University of Nebraska College of Law - Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

Page 99 text:

That once alarmed the courage of the world, Made kings as suppliants bow, and subjects quake? Heights, depths! The stricken eagle now has fallen! Even as to those who ventured all, came Certain stroke to me-And it was sure, sure. Like them I rose: like them I fell. Like them- To one-Thermopylae and Salamis, To one-the fatal lust of Babylon, To one-the dagger laid 'neath Brutus's cloakg To one-the field of water-No! no! I 'll Not pronounce that word. I hate its sound. If Grondry had not failed-If he had come That afternoon! I lost an empire then. Oh, my old Guard-dearly you sold your lives- France loves your memory. VVhile France has name Your deeds will live and gather greater glory- Bravely you fought and perished-true Frenchmen all. VVhat fields we saw! what odds! what victories! VVe met the foe-The battle 's on! the rush! The rain of shot and shell! the clash of steel! On! on! now on to victory. Strike down The foe. Sound, trumpets, the charge! Be each A Caesar now! France looks on you today! Strike up the Marseillaise-Down with the English! Cut every Saxon dovvn-trample the curs! 'What 's that I hear? Long live the Emperoru? Courage, my meng he 's one of you today- Before the night-ha! hal they turn and flee! The field is ours. Victors We are again. VVhere 's Ney? Safe? No marshal in the World So brave as he. His valor has no equal, Ch, what a day of days is this! Wliat day Is this? Damnation seize me-dreams, dreams, dreams Can not I forget those days-the remembrance Of what has been-Oh God! Why have I lived? Wfhy did I dare too much? Better had died. The memory of those days pierces the heart. It is a rod, white-hot, to sear my very soul. An exile! Life? VVhat does it mean to me? Mean Saxon dogs to bait me day by dayg To sniff and snarl-forever on my scent. 100

Page 98 text:

NAPOLEON THE EXILE ST. HELENA, 1815 BY DANIEL FORD, PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC My power is spent. My majesty is gone, Combined force has wrenched it from my grasp And thrown to earth the fragments once for all! Omnipotence will never cease to be The right which God reserves unto himself, Else he might justly fear for his own sway O'er brief mankind, presumptuous and vain, If mortals could with- force akin to brutes Trample the universe beneath their feet. VV ith me has fortune dealt most cruelly- I dared too much and, daring, lost the wealth, A The power, the state which former chance had won. I thought to rival Alexander, and like him Beneath my rule bring every alien race. All, all is over! VVhere now resides that might 99

Page 100 text:

They are not men. One peasant Frenchman has More valor in his heart than their whole race. An exile! far from France, on St. I-Ielena's rocks! For France I fought. From France I am expelled And till my hour of death compelled to stay A captive on this isle. Though all the world May crush me with its force, it can not make My lofty spirit drop, or to this rock Coniine my memory. My day is spent, Night can not be far off. I long for rest- For rest-that 'S all I ask-and Josephine. its , 'iii 7 il , Msg, -QQ' i X l lOl