The Works of Lord Byron Volume VI Part 71

{311}[387] ["Le meme esprit fit manquer l'effet de trois brulots; on calcula mal la distance; on se pressa d'allumer la meche, ils brulerent au milieu du fleuve, et quoiqu'il fut six heures du matin, les Turcs, encore couches, n'en prirent aucun ombrage."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 203.]

[388] ["1^er^ Dec. 1790. La flottille russe s'avanca vers les sept heures; il en etait neuf lorsqu'elle se trouva a cinquante toises de la ville [d'Ismael]: elle souffrit, avec une constance calme, un feu de mitraille et de mousqueterie...."--_Ibid._, p. 204.]

[389] [" ... pres de six heures ... les batteries de terre secondaient la flottille; mais on reconnut alors que les canonnades ne suffiraient pas pour reduire la place, on fit la retraite a une heure. Un lancon sauta pendant l'action, un autre deriva par la force du courant, et fut pris par l'ennemi."'--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 204.]

{312}[390] [For Delhis, see _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii., note 1.]

[391] ["Les Turcs perdirent beaucoup de monde et plusieurs vaisseaux. A peine la retraite des Russes fut-elle remarquee, que les plus braves d'entre les ennemis se jeterent dans de pet.i.tes barques et essayerent une descente: le Comte de Damas les mit en fuite, et leur tua plusieurs officiers et grand nombre de soldats."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, p. 204.]

[392] ["On ne tarirait pas si on voulait rapporter tout ce que les Russes firent de memorable dans cette journee; pour conter les hauts faits d'armes, pour particulariser toutes les actions d'eclat, il faudrait composer des volumes."--_Ibid._, p. 204.]

[393] ["Parmi les etrangers, le prince de Ligne se distingua de maniere a meriter l'estime generale; de vrais chevaliers francais, attires par l'amour de la gloire, se montrerent dignes d'elle: les plus marquans etaient le jeune Duc de Richelieu, les Comtes de Langeron et de Damas."--_Ibid._, p. 204.

Andrault, Comte de Langeron, born at Paris, January 13, 1763, on the outbreak of the Revolution (1790) took service in the Russian Army. He fought against the Swedes in 1790, and the Turks in 1791, and, after serving as a volunteer in the army of the Duke of Brunswick (1792-93), returned to Russia, and was raised to the rank of general in 1799. He commanded a division of the Russian Army in the German campaign of 1813, and entered Paris with Blucher, March 30, 1814. He was afterwards Governor of Odessa and of New Russia; and, a second time, fought against the Turks in 1828. He died at St. Petersburg, July 4, 1831. Joseph Elizabeth Roger, Comte de Damas d'Antigny, born at Paris, September 4, 1765, owed his commission in the Russian Army to the influence of the Prince de Ligne. He fought against the Turks in 1787-88, and was distinguished for bravery and daring. At the Restoration in 1814 he re-entered the French Army, was made Governor of Lyons; shared the temporary exile of Louis XVIII. at Ghent in 1815, and, in the following year, as commandant of a division, took part in repressing the revolutionary disturbances in the central and southern departments of France. He died at Cirey, September 3, 1823.--_La Grande Encyclopedie_.]

{313}[394] [Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne, was born at Brussels, May 12, 1735. In 1782 he visited St. Petersburg as envoy of the Emperor Joseph II., won Catherine's favour, and was appointed Field Marshal in the Russian Army. In 1788 he was sent to a.s.sist Potemkin at the siege of Ochakof. His _Melanges Militaires, etc._, were first published in 1795.

He died in November, 1814.

Josef de Ribas (1737-c. 1797).]

[395] ["L'Amiral de Ribas ... declara, en plein conseil, que ce n'etait qu'en donnant l'a.s.saut qu'on obtiendrait la place: cet avis parut hardi; on lui opposa mille raisons, auxquelles il repondit par de meilleures."

--_Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii, 205.]

{314}[396] [Prince (Gregor Alexandrovitch) Potemkin, born 1736, died October 15, 1791. "He alighted from his carriage in the midst of the highway, threw himself on the gra.s.s, and died under a tree" (_Life of Catherine II_., by W. Tooke, 1880, iii. 324). His character has been drawn by Louis Philippe, Comte de Segur, who, writes Tooke (_ibid_., p.

326), "lived a long time in habits of intimacy with him, and was so obliging as to delineate it at our solicitation." "In his person were collected the most opposite defects and advantages of every kind. He was avaricious and ostentatious, ... haughty and obliging, politic and confiding, licentious and superst.i.tious, bold and timid, ambitious and indiscreet; lavish of his bounties to his relations, his mistresses, and his favourites, yet frequently paying neither his household nor his creditors. His consequence always depended on a woman, and he was always unfaithful to her. Nothing could equal the activity of his mind, nor the indolence of his body. No dangers could appal his courage; no difficulties force him to abandon his projects. But the success of an enterprise always brought on disgust.... Everything with him was desultory; business, pleasure, temper, carriage. His presence was a restraint on every company. He was morose to all that stood in awe of him, and caressed all such as accosted him with familiarity.... None had read less than he; few people were better informed.... One while he formed the project of becoming Duke of Courland; at another he thought of bestowing on himself the crown of Poland. He frequently gave intimations of an intention to make himself a bishop, or even a simple monk. He built a superb palace, and wanted to sell it before it was finished. In his youth he had pleased her [Catherine] by the ardour of his pa.s.sion, by his valour, and by his masculine beauty.... Become the rival of Orloff, he performed for his sovereign whatever the most romantic pa.s.sion could inspire. He put out his eye, to free it from a blemish which diminished his beauty. Banished by his rival, he ran to meet death in battle, and returned with glory."]

{315}[397] ["Ce projet, remis a un autre jour, eprouva encore les plus grandes difficultes; son courage les surmonta: il ne s'agissait que de determiner le Prince Potiemkin; il y reussit. Tandis qu'il se demenait pour l'execution de projet agree, on construisait de nouvelles batteries; on comptait, le 12 decembre, quatre-vingts pieces de canon sur le bord du Danube, et cette journee se pa.s.sa en vives canonnades."--_Histoire de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 205.]

[hn] _Into all aspirants for martial praise_.--[MS. erased.]

[398] ["Le 13^e^, une partie des troupes etait embarquee; on allait lever le siege: un courrier arrive.... Ce courrier annonce, de la part du prince, que le marechal Souwarow va prendre le commandement des forces reunies sous Ismael."--_Ibid._, p. 205.]

{316}[399] ["La lettre du Prince Potiemkin a Souwarow est tres courte; elle peint le caractere de ces deux personnages. La voici dans toute sa teneur: _'Vous prendrez Ismael a quel frix que ce soit!'_"--_Hist, de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 205.]

[400] ["[Le courrier] est temoin des cris de joie du Turc, qui se croyait a la fin de ses maux."-_Ibid_., p. 205.]

[401] ["Beat," as in "dead-beat," is occasionally used for "beaten."--See _N.E.D._, art. "Beat," 10.]

[402] ["Le 16^e^, on voit venir de loin deux hommes courant a toute bride: on les prit pour des Kozaks; l'un etait Souwarow, et l'autre son guide, portant un paquet gros comme le poing, et renfermant le bagage du general."-_Hist, de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 205.

M. de Castelnau in his description of the arrival of Suvoroff on the field of battle (_Hist, de la_ N.R., 1827, ii. pp, 205, 206) summarizes the Journal of the Duc de Richelieu. The original pa.s.sage runs as follows:--

"L'arrivee du comte Souvorow produisit un grand effet parmi les troupes.... La maniere d'etre plus que simple, puis-qu'il logeait sous une canonniere, et qu'il n'avait pas meme de chaises dans sa tente, son affabilite, sa bonhomie lui conciliaient l'affection de tous les individus de son armee. Cet homme singulier qui ressemble plus a un chef de cosaques ou de Tartares, qu'au general d'une armee europeenne, est doue d'une intrepidite et d'une hardiesse peu communes.... La maniere de vivre, de s'habiller et de parler du comte Souvorow, est aussi singuliere que ses opinions militaires.... II mangeait dans sa tente a.s.sis par terre autour d'une natte sur laquelle il prenait le plus detestable repas. L'apres-midi, un semblable repas lui servait de souper, il s'endormait ensuite pendant quelques heures, pa.s.sait une partie de la nuit a chanter, et a la pointe du jour il sortait presque nu et se roulait sur l'herbe a.s.surant que cet exercice lui etait necessaire pour le preserver des rhumatismes.... Sa maniere de s'exprimer dans toutes les langues est aussi singuliere que toute sa facon d'etre, ses phrases sont incoherentes, et s'il n'est pas insense, il dit et fait du moins tout ce qu'il faut pour le paraitre; mais il est heureux et cette quality dont le Cardinal Mazarin faisait tant de cas, est, a bon droit, fort estimee de l'Imperatrice et du Prince Potemkin ... Le moment de l'arrivee du Comte Souvorow fut annonce par une decharge generale des batteries ou camp et de la flotte."--_Journal de mon Voyage en Allemagne_. _Soc, Imp. d'Hist de Russie_, 1886, tom. liv. pp.

168, 169.]

{317}[ho] _That sage John Bull_----.--[MS.]

_That fool John Bull_----.--[MS. erased.]

{319}[403] ["La premiere attaque etait composee de trois colonnes ...

Trois autres colonnes, destinees a la seconde attaque, avaient pour chefs, etc.... La troisieme attaque par eau n'avait que deux colonnes."--_Hist, de la Nouvelle Russie_, ii. 207.]

[404] ["On construisit de nouvelles batteries le 18^e^.... On tint un conseil de guerre, on y examina les plans pour l'a.s.saut proposes par M.

de Ribas, ils reunirent tous les souffrages."--_Ibid._, p. 208.]

[hp] _For once by some odd sort of magnanimity._--[MS. erased.]

[hq] _Bellona shook her spear with much sublimity._--[MS. erased.]

[405] Fact: Suwaroff did this in person.

[hr]---- _and neither swerve nor spill._--[MS. erased.]

[406] ["Le 19^e^ et le 20^e^, Souwarow exercailes soldats; il leur montra comment il fallait s'y prendre pour escalader; il enseigna aux recrues la maniere de donner le coup de baonnette."--_Ibid_., p. 208.]

{320}[407] ["Pour ces exercices d'un nouveau genre, il se servit de fascines disposees de maniere a representer un Turc."-_Hist, de la Nauvelle Russie_, ii. 208.]

[hs]

_At which your wise men laughed, but all their Wit is_ _Lost, for his repartee was taking cities._--[MS. erased.]

[ht]

_For some were thinking of their wives and families,_ _And others of themselves_ (_as poet Samuel is_).

--[MS. Alternative reading.]

_And others of themselves_ (_as my friend Samuel is_).

--[MS. erased.]

[408] [For a detailed account of Suvoroff's personal characteristics, see _The Life of Field-Marshal Souvaroff_, by L.M.P. Tranchant de Laverne, 1814, pp. 267-291; and _Suvoroff_, by Lieut.-Colonel Spalding, 1890, pp. 222-229.

Byron's epithet "buffoon" (line 5) may, perhaps, be traced to the following anecdote recorded by Tranchant de Laverne (p. 281): "During the first war of Poland ... he published, in the order of the day, that at the first crowing of the c.o.c.k the troops would march to attack the enemy, and caused the spy to send word that the Russians would be upon them some time after midnight. But about eight o'clock Souvarof ran through the camp, imitating the crowing of a c.o.c.k.... The enemy, completely surprised, lost a great number of men."

For his "praying" (line 6), _vide ibid._, pp. 272, 273: "He made a short prayer after each meal, and again when going to bed. He usually performed his devotions before an image of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Russia."

"Half-dirt" (line 5) is, however, a calumny (_ibid_. p. 272): "It was his custom to rise at the earliest dawn; several buckets of cold water were thrown over his naked body."

The same writer (p. 268) repudiates the charges of excessive barbarity and cruelty brought against Suvoroff by C.F.P. Ma.s.son, in his _Memoires Secrets sur la Russie_ (_vide_, e.g., ed. 1800, i. 311): "Souvorow ne scroit que le plus ridicule bouffon, s'il n'etoit pas montre le plus barbare guerrier. C'est un monstre, qui renferme dans le corps d'un singe l'ame d'un chien de boucher. Attila, son compatriote, et don't il descend, peut-etre ne fut ni si heureux, ni si feroce."

Suvoroff did not regard himself as "half-demon." "Your pencil," he reminded the artist Muller, "will delineate the features of my face.

These are visible: but my inner man is hidden. I must tell you that I have shed rivers of blood. I tremble, but I love my neighbour. In my whole life I have made no one unhappy; not an insect hath perished by my hand. I was little; I was big. In fortune's ebb and flow, relying on G.o.d, I stood immovable--even as now." (_Suvoroff_, 1890, p. 228, note.)]

{322}[409] [See, for instance, _The Storm_, in "Souvarof's Catechism,"

Appendix (pp. 299-305) to the _Life, etc._, by Tranchant de Laverne, 1814: "Break down the fence.... Fly over the walls! Stab them on the ramparts!... Fire down the streets! Fire briskly!... Kill every enemy in the streets! Let the cavalry hack them!" etc.]

{323}[410] [The "tusk" of the plough is the coulter or share. Compare "Dens vomeris" (Virg., _Georg._, i. 22).]

{324}[hu]

_Of thine imaginary deathless bough_ _The unebbing sea of blood and tears must flow_.--[MS. erased.]

{326}[hv] _Entailed upon Humanity's estate_.--[MS. erased.]