Creasy's "Fifteen Battles"

In this thin book, that shows no crimson stain,
We trace the course of empire flowing through
The ancient world until it meets the new.
And Saratoga mirrors back the plain
Of Marathon, while Blenheim's bloody rain
Gives warning dire of weltering Waterloo.
So, too, rise up, portentous to the view,
Hastings, Pultowa, Valmy's dreadful train!

How like a line of rugged beetling crags,
That thrust a river to the left or right —
And sometimes turn it back upon its course —
Loom up these battles! Likewise never flags
The human heart-beat, like the river's might,
Winning its Freedom, spite of any Force.
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