Poised in 'mid air on falcon darts in turn,

That gorged on necks of the expiring hern.

'Twas then the audacious Briton showed in fight, Like iron on the anvil's surface bright,

Which tends the temper's value to enchance;
And furious drove the valiant sons of France.
Now let your eyes the British phalanx trace,
And Gallic soldiers, sons of Clodion's race,
Inflamed and fierce, insatiate each of gore,
They flew like winds that through the vacuum pour,
In contact joined, immovable they're seen,
Like rock amidst old ocean's empire green;
Foot against foot, the crest opposed to crest,
Hand to hand, eye to eye, and breast to breast,
Onward they rush, oaths breathing that appall
While rolling o'er each other, dead they fall.

Oh! wherefore cannot I in sounding lays,
Of feats heroical prolong the praise?
'Tis only Homer hath a right to tell
All these adventures, and on such to dwell,
To lengthen out, and feats anew expose,
To calculate the several wounds and blows,
To add to Hector's battles, still a store
Of mighty deeds, and join to combats more.

From such dread scenes, my friend, avert the gaze, And dare on high your anxious eyes upraise;

Let

your whole mind to scenes celestial soar,

Come mount, the mansion of the gods explore,
Of wisdom contemplate profoundest state,
Which amidst peace, controls our mundane fate;
Far worthier is such spectacle for you

Than barbarous, bloody deeds, exposed to view;
Of combats, all alike, through every page,
Whose long details, must weary out the sage.

END OF CANTO XV.

NOTES TO CANTO XV.

1 We have remarked upon a former occasion that the Abbé Tritemus never produced any work respecting the Pucelle or the beautiful Agnes Sorel. It is therefore modesty alone which prompted the author of this poem to announce his labors as the productions of another.

2 Archbishop Turpin, to whom the lives of Charlemagne and of Roland le Furieux are attributed, was archbishop of Rheims about the end of the eighth century, whereas the work in question was written by one Turpin, a monk who flourished in the eleventh century, and it is from that romance that the celebrated Ariosto has extracted some of his tales.

The saucisse used in war is a small bag of pitched cloth two inches in diameter, filled with gunpowder, to which is attached a slow fuse, and is used in the blowing up of a mine, being constructed to go into its very chamber. It is also requisite to place two saucisses to each furnace in order to render the explosion certain of success. Our poet, however, has been guilty of a trifling error in giving existence to the saucisse in the fifteenth century, as its invention is due to the monks in 1579, when it proved of the greatest utility in taking the city of Cahors, which fact d'Aubigné particularly testifies in his history.

* Poton de Saintrailles and La Hire, two dauntless knights, were the firm supporters of the cause of Charles the Seventh, and greatly instrumental in maintaining the possession of Orleans for that monarch by their intrepidity and skill in warlike tactics.

Mont-joie Saint Denis was the ancient war-cry of the king of France. Some historians derive its etymology from