KING of benign, but of undaunted heart,
As brave as mild, and prudent without art,
Whither do you precipitately go?
The fever escaping you provoke the foe!
You haste to Freiburg, Peyronie in vain
Strove your impetuous ardor to restrain.
To risk your precious life, great king, beware.
Fields suit not him who wants physician’s care.
When laurels bind the conquering hero’s brow,
Some care of health he surely may allow.
Zeal spoke, but from you no attention drew,
Deaf to advice, you to the combat flew;
Inclement seasons with the foes conspire,
You brave the seasons and the cannon’s fire:
Your headlong courage fills with dread the state,
But your foes dread it as they dread their fate.
Give to Vienna, not to Paris fear,
Make us rejoice to whom you are so dear;
The hero they admire and love, once more
To loving subjects graciously restore.
A sage has said the only good below,
The only solid bliss that mortals know,
Springs from the tender sympathy of hearts,
From the blest transports friendship’s force imparts;
How happy then must be the monarch’s fate,
Who’s loved by every member of the state!
How blessed the king whose throne’s each subject’s breast!
This bliss enjoy, by thee it is possessed.
To Paris’s ramparts even from Alsace bound
Approach, you’ll hear the voice of love resound.
Subjects you’ll see whose bosoms transports fire,
Blessing the hero whom their souls admire.
Do you not see how on their knees they fall,
How on your face are fixed the eyes of all,
How our hearts leap with transport at the sight
Of our loved king? This triumph’s your delight.
Kings dragged like slaves, through an insulting throng
Led to the capitol in chains along,
Those glittering chariots, priests, that warlike host,
That senate which made earth oppressed its boast.
Wretches from the procession to the tomb
Sent, were the triumphs both of pride and Rome:
Yours is love’s triumph, and its glory pure,
Their time effaced, yours ever will endure;
They shocked mankind, the sinking world you raise.
In you His image God on earth displays,
In the blessed age of gold you had been king,
Enjoy the days of happiness you bring,
May peace forever bless their happy course,
Peace makes blest days, the glorious, martial force.
May she still hear the victor’s voice well-known,
He combated for us and her alone.