FROM 'CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE'
WATERLOO
Canto III. Stanzas XXI-XXVIII.
HP HERE was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gathered then
Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when 5
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
rSoft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell ;
But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising
knell!
Did ye not hear it?—No; 'twas but the wind, 10
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;
On with the dance! let joy be unconfmed;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet—
But hark!—that heavy sound breaks in once more, 15
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;
And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!
Arm! Arm ! it is—it isr—the cannon's opening roar!
Within a windowed niche of that high hall
Sate Brunswick's fated chieftain; he did hear 20
That sound the first amidst the festival,
And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear;
fAnd when they smiled because he deemed it near
His heart more truly knew that peal too well,
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