那是在可怕的普尔托瓦时代之后，命运离开了瑞典王室——一群被屠杀的军队躺在周围，不再战斗，不再流血。战争的权力和荣耀，像他们那些徒劳的信仰者那样不忠实，已经交给了胜利的沙皇，而莫斯科呢?城墙又安全了——直到更阴暗凄凉的一天，更值得纪念的一年，给屠杀和羞辱带来更强大的军队和更傲慢的名字;更大的破坏，更深的坠落，对一个人的震动，对所有人的霹雳。这就是死亡的危险;受伤的查理被教导日夜在田野和洪水中飞行，身上沾满了自己和臣民的鲜血;在他谦卑的时刻，没有听到一个声音谴责野心，当真理对权力毫无畏惧时，他的马被杀了，吉塔献出了自己的马——死在俄国人身上?奴隶。经过许多次持久而徒然的疲劳之后，这种感觉也会消失;在黑暗的森林深处，远处的烽火闪烁——周围敌人的灯塔——一个国王必须长时间地躺下他的四肢。 Are these the laurels and repose For which the nations strain their strength? They laid him by a savage tree, In outworn nature?s agony; His wounds were stiff, his limbs were stark, The heavy hour was chill and dark; The fever in his blood forbade A transient slumber's fitful aid: And thus it was; but yet through all, Kinglike the monarch bore his fall, And made, in this extreme of ill, His pangs the vassals of his will: All silent and subdued were they, As owe the nations round him lay. III A band of chiefs! - alas! how few, Since but the fleeting of a day Had thinned it; but this wreck was true And chivalrous: upon the clay Each sate him down, all sad and mute, Beside his monarch and his steed; For danger levels man and brute, And all are fellows in their need. Among the rest, Mazeppa made His pillow in an old oak's shade - Himself as rough, and scarce less old, The Ukraine's hetman, calm and bold: But first, outspent with this long course, The Cossack prince rubbed down his horse, And made for him a leafy bed, And smoothed his fetlocks and his mane, And slacked his girth, and stripped his rein, And joyed to see how well he fed; For until now he had the dread His wearied courser might refuse To browse beneath the midnight dews: But he was hardy as his lord, And little cared for bed and board; But spirited and docile too, Whate'er was to be done, would do. Shaggy and swift, and strong of limb, All Tartar-like he carried him; Obeyed his voice, and came to call, And knew him in the midst of all. Though thousands were around, - and night, Without a star, pursued her flight, - That steed from sunset until dawn His chief would follow like a fawn. IV This done, Mazeppa spread his cloak, And laid his lance beneath his oak, Felt if his arms in order good The long day's march had well withstood - If still the powder filled the pan, And flints unloosened kept their lock - His sabre's hilt and scabbard felt, And whether they had chafed his belt; And next the venerable man, From out his haversack and can, Prepared and spread his slender stock And to the monarch and his men The whole or portion offered then With far less of inquietude Than courtiers at a banquet would. And Charles of this his slender share With smiles partook a moment there, To force of cheer a greater show, And seem above both wounds and woe;- And then he said -'Of all our band, Though firm of heart and strong of hand, In skirmish, march, or forage, none Can less have said or more have done Than thee, Mazeppa! On the earth So fit a pair had never birth, Since Alexander's days till now, As thy Bucephalus and thou: All Scythia's fame to thine should yield For pricking on o'er flood and field.' Mazeppa answered - " Ill betide The school wherein I learned to ride! Quoth Charles -'Old Hetman, wherefore so, Since thou hast learned the art so well? Mazeppa said - "Twere long to tell; And we have many a league to go, With every now and then a blow, And ten to one at least the foe, Before our steeds may graze at ease, Beyond the swift Borysthenes: And, sire, your limbs have need of rest, And I will be the sentinel Of this your troop.' -'But I request,' Said Sweden's monarch, 'thou wilt tell This tale of thine, and I may reap, Perchance, from this the boon of sleep; For at this moment from my eyes The hope of present slumber flies.' 'Well, sire, with such a hope, I'll track My seventy years of memory back: I think 'twas in my twentieth spring, - Ay, 'twas, - when Casimir wa