LA BATAILLE

Page 40. Narratives of battle were familiar to Schiller from his early childhood. His father was a surgeon in a Bavarian régiment of hUssars, and Schiller himself served as assistant surgeon in a grenadier régiment.

4. dés d'airain: iron dice; metaphor, meaning the cannon balls:

" Bruising irons of wrath, That they may crush down, with heavy fall The usurping helmets of our adversaries."

— Richard II L 12. roulements de tambours: rolling of drums.

" Drum now to drum did groan,

To hear was wonder ; That with the cries they make,

The very earth did shake;

Trumpet to trumpet spake,

Thunder to thunder."

— Drayton.

21. Les dés d'airain sont jetés au sein de la fumée ardente!: The

iron dice are flung info the midst of the flame and smoke.

27. A droite, à gauche: see Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade,

" Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them."