Page:Wessex poems and other verses (IA wessexpoemsother00hard).pdf/82

 "Around the town three battles beat, Contracting like a gin; As nearer marched the million feet Of columns closing in.

"The first battle nighed on the low Southern side; The second by the Western way; The nearing of the third on the North was heard: —The French held all at bay.

"Against the first band did the Emperor stand; Against the second stood Ney; Marmont against the third gave the orderword. —Thus raged it throughout the day.

"Fifty thousand sturdy souls on those trampled plains and knolls, Who met the dawn hopefully, And were lotted their shares in a quarrel not theirs, Dropt then in their agony.