[Lavengro by George Borrow]@TWC D-Link bookLavengro CHAPTER XXIII 10/15
I have heard my father say that, though good sharpshooters, they can't be much depended upon as soldiers; and that old Sergeant Meredith told him that Minden would never have been won but for the two English regiments, who charged the French with fixed bayonets, and sent them to the right-about in double-quick time.
With respect to poetry, setting Shakespeare and the English altogether aside, I think there is another Gothic nation, at least, entitled to dispute with them the palm.
Indeed, to my mind, there is more genuine poetry contained in the old Danish book which I came so strangely by, than has been produced in Germany from the period of the Niebelungen lay to the present.' 'Ah, the Koempe Viser ?' said the elderly individual, breathing forth an immense volume of smoke, which he had been collecting during the declamation of his young companion.
'There are singular things in that book, I must confess; and I thank you for showing it to me, or rather your attempt at translation.
I was struck with that ballad of Orm Ungarswayne, who goes by night to the grave-hill of his father to seek for counsel.
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