The passage is quoted in the _Quarterly Review_, October,
1815, vol. xiv. pp. 64-68. ]

[289] {553}

["Soldats Francais! Serrez vos rangs!
Intendez Roland qui vous crie!
Armez vous contre vos tyrans!
Brisez les fers de la patrie. "

"L'Ombre de Roland," _Morning Chronicle_, October 10, 1822.