Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 3.djvu/461

Rh Young flowers and an evergreen tree

May spring from the spot of thy rest:

But nor cypress nor yew let us see;

For why should we mourn for the blest? [First published, Examiner, June 4, 1815.]

NAPOLEON'S FAREWELL.

[FROM THE FRENCH.]

1.

to the Land, where the gloom of my Glory

Arose and o'ershadowed the earth with her name—

She abandons me now—but the page of her story,

The brightest or blackest, is filled with my fame.

I have warred with a World which vanquished me only

When the meteor of conquest allured me too far;

I have coped with the nations which dread me thus lonely,

The last single Captive to millions in war.

2.

Farewell to thee, France! when thy diadem crowned me,

I made thee the gem and the wonder of earth,—

But thy weakness decrees I should leave as I found thee,

Decayed in thy glory, and sunk in thy worth.