Page:The Earl of Mayo.djvu/41

Rh personification of all earthly greatness. When well treated, the serfs are affectionate and grateful, hospitable to strangers, and quiet among themselves; but the ban of slavery lies heavy upon them, and all their actions betoken a mute and almost sullen submission. Their devotion to their hereditary lords is worthy of a better cause, and merits in many instances the name of virtue. When Napoleon offered them freedom, if they would fight against their country, they indignantly refused it; and scarcely ever in the course of the war did the cause of patriotism suffer from the treason of a slave. They cheerfully sacrificed their lives and properties at the bidding of "the Father." The hand of the serf often fired his whole property, and leaving the home of his childhood, he has wandered with his family, houseless and starving, to the forest rather than the invading Gaul should find food and shelter in the land of the Emperor.' 'The Russian troops were shot down by thousands; they never thought of leaving the ground they stood on, or deserting the post assigned them. But they seldom made a brilliant charge or dashed impetuously on the foe. It was the heroism more of the martyr than the soldier; the spirit of slavery enabled them to suffer cheerfully, but did not prompt them to act as if victory depended on their own exertions .'

'This,' he went on to say, 'might have taught the rulers a lesson.' I have quoted the foregoing passages at some length, because Lord Mayo proved, by his