"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley.” And here we must conclude our imperfect and superficial view of an inexhaustible subject. It was our intention to have brought upon the stage other performers, We have already exceeded our limits, and must here finish our attempts to show that the meanest insect possesses claims to consideration which only require to be seen and understood to be universally acknow and to have exhibited them in other scenes From the New Monthly Magazine.' A VISIT TO THE BATTLE-FIELDS OF CRESSY AND AGINCOURT. IN LETTERS ADDRESSED TO H. P. SMITH, ESQ. BY H. L. LONG, ESQ. LETTER IV. [Continued from the November Number.] Oh! give their hapless prince his due— His person 'mid the spears- And curs'd their caitiff fears, TOWARDS the end of the month of August, generation, and at Bannockburn, by the in our latitudes, the sun sets about seven caprice of fortune, the father himself of the o'clock, and twilight ceases soon after nine. now victorious Edward, had been placed in There could have been no moonlight to pro- the identical position of the French monlong the slaughter. The battle ended about areh. the hour of vespers; just at its conclusion, Philip, who was in the rear guard, inquiring how the combat was going on, was answered by John of Hainault, that his army was totally beaten, and that all was lostwe are told that in an agony of desperation and fury" il poussa son cheval des éperons pour la lancer dans le melée;" but the advice, entreaties, and main force of Hainault, Edward II. fled to the castle of Stirling Montmorency, and some few others who for a short halt, and Philip, on quitting his were left near his person, succeeded in fatal plain, took the road to that of Labroye. withdrawing him from the conflict. His Do you remember with what eagerness conduct reminds us of other instances, when we sought for the broken flint arrow heads sovereigns have been driven to distraction of the Persian archers on the barrow of the at the fortune of the day declaring against Greeks at Marathon? and how successfully our search was rewarded? Not with less Napoleon at Waterloo" décidé à mourir, alacrity, but with no such good luck, did I il pousse son cheval pour le faire entrer inquire at Cressy for some relic of the batdans les rangs. Ah! sire, s'écrie le Maré-tle; nothing whatever could even be heard chal Soult, en saisissant la bride, les enne- of as having ever been known to exist, mis ne sont-ils pas déjà assez heureux.' until a shepherd, feeding his flock near the Napoléon résiste, le maréchal et les géné- cross of the King of Bohemia told me he raux redoublent d'efforts, et porviennent à believed that M. Payard, of Estrées, was l'entrainer sur la route de genape."- possessed of some object which had been dis(Vaulabelle.) But the battle of Bannock-covered upon the field. To M. Payard I acburn must have been as fresh in the minds cordingly went-he is an agriculturist, on of most of the combatants at Cressy, as is rather a large scale, and uses a portion at that of Waterloo to those of the present least of the soil of the field of battle in the them. Vallée des Clercs. Madame Payard only Tradition says, indeed, that it originally was at home, and not being much acquaint- stood some five-and-twenty paces further ed with such matters, she referred me to in the field, and that the occupier of the her uncle, in an adjoining house. Here soil, upon finding it constantly interfering the scent grew hot, and our expectations with the cultivation, removed it to its presrose proportionably. The venerable old ent position. This simple stone, in its gentleman to whom I was introduced, as lonely situation among the open fields, the sured me that such an object had existed, record of a great and affecting event, coverthat he believed it still existed-that it ed with its sombre lichen, and fortunately could not be considered as lost-but alas! quite free from the chippings of relic-huntthat it was, if anywhere, in some granary ers, perhaps from lack of visitors, produces among a quantity of other things, and for somewhat of a melancholy impression-not the moment inaccessible. He described it diminished by its appearing to be the nightas a sort of small circlet of bronze, sur-ly haunt of the screech owl, as I discovered mounted with what appeared to be four by observing a disgorged pellet of that bird fleurs-de-lys. He imagined it might have deposited on the summit. We would not been the socket of a standard; others had so much as detach a morsel of its venerable been found with it, and had excited con- lichen to get an insight into the nature of siderable attention, but he knew not what the stone, but as well as I could make out, had become of them. He mentioned also it seemed to be the calcareous travertino, the discovery of a skeleton upon the plain, of which masses are seen in the Roman which had evidently been interred with Pharos in Dover Castle, and of which many more than common care; it was by itself, pieces, probably re-used from former Roand extended at full length, with its limbs man buildings, were brought to light in disposed with a due regard to funeral ar- excavating the foundations of the Priory rangement, betokening the remains of some church at Dover. I am at present ignorant person of sufficient distinction to be honored of the quarry where this peculiar stone with a sepulture apart from the fosses which could have been obtained-but it seems to had received indiscriminately the humbler have attracted the notice of the Romans victims of the day. sufficiently to have induced them to bring This old gentleman alluded to the cannon it over for their buildings in Britain, as we in the Tower of London. The Journal des did, and do now again, import that of Caen. Debats in November, 1841, noticed "Un Brave old John of Luxemburg! of all the des canons tres curieux dont les Anglais bold spirits who bequeathed their bodies to firent usage à Crécy, et qui était conservé the field of Cressy, disdaining to inhabit à la Tour de Londres, fut retrouvé presqu' them in defeat and disgrace, his was the entier parmi les décombres, après l'encendie most gallant, and its departure the most de cette tour en 1841." I strongly urged romantic. The blind old monarch at the upon him the preservation of his bronze close of the day ordered Le Moine de Barelic, if it could be ever recovered. No- sèle to take the bridle of his horse and lead thing, in fact at all coeval with the bat- him into the fray, so that he might strike tle remains at Cressy, if we except the one stroke with his sword. Basèle obeyed, windmill at Edward's position, and the and they both fell, together with his squires monumental cross of the King of Bo- Henry de Rosenberg and John of Leuestenhemia; which two landmarks, at an in- berg. On the morrow of the battle they terval of about 2000 paces, serve admir- were found lying on the field, with their ably to demonstrate the limits of the scene horses tied all firmly together. The well of action. This cross of John of Luxem- known anecdote of the "prince's plume" is burg, I firmly believe to be genuine, and to thus narrated by M. Louandre,-"Le mohave been erected within a short period of narque Anglais, ne se réserva des riches his glorious death. We did not fail to dépouilles du Prince Allemand qui deux visit and examine it. It stands upon a (trois?) plumes d'autruche, nouées avec square base by the side of the road which une tresse d'or, qui surmontait son casque, witnessed the advance of the French army, et la devise tudesque ich dien (je sers) qu'on and it has recently been restored to the y avait gravée. Edouard donna ce papedestal from which it had fallen, at the nache à son fils pour le recompenser des expense of some amateur, who deserves well exploits de la veille. Les successeurs du at the hands of all those who are interested Prince de Galles, en mémoire de cette in the preservation of ancient memorials. grande journée, ont toujours conservé les A VISIT TO THE BATTLE-FIELDS plumes et la devise, et en decorent leurs armoiries." The same authority informs ns that the remains of the King of Bohemia were deposited in a chapel of the Abbey of Valloires, where as lately as in the last century the following inscription was visible: L'an mil quarante-six trois cents, Jean Luxembourg, roi de Behaigne. Tantum Heroem Magnus Belgarum Princeps Albertus [Dec. Liberalitate et munificientiâ suâ CIO LD CXIII. This eternity was of very brief duration -a spell hung over the ashes of the hero, and war again brought him to the surface, rousing him from his repose as if he had This, however, does not accord with the been only sleeping. When the French Amiens' MS. which buries him at Mainte- laid siege to Luxemburg in 1684, the nay, nor with what I have read in "Ber- Prince de Chimay, the governor, caused the tholet's History of Luxemburg." It is lower town to be burnt, to deprive them of there stated that John, by his will, had or- all means of retreat. The church of Mundered his body to be interred in the Abbey ster was then destroyed, and with it the of Clairefontaine—but it was destined to be magnificent mausoleum of John of Luxemas disturbed in death as it had been during burg, which had been erected at the cost of his adventurous life. The monks of Val- 17,000 florins. The body was saved, and loires might have prided themselves on pós- deposited in the refugium of the abbey sessing his remains. Cressy Grange was until the restoration of the monastery, an estate belonging to their monastery, and when it was again inhumed in the church there Edward placed many of the wound- behind the high altar. Rumet reports that ed, entrusting them to the skill in leech- the armorial bearings of fifty cavaliers, who craft of the holy fathers. It is, also, cer- perished with him at Cressy, were to be tain, that to the pious hands of the same seen around his tomb; but his vicissitudes reverend fraternity were committed for in- were by no means at an end. During the terment the bodies of the most illustrious profanations of the French revolution the of the slain. If John of Luxemburg was sacred relics of the King of Bohemia one of them, he did not long repose within did not escape; they were torn a fourth the precincts of the Abbey of Valloires. time from the sepulchre, and found their The History of Luxemburg" states that way to Mettlock, near Treves, where they Edward himself caused the remains to be were preserved in the curiosity-cabinet of transported to Luxemburg-whether or a rich manufacturer of earthenware, M. not that was the case, it is certain they Bock-Buchman, the father of Madame No were transferred to that capital, and buried thomb, wife of the distinguished Belgian in the church of Munster; on the destruc-statesman; nor is this all,-the last account tion of that monastery in 1542, the re- of these restless (6 restes, "is to be extractmains were removed to the Cordeliers, and ed from La Presse of the 27th of July, there kept carelessly in a wooden chest. 1844. "Les restes de Jean de Bohême In 1572, the Abbey of Munster was rebuilt, sont aujourd'hui dans le palais du roi de and the body of John, replaced in its church, found rest for a time in a superb mausoleum erected by the Archduke Albert, and inscribed with this epitaph : 66 Johannes Rex Bohemiæ Acie disruptâ, rebusque desperatis in victores irruit, ClƆ CCC XLVI. IX Kalend. Septemb. Prusse, sur les bords du Saar, en attendant que la ville de Luxembourg lui ait élevé un monument digne de son aventureux héroism." This is, indeed a formidable episode with which I have indulged you, but having collected from various sources a tolerably connected account of all the postmortem adventures of this remarkable hero, I thought them too curious to be omitted, The purple of three kings exalted the glory of the standards of Philip. The king of the island of Majorca, even in the most prosperous circumstances, does not seem likely to have been a sovereign of a very extended sway. Whatever were his dominions he had been expelled from them, and dethron ed by Dom Pedro, king of Aragon. Hav-was buried with those of many other vicing little to lose he might as well have tims in the church of Cressy, and Edward sought for "six feet of French soil" and himself and the Prince of Wales attended died, like John, the death of a hero; he the ceremony with great state. The Comte appears to have escaped, as well as Charles d'Harcourt, the brother of Edward's Marof Bohemia, John's son, the king of the shall, fell during the action, "Le corps de Romans elect, and already designated by ce chevalier, dont le casque avait pour cithe royal title. Froissart seems to speak mier la queue d'un paon mêlée d'or, fut rather contemptuously of him; "the Lord reconnu par son frère Geoffroy d'Harcourt. Charles of Bohemia departed, and I do not Le cri de sa maison: Harcourt! Harcourt ! well know what road he took." Other ac- que ce dernier avait entendu pendant la counts describe him as having been dan- bataille l'avait saisi de douleur et de regerously wounded. mords. L'aspect de ce corps sanglant le Among the mutabilities of the " graves fit frémir d'horreur; il vint se jeter aux principum amicitiæ et iræ," we find an in-pieds de Philippe, l'écharpe au cou en guise stance in the Emperor Sigismund, John's de corde, temoignant ainsi qu'il se devouiait grandson. He quitted the French party, ln même au plus inflâme supplice, et il and despite the enmity of their grandsires, obtint le pardon de sa perfidie," so says a he and Harry the Fifth of England became note of M. Louandre's; but Harcourt conallies. It is true that Duke Humphrey of tinued a trusted and trusty adherent of Gloucester, the king's brother, and others, Edward, was present at the victory of Poicrushed with drawn swords into the water at tiers, and ended by being slain in his service. Dover, and declared "if he came to enter as It was not without reluctance that we left an emperor into a land claimed to be under this interesting ground, and soon after passhis empire, then were they ready to resist ing Estrées-les-Cressy, we recovered the him;" they seemed to have had some vague main post road from Abbeville to St. Omer. apprehension of the claims of the succes- We soon after commenced the descent into sors of the Cæsars to universal dominion. the valley of the Authie, and on passing But this matter was satisfactorily adjust- the bridge over that river we found oured, and Sigismund, an honored guest at selves at La Broye. The road makes a deWindsor, was invested with the order of tour to the left, we accordingly quitted the the garter: the very order, according to carriage, and took the old straight road up some authorities, which was instituted to the hill, passing under the apse of the cucommemorate the victory where his grand-rious ancient chalk church, which must father had fallen. have witnessed the flying Philip, spurring M. Louandre is one of those who refers his horse furiously by its walls, at a late the origin of this glorious knighthood to hour in the night after the battle. We asthe triumph of Cressy;-"Un fait impor-cended to the site of the Château de la tant," he says, et la création de l'Orare Broye,-all the masonry is down, but the de la Jarrettière institué par Edouard au fosses and ramparts, covered with coppicecommencement de 1349, à Windsor, dans wood and carpeted with violets and priml'Eglise de St. George, en commémoration roses, marked out the lines which the forde son étonnant triomphe, et pour recompen-tress had originally occupied on the brow ser ceux de ses officiers qui l'avait le mieux of the hill. Its situation is agreeable, and seconde. Le héros de Cressy manifeste presents on the eastern side a pleasing view clairement le but de sa fondation en prenant up the valley of the Authie. A peasant or pour insigne une Jarrettière, dont il avait donné le mot, gallois garter mot de ralliement le jour de la bataille. L'opinion que ce fut la Comtesse de Salisbury qui donna naissance à cette ordre célèbre n'est appuyée sur aucune autorité ancienne, et tous les historiens Anglais eux-mêmes la repoussent comme un conte vulgaire." two live within the area, and occasionally, in cultivating their little gardens, meet with some old coin current in the days when the castle flourished. They had preserved one or two somewhere, and their inability to lay their hands upon them was rather disappointing, for I was not without hope of reading the legend of EDOUARDS REX-MONCharles, Duke d'Alençon, whose insen- ETA PONTIV:-and of becoming possessor sate attack upon his unfortunate Genoese of a specimen of the rare coinage of Edward was a prominent cause of his disasters, was I., which, as Comte de Ponthieu, he struck one of the slain; his body was sent to at the mint of Abbeville. A fragment of Amiens; that of the Count of Flanders very strange pottery was all that their search VOL. XV. No. IV. 31 trees crowning the summit and surrounding the steeple of the village of "Le Parc," there is nothing which presents to our imagination any vestige of its former forestial beauties. produced. A road passes through the area of the castle, entering it probably at the very spot where formerly stood the gate at which the discomfitted Philip demanded admittance; the Seigneur, Jean Lessopier, "dit Grand Camp, se tenait aux crénaux : Hommes d'armes, qui êtes vous? demandaTHE REWARDS OF GREATNESS.-"Truly it is a fine t-il, si vous ne servez monseigneur de Va- thing to have served England," exclaims a modern lois, vous n'entrerez point dans mon chât- writer, after expatiating on the beauties of Bleneau." "Ouvrez," heim and Strathfieldsaye. Musing on these words, repondit Philippe, "c'est l'a fortune ne la France !"-aning by the grave of Dalton. There rest, thought I strolled out one evening, and found myself standanswer not unlike the exclamation of Han- I, the remains of a man who has served, not only nibal at the sight of the gory head of his England, but the whole world; and what has been brother Asdrubal after the battle of the his reward? For the greater part of his life, he was Metaurus,-" Agnoscere se fortunam Car-compelled to support himself by teaching the elements of mathematics, thus curtailing his time for thaginis, fertur dixisse." Nevertheless, original research. And now, in death, a piece of Philip's answer to the Chatelain has been Rochdale flagstone, without even an inscription, is disputed, and M. Louandre has altered it all that England can offer to the memory of departed into-" c'est l'infortuné Roi de France," genius. Dalton's services to his country have not been over-paid. But this, perhaps, is the exception. as being "sens plus naturel que l'autre," That long succession of poets and philosophers, whe but I prefer the old text of Froissart; it have made us the wonder and envy of the world, was more natural to the proud Philip, even whose thoughts are even now moving among the in his misfortunes, to shrink from acknow- failed to receive that honor at home which even people to purify and elevate, surely they have not all ledging himself as unfortunate; and he left strangers are forced to accord them? Certainly, if Lessopier to draw from the words "la for- we search Westminster Abbey, we shall find a few tune de la France" whatever conclusions he tablets and busts erected to their memories half hidden, to be sure, amongst the gorgeous and emblamight have thought proper. zoned tombs of Major-General Longears, the manslayer, Sir Harry Empty, the sportsman, and Alderman Yellowtrash, the stock-broker. And even these poor apologies for monuments can only be seen for a consideration, duly handed over to a clerical showman. Nowhere do we find any open public memorial of our most illustrious men; there is nothing to remind the stranger that he treads the land of Shakspeare, of Bacon, of Milton, of Davy. There is nothing to point out to aspiring youth the path to genuine, to godlike honor.-[From the Midland Progressionist, a penny serial, conducted by working men.] In our onward progress towards Hesdin, we passed over the high land between the waters of the Authie and those of the Canche. From this open elevated country the eye easily explores the neighborhood of both Cressy on the south, and Agincourt on the north, and, if I don't mistake, the high land also between Montreuil and Samer to the westward, which is within ken of the lofty cliffs near Folkstone. So near do these famous battle-fields lie together, and so little removed are they from the range of vision from England itself. Hesdin is situated in the valley, at the confluence of the Ternoise with the Canche. But Vieux Hesden stood higher up, on the bank of the latter river, on the southern slope of the hill which forms the tongue of land between the two streams. We saw the white "masures," the ruins of the old castle, shining in the evening sun, as we descended towards Hesdin. In the year succeeding the battle of Cressy, Philip de Valois was received at the Castle of Vieux Hesdin, on his way towards Calais with a numerous body of troops, and a letter of his, dated from this castle, to the inhabitants of Abbeville is still in existence. St. Remy speaks of the park of Hesdin as one of the most beautiful in the kingdom; but that has long been disparked; all the hill is under cultivation, and except a grove of excited in our musical circles (Paris) by the report A GREAT UNKNOWN.-Some curiosity has been of the approaching visit of a new singer from Russia. She is said to have a most extraordinary compass of voice, combining the most tender and agile soprano with the lowest barytone. No one has, hitherto, been able to discover who she is, or what the country which has given her birth. She has sung at the Court of Naples, and before the Emperor of Russia: in both cases, however, stipulating to preserve her features concealed by a mask. It is thus that she insists upon appearing before the public. By some she is believed to be a noble Russian lady, who had been for years confined in durance vile by her husband, who has married again; by others life to get a peep at this wicked world. Others have that she is an Italian nun, escaped from a religious declared again, that, although her arms and bosom are of the most snowy whiteness, her face and head are those of a negress of Senegambia, which belief is confirmed by her persistence in wearing the domino hood, which conceals even the very form of her head and throat from observation. In England, she will immediately be suspected of being no other than the pig-faced lady. She persists in signing no Mascherata, by which she is already famous in many other name to her engagements than that of La parts of Italy.-Atlas. |