TIME OF WAR. 59 



Startling pale Midnight on her starry throne ! 

 Now swells the intermingling din ; the jar. 

 Frequent and frightful, of the bursting bomb ; 

 The falling beam, the shriek, the groan, the shout. 

 The ceaseless clangour, and the rush of men 

 Infuriate with rage ! — Loud and more loud 

 The discord grows ; till pale Death shuts the scene, 

 And o'er the conqueror and the conquered draws 

 His cold and bloody shroud." — 



Shelley, 



Less attractive — but only on account of the painful nature of the subject — and less 

 poetic, by reason of its reality, than the picture of "Peace," that of "War" 

 is a composition more dramatic ; still the representation is little else than an episode in 

 the day's battle, but as convincing to the understanding and as palpable to the eye of 

 the results of war as if the painter had depicted a battle-field strewed with the dying 

 and the dead. We require no further proof of what two hostile armies effect when 

 pitted against each other than the four objects, men and horses, stretched on the 

 ground amid the blazing ruins of some dwelling-house. 



" And see ! on this rent mount, where daisies sprung, 

 A battle-steed beside his rider flung : 

 Oh ! never more he'll rear with fierce delight. 

 Roll his red eyes, and rally for the fight ! 

 Pale on his bleeding breast the warrior lies. 

 While from his ruffled lids the white, swelled eyes 

 Ghastly and grimly stare upon the skies." — 



R. Montgomery. 



Landseer had probably in his mind, when designing the picture, that episode in the 

 Battle of Waterloo when the British Horse Guards and some regiments of French 

 cuirassiers met each other by the farm of Hougoumont. Two men lie dead; one, 

 judging from the silken banner of the trumpet, is probably intended for a trumpeter of 

 the regiment of Horse Guards ; the other is a French cuirassier. One of the horses 

 also appears to be dead; while its companion is wounded, and vainly endeavours to 

 extricate itself from the surrounding mass of debris. The head of this animal is the 

 great point of the picture, forming, as it does, a striking contrast in its attitude and 

 fiery expression to that of the other, whose eyes are glazed over by the film of death. 

 If pictures could point such a moral as would dissuade nations from engaging m war. 

 surely this of Landseer's must powerfully aid in doing so ; for who, even among the 

 bravest of earth's warriors, that has the feelings of a man, would not desire the speedy 

 accomplishment of the prophecy,-" Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, 

 neither shall they learn war any more." 



