Page:The Czar, A Tale of the Time of the First Napleon.djvu/248

 CHAPTER XXIV.

ONE YEAR AFTERWARDS.

ETWEEN the opening month of 1813 and that of the following year a great change swept over Europe. Men of Teutonic race, true-hearted sons of their dear Fatherland, look back upon that era with honourable pride. They talk with enthusiasm of "the war of liberation," telling gratefully beside their hearths, or by the vine-clad banks of their glorious "German Rhine," how prince and peasant armed for the fight, and flung from them the intolerable yoke of the foreign oppressor. Körner's patriotic lyrics thrilled every heart, and many another tuneful voice, then and since, has chanted the pæan of Germany's deliverance,—

But there are other heroes besides the pre-Homeric of whom it may be said,— "They had no bard, and died." In that memorable battle fought long ago in the valley of Elah, we are told how the men of Israel arose with a great shout, and