The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

288 THE FIELD OF WATERLOO.
On these broad spots of trampled ground,
Perchance the rustics danced such round
As Teniers loved to draw;
And where the earth seems scorch'd by flame,
To dress the homely feast they came,
And toil'd the kerchiefd village dame
Around her fire of straw."
V.
So deem'st thou-so each mortal deems,
Of that which is from that which seems:
But other harvest here,
Than that which peasant's scythe demands,
Was gather'd in by sterner hands,
With bayonet, blade, and spear.
As the ground was before, thus let it be;How that red rain hath made the harvest grow!'
And is this all the world has gain'd by thee,
Thou first and last of fields! king-making Victory? "
BYRON.
" Was it a soothing or a mournful thought,
Amid this scene of slaughter as we stood,
Where armies had with recent fury fought,
To mark how gentle Nature still pursued
Her quiet course. as if she took no care
For what her noblest work had suffer'd there?
The pears had ripen'd on the garden wall;
Those leaves which on the autumnal earth were spread,
The trees, though pierced and scared with many a ball,
Had only in their natural season shed;
Flowers were in seed, whose buds to swell began
When such wild havoc here was made by man."
SOUTHEY.]