Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/266

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230
CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE.
[CANTO III.

To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet—
But hark!—that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;
And nearer—clearer—deadlier than before![1]
Arm! Arm! it is—it is—the cannon's opening roar![2]


XXIII.

Within a windowed niche of that high hall
Sate Brunswick's fated Chieftain; he did hear[3]
That sound the first amidst the festival,

And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear;
  1. With a slow deep and dread-inspiring roar.—[M.S. erased.]
  2. Arm! arm, and out! it is the opening cannon's roar.—[MS.]
    Arm—arm—and out—it is—the cannon's opening roar.—[C.]
  3. [Frederick William, Duke of Brumswick (1771-1815), brother to Caroline, Princess of Wales, and nephew of George III., fighting at Quatrebras in the front of the line, "fell almost in the beginning of the battle." His father, Charles William Ferdinand, born 1735, the author of the fatal manifesto against the army of the French Republic (July 15, 1792), was killed at Auerbach, October 14, 1806. In the plan of the Duke of Richmond's house, which Lady de Ros published in her Recollections, the actual spot is marked (the door of the ante-room leading to the ball-room) where Lady Georgiana Lennox took leave of the Duke of Brunswick. "It was a dreadful evening," she writes, "taking leave of friends and acquaintances, many never to be seen again. The Duke of Brunswick, as he took leave of me ... made me a civil speech as to the Brunswickers being sure to distinguish themselves after 'the honour' done them by my having accompanied the Duke of Wellington to their review! I remember being quite provoked with poor Lord Hay, a dashing, merry youth, full of military ardour, whom I knew very well, for his delight at the idea of going into action ... and the first news we had on the 16th was that he and the Duke of Brunswick were killed."—A Sketch, etc., pp. 132, 133.]