CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE IISrCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library PR 4980.M8D2 The death-rlde:a tale of the Light Briga 3 1924 013 522 119 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013522119 ■' THE DEATH-RIDE : A BY WESTLAND MARSTON. LONDON : C. MITCHELL, BED LION COUET, FLEET STEEET. MDCCCLV. -1' \ J Price Threepence. THE DEATH-RIDE : Cale 0f t\t f ig|t frigAe. WESTLAND MARSTON. LONDON: C. MITCHELL, EED LION COUET, FLEET STREET. MDCCCLV. rONDON : STETEKS, PMNTBB, 37, BBIL TiRD, TEMl'LE BAB. THE DEATH-RIDE: % Mt of % f is^t SripiJt " We sat mute on our chargers, a handful of men, As the foe's broken columns swept on to the glen, Like torn trees when the whirlwind comes : Cloven helm and rent banner grew dim to our ken, And faint was the throb of their drums. " But, no longer pursued, where the gorge opens deep They halt ; with their guns they crowd level and steep : Seems each volley some monster's breath. Who shows cannon for teeth as he crouches to leap From his ambushed cavern of death. •* THE DEATH-RIDE : " Their foot throng the defile, they surge on the bank ; Darts a forest of lances in front ; o'er each flank Peer the muskets, a grisly flock : They have built their live tower up, rank upon rank. And wait, fixed, for an army's shock. " Far in front of our lines, a dot on the plain, Mute and moveless we sat tiU his foam-flecked rein At our side gallant Nolan drew. ' They still hold our guns, we must have them again,' Was his message — ' Advance, pursue !' " Pursue them ! — What, charge with our hundreds the foe Whose massed thousands await us in order below ! Yes, such were his words. To debate The command was not ours ; we had but to know And, knowing, encounter our fate. " We ride our last march — let each crest be borne high ! We raise our last cheer — let it startle the sky And the land with one brave farewell ; For soon never more to our voice shall reply Rock, hollow, fringed river, or dell. A TALE OF THE LIGHT BKIGADE. 5 " Let our trump ring its loudest ; in closest array, Hoof for hoof, let us ride ; for the Chief who to-day Reviews us — is Death the Victorious : Let him look up to Fame, as we perish, and say, ' Enrol them, the fall'n are the glorious ! ' " We spur to the gorge ; from its channel of ire Livid light bursts like surf, its spray leaps in fire ; As the spars of some vessel staunch. Bold hearts crack and fall ; we nor swerve nor retire. But in the mid- tempest we launch, " We cleave the smoke-billows, as wUd waves the prow ; The flash of our sabres gleams straight like the glow Which a ploughing keel doth break Prom the grim seas around, with light on her bow. And light in her surging wake. " We dash full on their guns — through the flare and the roar Stood the gunners bare-armed; nowthey stand there no more; The war-throat waits dumb for the ball : For those men pale and mazed to the chine we shore. And their own cannon's smoke was their pall. " THE DEATH-KIDE : " That done, we're at bay ; for the foe with a yell Piles his legions around us. Their bayonets swell Line on line ; we are planted in steel : ' Good carbine ! trusty blade ! Each shot is a knell, Each sword-sweep a fate ; they reel ! ' " One by one fall our men, each girt with his slain, [vain ! A. death-star with belts ! 'Charge ! we break them !' — In From the heights their batteries roar ; The fire-sluices burst ; through that flood, in a rain Of iron, we strike for the shore. " Thunder answers to thunder, bolts darken the air, To breathe is to die ; their funeral glare The lit hills on our brave ones rolled : What of that ? They had entered the lists with Despair, And the lot which they met, they foretold. " Comrade sinks heaped on comrade ! A ghastly band That feU tide, when it ebbs, shall leave on the strand : Of the swimmers who stemmed it that day A spent, shattered remnant we struggle to land And wish we were even as the?." A TALK OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. Oh, Britain, my country ! Thy heart be the tomb Of those who for thee rode fearless to doom. The sure doom which they well fore-knew : Though mad was the summons, they saw in the gloom Duty beckon — and followed her through. She told not of trophies, — of medal or star, Or of Glory's sign-manual graved in a scar, Or how England's coasts shall resound When brothers at home greet their brothers from war, As they leap upon English ground. She told not of streets lined with life up to heaven. One vast heart with one cry till the welkin is riven — "Oh, welcome ye valiant and tried !" She told not of soft arms that clasp the re-given ; She only said " Die !" — and they died. 8 THE DEATH-RIDE : A TALE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. Let Devotion henceforth Balaklava own No less than Thermopylae, meet for her throne ; And thou Britain— thou mother bereft — By thy grief for the sleepers who hear not thy moan, Count the worth of the sons thou hast left. NOTE. The masterly Eecords of the War which now appear in our crowded journals— records which are at once histories and poems — leave to formal poetry only this task — to adopt their descrip- tions and to develop their suggestions ; to comment, as it were, upon their glorious texts. The preceding lines come less as one tribute, out of many, due to unexampled valour and endurance than as a relief to the mind of the writer. Never — let us pray — may a chance so dire recur as that which cost us the hulk of our Light Cavalry at Balaklava ! Tet, were it so, we have not a man in our ranks who would not exhibit their grand self-immolation. What can we — mere spectators — give for homage ? Will our greenest chaplets lend more honour to the brows which already wear scars ? When our all is said, can we be as lavish even of praise as our heroes — of life ? 'THE DLATH RIDE' Written in coimnenioration of the famous battle at Balaklava in OctolDer 1854. This poem first appeared sometime during the following year of ,1855. On October 25th, 1854, Tennyson wrote a poem in commemoration of this HKseiie event which he called 'The Charge of the Heavy Brigade' , This poem, written probably on the spur of an im.pulse.and without full knowledge of all details, did not seem to ?ii satisfy him^ for on December 9th, of the same year, he finished another poem entitled 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' which immediately became very popular. We are quite certain that both of Tennyson's poemspreceded this one written ujWA-4 yy^ctwh