On each side of the cabinet were book-cases, well stored with works of
romantic fiction in various languages, many of them rare and
antiquated. This, however, was merely his cottage library, the
principal part of his books being at Edinburgh.
From this little cabinet of curiosities Scott drew forth a manuscript
picked up on the field of Waterloo, containing copies of several songs
popular at the time in France. The paper was dabbled with blood--"the
very life-blood, very possibly," said Scott, "of some gay young
officer, who had cherished these songs as a keepsake from some lady-
love in Paris."
He adverted, in a mellow and delightful manner, to the little half-gay,
half-melancholy, campaigning song, said to have been composed by
General Wolfe, and sung by him at the mess table, on the eve of the
storming of Quebec, in which he fell so gloriously:
"Why, soldiers, why,
Should we be melancholy, boys?
Why, soldiers, why,
Whose business 'tis to die!
For should next campaign
Send us to him who made us, boys
We're free from pain:
But should we remain,
A bottle and kind landlady
Makes all well again."
"So," added he, "the poor lad who fell at Waterloo, in all probability,
had been singing these songs in his tent the night before the battle,
and thinking of the fair dame who had taught him them, and promising
himself, should he outlive the campaign, to return to her all glorious
from the wars.
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