Have waken'd thy fondest, thy liveliest thrill;
But, so oft hast thou echoed the deep sigh of sadness,
That ev'n in thy mirth it will steal from thee still.

Dear Harp of my Country! farewell to thy numbers,
This sweet wreath of song is the last we shall twine!
Go, sleep with the sunshine of Fame on thy slumbers,
Till touch'd by some hand less unworthy than mine;

If the pulse of the patriot, soldier, or lover,
Have throbb'd at our lay, 'tis thy glory alone;
I was but as the wind, passing heedlessly over,
And all the wild sweetness I wak'd was thine own.

[Sidenote: Death of Wellington]

[Sidenote: Wellesley's campaigns]

The death of Wellington, on September 14, was felt as a national loss in
England. The Iron Duke died in his eighty-fourth year, having grown more
and more infirm in his last few years. Arthur Wellesley, or Wesley, as the
name was originally written, singularly enough received his first military
education in France, under the direction of Pignorel, the celebrated
engineer. He saw his first active service with the Duke of York's
disastrous expedition to the Netherlands in 1794. There he gained his
colonelcy. After his transfer to India he served under his elder brother,
Marquis Wellesley, and gained the brilliant victories of Assaye and of
Argaum. On his return from India he was appointed Secretary of Ireland, and
there established the celebrated police force which later served as a model
for that of London. In 1807, he took part in the expedition against
Copenhagen, and after the death of Sir John Moore was sent to Portugal,
where he won the battles of Rolica, Vimiera, the brilliant passage of the
Douro, and the hard-fought field of Talavera. The battle of Busaco, the
storming of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, the victories of Salamanca and
Vittoria, followed, and the Viscount successively became Earl and Marquis
of Wellington, and a grant from Parliament subsequently placed him in
possession of the domain of Strathfieldsaye. The capture of Pampeluna and
St. Sebastian, and the defeat of the French in the passes of the Pyrenees,
enabled him to plant the British ensign on French ground.

[Sidenote: Wellington's funeral]

[Sidenote: Tennyson's Ode]

The concluding triumphs of Orthes and Toulouse were succeeded by the
general peace and by his own promotion to a dukedom, the baton of a
field-marshal having previously been conferred upon him for his victory at
Salamanca.