286] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



and altered the destinies of nations. It was a day both of joy and 

 of grief: England rejoiced in her triumph, but mourned for her 

 heroes. The flower of her fine army was no more. The uncon- 

 querable descendants of Cressy and Agincourt, the bold assertors 

 of their country's rights and the gallant avengers of her wrongs 

 who had traversed the burning sands of Egypt in pursuit of their 

 deadly foe who had encountered and beaten him on the mountains 

 of Portugal who had chased and discomfited him in the devoted 

 fields of Spain who had scaled the Pyrennees, conquered him in 

 his native rocks, and planted the British standard on the towers of 

 Bayonne and who, four centuries after the soil of France had 

 been immortalized by the victories of their ancestors, attacked and 

 defeated him almost in the very heart of his kingdom. Peace to thy 

 manes, departed warriors ! Thou art avenged : the day of Water- 

 loo dated the existence of England's avowed enemy. There he 

 fought, and there he fell : thence he flew before the victorious arms 

 of Britain, and soon lay crushed even under the walls of his usurped 

 capital. The names of Alexandria, of Maida, of Vimiera, of Co- 

 runna, of Talavera, of Barossa, of Albuera, of Salamanca, of Vit- 

 toria, of Orthes, of the Pyrennees, of Thoulouse, and lastly, of 

 WATERLOO, no time shall obliterate : they will form the rallying 

 cries of distant posterity, and animate many a future race of war- 

 riors whilst hurling the thunders of Britain upon her enemies in 

 either hemisphere, responding to the patriotic war-cry of some un- 

 born chief whose genius shall have grasped the inspiring mantle 

 of WELLINGTON ! As the Prince Regent cherished and brought 

 into action the military talents of Lord Uxbridge, so was he ready 

 to reward their developement : on the 23d of June, 1815, whilst the 

 Earl was suffering under the effects of his severe wound, his Royal 

 Highness was pleased to raise him to the dignity of a Marquis of 

 the United Kingdom by the name, style, and title of MARQUIS OF 

 ANGLESEY ; and on the same day he received the thanks of Parlia- 

 ment for his services at Waterloo. The Emperor of Austria 



namcnt ; in November the owner meant to plant a weeping willow there. He 

 was obliging enough to give me a copy of an epitaph which he had prepared, 

 and which, he said, was then in the stone-cutter's hands. It is as follows : 



Ci est enterree la Jambe de I'illustre, brave, et vaillant Comte I7xbridge t 

 Lieutenant General, Commandant en Chef la Cavalerie Angloise, Beige, et 

 Hollandoise ; blesse le 18 Juin, 1815, a la memorable battaille de Waterloo; 

 qui par son heroisme a concouru au triomphe de la cause du Genre humain, 

 ylorieusement decideepor Veclatante victoire du cW jour.- SOUTHEY' WA- 

 TEBLOO, p. 212. 



