Page:Wessex poems and other verses (IA wessexpoemsother00hard).pdf/91

 Three nights ere this, with columned corps he'd crossed The Sambre at Charleroi, To move on Brussels, where the English host Dallied in Parc and Bois.

The yestertide we'd heard the gloomy gun Growl through the long-sunned day From Quatre-Bras and Ligny; till the dun Twilight suppressed the fray;

Albeit therein—as lated tongues bespoke— Brunswick's high heart was drained, And Prussia's Line and Landwehr, though unbroke, Stood cornered and constrained.

And at next noon-time Grouchy slowly passed With thirty thousand men: We hoped thenceforth no army, small or vast, Would trouble us again.