Parerga/Description of Paris in 1800

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FROM DE LAMARTINE.

DESCRIPTION OF PARIS IN 1800.

"Pour lancer tous ses fils à sa lutte inégale,Paris semble des camps la grande capitale,"&c. &c.
Paris is mustering all her children here,To hurl them forth in desperate careerAgainst th' outnumbering foe; she seems to beOne vast metropolis of soldiery.The long fair fields of France send up againThe living harvests of the battle-plain;And through each gate fresh columns filing inWith song and jest their march of death begin,To fill the gaps that Austrian sword and spearRend in the fourteen hosts of the frontier.Banners are fluttering—now no longer gay,The foeman's shot has torn their pomp away,But gallant hearts flock round them, and adoreThe veteran shreds of each old tri-color.The rumbling cannons pass in gloomy state,Their hoarse deep throats charged with the globes of fate;And glinted back the sun's first ray appearsFrom the dense forests of the musqueteers.
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