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For the Field of Battle
YON wide-extended town, whose roofs and towers | |
| And poplar avenues are seen far off, | |
| In goodly prospect over scattered woods | |
| Of dusky ilex, boasts among its sons | |
| Of Mariana’s name,—he who hath made | 5 |
| The splendid story of his country’s wars | |
| Through all the European kingdoms known. | |
| Yet in his ample annals thou canst find | |
| No braver battle chronicled than here | |
| Was waged, when Joseph, of the stolen crown, | 10 |
| Against the hosts of England and of Spain | |
| His veteran armies brought. By veteran chiefs | |
| Captained, a formidable force they came, | |
| Full fifty thousand. Victor led them on, | |
| A man grown gray in arms, nor e’er in aught | 15 |
| Dishonored, till by this opprobrious cause. | |
| He, over rude Alverche’s summer stream | |
| Winning his way, made first upon the right | |
| His hot attack, where Spain’s raw levies, ranged | |
| In double line, had taken their strong stand | 20 |
| In yonder broken ground, by olive-groves | |
| Covered, and flanked by Tagus. Soon from thence, | |
| As one whose practised eye could apprehend | |
| All vantages in war, his troops he drew; | |
| And on this hill, the battle’s vital point, | 25 |
| Bore with collected power, outnumbering | |
| The British ranks twice told. Such fearful odds | |
| Were balanced by Sir Arthur’s master mind | |
| And by the British heart. Twice during night | |
| The fatal spot they stormed, and twice fell back, | 30 |
| Before the bayonet driven. Again at morn | |
| They made their fiery onset, and, again | |
| Repelled, again at noon renewed the strife. | |
| Yet was their desperate perseverance vain, | |
| Where skill by equal skill was countervailed, | 35 |
| And numbers by superior courage foiled; | |
| And, when the second night drew over them | |
| Its sheltering cope, in darkness they retired, | |
| At all points beaten. Long in the red page | |
| Of war shall Talavera’s famous name | 40 |
| Stand forth conspicuous. While that name endures, | |
| Bear in thy soul, O Spain! the memory | |
| Of all thou sufferedst from perfidious France, | |
| Of all that England in thy cause achieved. | |
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