him to the rear,
And call the best attention up to him.

[DE LANCEY is carried off. The next moment a shell bursts close
to WELLINGTON.]

HILL [approaching]

I strongly feel you stand too much exposed!

WELLINGTON

I know, I know. It matters not one damn!
I may as well be shot as not perceive
What ills are raging here.

HILL

Conceding such,
And as you may be ended momently,
A truth there is no blinking, what commands
Have you to leave me, should fate shape it so?

WELLINGTON

These simply: to hold out unto the last,
As long as one man stands on one lame leg
With one ball in his pouch!--then end as I.

[He rides on slowly with the others. NEY'S charges, though
fruitless so far, are still fierce. His troops are now reduced
to one-half. Regiments of the BACHELU division, and the JAMIN
brigade, are at last moved up to his assistance. They are partly
swept down by the Allied batteries, and partly notched away by
the infantry, the smoke being now so thick that the position of
the battalions is revealed only by the flashing of the priming-
pans and muzzles, and by the furious oaths heard behind the cloud.
WELLINGTON comes back. Enter another aide-de-camp.]

AIDE

We bow to the necessity of saying
That our brigade is lessened to one-third,
Your Grace. And those who are left alive of it
Are so unmuscled by fatigue and thirst
That some relief, however temporary,
Becomes sore need.

WELLINGTON

Inform your general
That his proposal asks the impossible!
That he, I, every Englishman afield,
Must fall upon the spot we occupy,
Our wounds in front.

AIDE

It is enough, your Grace.
I answer for't that he, those under him,
And I withal, will bear us as you say.

[Exit aide. The din of battle goes on. WELLINGTON is grave but
calm. Like those around him, he is splashed to the top of his hat
with partly dried mire, mingled with red spots; his face is grimed
in the same way, little courses showing themselves where the sweat
has trickled down from his brow and temples.]

CLINTON [to Hill]

A rest would do our chieftain no less good,
In faith, than that unfortunate brigade!
He is tried damnably; and much more strained
Than I have ever seen him.

HILL

Endless risks
He's running likewise. Wh