Was he, since so renowned “in country quarters
At Halifax;”600 but now he served the Tartars.
XX
The rest were Jacks and Gills and Wills and Bills,
But when I’ve added that the elder Jack Smith
Was born in Cumberland among the hills,
And that his father was an honest blacksmith,
I’ve said all I know of a name that fills
Three lines of the despatch in taking “Schmacksmith,”
A village of Moldavia’s waste, wherein
He fell, immortal in a bulletin.
XXI
I wonder (although Mars no doubt’s a god I
Praise) if a man’s name in a bulletin
May make up for a bullet in his body?
I hope this little question is no sin,
Because, though I am but a simple noddy,
I think one Shakespeare puts the same thought in
The mouth of some one in his plays so doting,
Which many people pass for wits by quoting.601
XXII
Then there were Frenchmen, gallant, young, and gay;
But I’m too great a patriot to record
Their Gallic names upon a glorious day;
I’d rather tell ten lies than say a word
Of truth;—such truths are treason; they betray
Their country; and as traitors are abhorred,
Who name the French in English, save to show
How Peace should make John Bull the Frenchman’s foe.
XXIII
The Russians, having built two batteries on
An isle near Ismail, had two ends in view;
The first was to bombard it, and knock down
The public buildings and the private too,
No matter what poor souls might be undone:602
The city’s shape suggested this, ’tis true,
Formed like an amphitheatre—each dwelling
Presented a fine mark to throw a shell in.603
XXIV
The second object was to profit by
The moment of the general consternation,
To attack the Turk’s flotilla, which lay nigh
Extremely tranquil, anchored at its station:
But a third motive was as probably
To frighten them into capitulation;604
A fantasy which sometimes seizes warriors,
Unless they are game as bull-dogs and fox-terriers.605
XXV
A habit rather blameable, which is
That of despising those we combat with,
Common in many cases, was in this
The cause606 of killing Tchitchitzkoff and Smith—
One of the valorous “Smiths” whom we shall miss
Out of those nineteen who late rhymed to “pith;”
But ’tis a name so spread o’er “Sir” and “Madam,”
That one would think the first who bore it “Adam.”
XXVI
The Russian batteries were incomplete,
Because they were constructed in a hurry;607
Thus the same cause which makes a verse want feet,
And throws a cloud o’er Longman and John Murray,
When the sale of new books is not so fleet
As they who print them think is necessary,
May likewise put off for a time what story
Sometimes calls “Murder,” and at others “Glory.”
XXVII
Whether it was their engineer’s stupidity,
Their haste or waste, I neither know nor care,
Or some contractor’s personal cupidity,
Saving his soul by cheating in the ware
Of homicide, but there was no solidity
In the new batteries erected there;
They either missed, or they were never missed,
And added greatly to the missing list.
XXVIII
A sad miscalculation about distance
Made all their naval matters incorrect;
Three fireships lost their amiable existence
Before they reached a spot to take effect;
The match was lit too soon, and no assistance
Could remedy this lubberly defect;
They blew up in the middle of the river,
While, though ’twas dawn, the Turks slept fast as ever.608
XXIX
At seven they rose, however, and surveyed
The Russ flotilla getting under way;
’Twas nine, when still advancing undismayed,
Within a cable’s length their vessels lay
Off Ismail, and commenced a cannonade,
Which was returned with interest, I may say,
And by a fire of musketry and grape,
And shells and shot of every size and shape.609
XXX
For six hours bore they without intermission
The Turkish fire, and, aided by their own
Land batteries, worked their guns with great precision;
At length they found mere cannonade alone
By no means would produce the town’s submission,
And made a signal to retreat at one.
One bark blew up, a second near the works
Running aground, was taken by the Turks.610
XXXI
The Muslim, too, had lost both ships and men;
But when they saw the enemy retire,
Their Delhis611 manned some boats, and sailed again,
And galled the Russians with a heavy fire,
And tried to make a landing on the main;
But here the effect fell short of their desire:
Count Damas drove them back into the water
Pell-mell, and with a whole gazette of slaughter.612
XXXII
“If” (says the historian here) “I could report
All that the Russians did upon this day,
I think that several volumes would fall short,
And I should still have many things to say;”613
And so he says no more—but pays his court
To some distinguished strangers in that fray;
The Prince de Ligne, and Langeron, and Damas,
Names great as any that the roll of Fame has.614
XXXIII
This being the case, may show us what Fame is:
For out of these three “preux Chevaliers,” how
Many of common readers give a guess
That such existed? (and they may live now
For aught we know.) Renown’s all hit or miss;
There’s fortune even in Fame, we must allow.
’Tis true, the Memoirs of the Prince de Ligne615
Have half withdrawn from him Oblivion’s screen.
XXXIV
But here are men who fought in gallant actions
As gallantly as ever heroes fought,
But buried in the heap of such transactions
Their names are rarely found, nor often sought.
Thus even good fame may suffer sad contractions,
And is extinguished sooner than she ought:
Of all our modern battles, I will bet
You can’t repeat nine names from each Gazette.
XXXV
In short, this last attack, though rich in glory,
Showed that somewhere, somehow, there was a fault,
And Admiral Ribas
