Don Juan 08-076 ~ 080

Don Juan 08-076
Canto the Eighth
 
     LXXVI
Then being taken by the tail -- a taking
     Fatal to bishops as to soldiers -- these
Cossacques were all cut off as day was breaking,
     And found their lives were let at a short lease --
But perish'd without shivering or shaking,
     Leaving as ladders their heap'd carcasses,
O'er which Lieutenant-Colonel Yesouskoi
March'd with the brave battalion of Polouzki: --

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Don Juan 08-077
Canto the Eighth
 
     LXXVII
This valiant man kill'd all the Turks he met,
     But could not eat them, being in his turn
Slain by some Mussulmans, who would not yet,
     Without resistance, see their city burn.
The walls were won, but 't was an even bet
     Which of the armies would have cause to mourn:
'T was blow for blow, disputing inch by inch,
For one would not retreat, nor t' other flinch.

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Don Juan 08-078
Canto the Eighth
 
     LXXVIII
Another column also suffer'd much: --
     And here we may remark with the historian,
You should but give few cartridges to such
     Troops as are meant to march with greatest glory on:
When matters must be carried by the touch
     Of the bright bayonet, and they all should hurry on,
They sometimes, with a hankering for existence,
Keep merely firing at a foolish distance.

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Don Juan 08-079
Canto the Eighth
 
     LXXIX
A junction of the General Meknop's men
     (Without the General, who had fallen some time
Before, being badly seconded just then)
     Was made at length with those who dared to climb
The death-disgorging rampart once again;
     And though the Turk's resistance was sublime,
They took the bastion, which the Seraskier
Defended at a price extremely dear.

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Don Juan 08-080
Canto the Eighth
 
     LXXX
Juan and Johnson, and some volunteers,
     Among the foremost, offer'd him good quarter,
A word which little suits with Seraskiers,
     Or at least suited not this valiant Tartar.
He died, deserving well his country's tears,
     A savage sort of military martyr.
An English naval officer, who wish'd
To make him prisoner, was also dish'd:


George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) 
ByronLong