Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path

Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn.*

Shelley is another poet-laureate of this queen of song. He speaks of her "heaven-taught tale," her "heaven-resounding minstrelsy," the "wine of her bright and liquid song." He tells how she "satiates the hungry dark with melody," "whose music was a storm of song." He tells how, when evening was come, and the earth was all rest," and the beasts, and the birds, and the insects were drowned In an ocean of dreams without a sound,"

Only overheard the sweet nightingale

Ever sang more sweet as the day might fail,

And snatches of its Elysian chant

Were mixed with the dreams of the Sensitive Plant.§

Barry Cornwall iterates the compensation argument we have already
illustrated from Thomson and La Fontaine: "What's perfect on poor
earth? Is not the bird At whose sweet song the forests ache with love,
Shorn of all beauty?"|| With Hood we hear "in leafy shroud, The sweet
and plaintive Sappho of the dell," and "love to listen in the dark That
tuneful elegy of Tereus' wrong.'
."** Tennyson introduces the bulbul's
song, mingled of "delight, life, anguish, death, immortal love,"++ in the
lemon-groves of good Haroun Alraschid. And in a strain more solemn,
apostrophises her thus:

Sweet bird, whose warble, liquid sweet,
Rings Eden through the budded quicks,
O tell me where the senses mix,

O tell me where the passions meet,

Whence radiate: fierce extremes employ
Thy spirits in the dusking leaf,
And in the midmost heart of grief

Thy passion clasps a secret joy.‡‡

So, Mrs. Browning describes the nightingale "who singeth-Oh! she leans on thorny tree, And her poet-soul she flingeth Over pain to victory."§§ But there is a fable of this lady's poetising,-akin in character to the Strada, Ford, and Crashaw legend-and which is too short and sweet not to be quoted entire :

Said a people to a poet--"Go out from among us straightway!
While we are thinking earthly things, thou singest of divine;
There's a little fair brown nightingale, who, sitting in the gateway,
Makes fitter music to our ears, than any song of thine!"
The poet went out weeping-the nightingale ceased chanting;
'Now, wherefore, O thou nightingale, is all thy sweetness done ?"
"I cannot sing my earthly things, the heavenly poet wanting,
Whose highest harmony includes the lowest under sun."

* Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.
The Woodman and the Nightingale.
Dramatic Fragments, 81.

** Ibid. 33.

‡‡ In Memoriam, 87.

† Rosalind and Helen.

The Sensitive Plant, part i. Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, 32. tt Recollections of the Arabian Nights. §§ The Lost Bower.

The poet went out weeping,-and died abroad, bereft there-
The bird flew to his grave and died amid a thousand wails;-
And when I last came by the place, I swear the music left there
Was only of the poet's song, and not the nightingale's.*

In her latest poem, again, Mrs. Browning speaks of "the nightingales, Which pluck our heart across a garden-wall (When walking in the town), and carry it So high into the bowery almond-trees," &c.† Owen Meredith describes the method of the song-now a rising note-now sinking back in little broken rings

Of warm song that spread and eddy-
Now he picks up heart and draws
His great music, slow and steady,
To a silver-centred pause.‡

Madame Dudevant characterises this method when she says of the Bohemian peasant, whom Heaven may have made a musician, that he sings after the fashion of the nightingale, "whose improvisation is endless, though the elements of her song be the same."§ So, too, in his way, does Addison, in a letter of invitation to his future stepson, the Earl of Warwick, to come and hear a concert of music he (Joseph) has found out in a neighbouring wood (at Sandy-End)-which begins precisely at six in the evening, and consists of a blackbird, a thrush, a robin-redbreast, and a bullfinch. "The whole is concluded by a nightingale, that has a much better voice than Mrs. Toft, and something of the Italian manner in her divisions."|| In another of pseudonymous Owen Meredith's poems, there is a simile of -a nightingale, mute at the sound of a lute

In the same have it that

That is swelling and breaking its heart with its strain.
Waiting, breathless, to die when the music is ended.¶

minstrel's last (no, penultimate) volume, a lover's letter will

The nightingales sing-ah, too joyously!

Who says those birds are sad?**

But that is a question to be more explicitly put and answered in a second and concluding section, which it shall have all to itself.

The Poet and the Bird: A Fable.

An Evening in Tuscany.

Addison to the Earl of Warwick, May 27, 1708.
The Earl's Return, XI.

† Aurora Leigh, book vii. § Consuelo, ch. lvi.

** The Wanderer: "A Love-Letter."

May-VOL. CXIX. NO. CCCCLXXIII.

GENERAL SIR ROBERT WILSON'S RUSSIAN JOURNAL.*

THE name of Sir Robert Thomas Wilson is alone a sufficient guarantee for the sterling value and historical importance of any work, apart from all criticism. Few men, in his day, had better opportunities of becoming acquainted with the secret as well as the public history of the leading nations of Europe; and none was better qualified than he to put them on record for the information of posterity. It is, therefore, with the highest satisfaction that we hail the timely publication of his "Narrative of the Invasion of Russia by Napoleon in 1812," and the announcement that "there are in the editor's hands materials for a full memoir of his private and political as well as of his military life," which it is intended to publish hereafter. It is not too much to say that, as long as these documents remain in MS., the world will be deprived of the invaluable testimony of one of the most intelligent, truthful, and honourable witnesses to a period of its history than which none was more eventful. In future, it will not be possible to study the story of the march to Moscow and the terrible retreat, apart from Sir Robert Wilson's personal narrative, and we may safely venture to predict the same of the materials which are yet unpublished.

It appears from Mr. Randolph's introduction that "the fact of Sir Robert's Wilson's employment in the mission to Constantinople in the year 1812, his presence and authorised action at S. Petersburg, and at the head-quarters of the Russian army through a large portion of the operations, his well-known military capacity and personal energy and intelligence, and, finally, the celebrity of his previous writings, raised a general expectation that he would be the historian of the campaign.” Indeed, as early as January, 1813, before the work was compiled, he was offered a thousand guineas for it by a chief London publisher. The offer was declined at the time for various reasons. "I answered," he wrote to England, in a private letter, dated at Plosk, on the Vistula, that "I was a public servant, and could not publish without the sanction of his Majesty's government, which I should not ask for, nor deem it expedient to make use of if granted. . . . The events of this campaign can never be traced by me for the public during my life; a variety of considerations imperatively forbids the communication of my view of the past." Among these, it would seem a principal one was that he had been in close personal intimacy with the Emperor Alexander, highly trusted and honoured by him," and "the disclosure of facts and opinions, to which he could only have access through this confidence of a generous friendship, would have prejudicially affected the relations of the emperor with his great nobility."‡

66

It was not till the year 1825 that Sir Robert revised and arranged his

* Narrative of Events during the Invasion of Russia by Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Retreat of the French Army, 1812. By General Sir Robert Wilson, K.M.T., Baron of Austria, &c. &c., British Commissioner at the Head-quarters of the Russian Army. Edited by his nephew and son-in-law, the Rev. Herbert Randolph, M.A., of Balliol College, Oxford. London: John Murray, Albemarlestreet. 1860.

papers, and cast them in their present form for posthumous publication; and now, after an interval of five-and-thirty-years, the narrative, so long kept from us for the best and wisest motives, comes to us with all the vigour and freshness of a work of yesterday. It was written, "at his points of mission, in camp, in quarters, or on battle-fields," by his own pen, and it bears in every part the living impress of the memorable and moving scenes which it was designed to record.

We do not propose in our present brief notice to analyse this book. The leading events of the campaign of 1812 are known to all; and it is not in the framework of Sir Robert's work that its great value consists, but rather in the light which is everywhere thrown upon events imperfectly understood and inaccurately reported hitherto. The eye-witness is seldom deceived himself; and, if he be a man of honour, he never deceives others. But the historian who is not an eye-witness of the events which he records, though he may be free from all political and party bias, which is seldom the case, is always tempted-as Sir Henry Ellis tells us in his preface to his "Original Letters"-to degenerate into a mere writer of romance. One genuine original letter is worth half a chronicle; and one page of such a journal as this is worth a volume of any historical compilation extant.

We shall, therefore, leave it to our readers to ascertain for themselves the manner and general matter of the book, assuring them, the while, that no library having the smallest pretensions to completeness can be considered complete without it; and we shall present them with one or two extracts, which will enable them to see that we do not exaggerate its great importance as a strictly original work.

Our first extract is a lengthy one, but it is of remarkable interest. It belongs to the period when Sir Robert Wilson joined the Russian army; and is an admirable illustration of the devotion of the whole Russian people, and their patriotic determination to give no quarter to the invader. It is encouraging, too, to see how mighty and irresistible is the will of a great people in times of national danger, and how they follow, at such crises, the guidance of their leaders only if they are prepared to lead them on to victory or to destruction in repelling unprovoked aggression. Few, we think, will read the story of the "loyal rebels" without sympathising with them to the uttermost, and breathing a secret prayer that the spirit which has been roused in our own country in these perilous times, may be the fruitful seed of a like glorious spirit with those Russian patriots if ever England has to defend her shores against a foreign foe:

When Sir Robert Wilson reached the Russian army he found the generals in open dissension with the commander-in-chief, General Barclay, for having already suffered the enemy to overrun so many provinces, and for not making any serious disposition to defend the line of the Dnieper. Some wished that General Beningsen should have the command, others Prince Bagrathion; and General Beningsen, fearing that he might be forced into the command by a military election when it was known that Smolensk was to be evacuated, left the army and withdrew several marches to the rear, that the emperor's orders for the appointment of a new chief might arrive during his absence. Before his departure for S. Petersburg, however, it had been resolved to send to the emperor not only the request of the army "for a new chief," but a declaration in the name of the army, "that if any order came from S. Petersburg to suspend hos

tilities, and treat the invaders as friends (which was apprehended to be the true motive of the retrograde movements, in deference to the policy of Count Romanzow), such an order would be regarded as one which did not express his imperial majesty's real sentiments and wishes, but had been extracted from his majesty under false representations or external control; and that the army would continue to maintain his pledge and pursue the contest till the invader was driven beyond the frontier." Since the execution of such a commission might expose Russian officer to future punishment, and the conveyance of such a communication by a subject to the sovereign was calculated to pain and give offence, when no offence was proposed, it was communicated by a body of generals to Sir Robert Wilson, "that under the circumstances of his known attachment to the emperor, and his imperial majesty's equally well-known feelings towards him, no person was considered so properly qualified as himself to put the emperor in possession of the sentiments of the army; that his motives in accepting the mission could not be suspected; and that the channel was one which would best avoid trespass on personal respect, and prevent irritation from personal feelings being humiliated."

Sir Robert Wilson, after that deliberation which such a grave proposition required, agreed to be the bearer of the message, as far as the question of war and peace was concerned; but agreed solely that he might mitigate the unavoidable distress which the emperor must experience during the execution of such a commission.

The dismissal of Count Romanzow was not made a sine qua non; but Sir Robert Wilson was directed to state "that his removal from the ministry could alone inspire full confidence in the imperial councils."

Sir Robert Wilson on his way deviated a few miles to inform Count Panin of the evacuation of Smolensk, the continued retreat of the army, and the probable arrival of the enemy in a few hours at his residence. The count had not the slightest suspicion of the danger, but immediately ordered off all his papers and valuable effects to Moscow, where they were shortly afterwards burnt in the conflagration of the city! Prudence itself was here in fault, for the French officer who commanded the detachment had the most positive orders from Napoleon "to respect the count's person, house, and property."

Sir Robert Wilson reached S. Petersburg on the 24th of August. The emperor was then at Abo, where he had gone with the English ambassador, Lord Cathcart, to meet the King of Sweden, and where those negotiations were concluded "which rendered disposable the Russian army of Finland and secured the co-operation of a Swedish force, assuring Norway to Sweden under the guarantee of England, with one million sterling as subsidy;" which moreover held out to the king the prospect of ascending the throne of France, Alexander having declared in his presence "that he should consider it vacant in case of Napoleon's overthrow," and having replied to the king's question, "To whom, then, would it be given ?" with a pointed emphasis and accompanying inclination of head,-"Au plus digne."

The information brought by Sir Robert Wilson as to the patriotic spirit, the brave conduct, and effective condition of the army produced a very beneficial effect; and Lord Cathcart, adverting to that arrival, wrote, "Your arrival and conduct in the capital at this very critical moment has rendered important service:" the fact being that so much alarm had then prevailed at S. Petersburg, that all the archives and treasure of the state and palaces were packed up for

removal.

Of course the special communication with which Sir Robert Wilson had been charged had been confided only to those whose interests and affections were identified with the interest and welfare of the emperor, and whose co-operation for the attainment of the object had been thought indispensable.

The emperor arrived on the 3rd of September at S. Petersburg, and Sir Robert Wilson was immediately honoured by a command to dine with him, as he had previously done several times with the empresses. His reception was of