The Defeat at Sedan, Part 6

by Brett Rutherford

     Translated from Victor Hugo, l'Annee Terrible

ONCE IT WAS GAUL

Once it was Gaul, then France, then glory.
Once it was Brennus the audacious,[1]
     and that long-haired Celtic titan,
         Clovis the victor[2]

Times past, the proud line of battles, Châlons,[3]
Tolbiac the fierce, Arezzo the cruel,
Bovines, Marignan, Beaugé, Mons-en-Puelle, Tours,
Ravenna, Agnadel on her high palfrey,
Fornoue, Ivry, Coutras, Cérisolles, Rocroy,
Denain and Fontenoy, all these immortals
With the brows of Zeus and the wings of demigods,
Jemmape, Hohenlinden, Lodi, Wagram, Eylau,
The men of the last square of Waterloo,
and all these war leaders, Héristal, Charlemagne,
Charles-Martel, Turenne,
     whose names the Germans dread,
Condé, Villars, famed for such proud success,
this Achilles — Kléber — this Scipio — Desaix —
Napoleon, greater than Caesar and Pompey —
by the hand of a bandit they all surrendered their swords.

---

[1] Brennus, a chieftain of Gaul, invaded Rome in 390 BCE.

[2] Clovis (466-511 CE) was the first king to unite all the Franks under one rule. He converted to Christianity in the last year of his reign.

[3] Châlons. The battle in 451 CE that stopped the westward advance of Attila.