La bataille ne sera livree que
demain, mais la victoire est decidee ce soir. Pierre a promis; et les
Croises se fient a sa parole, comme les Israelites se fiaient a celle
de Moise et de Josue."
As a companion portrait to this, Emily chose to depict Harold on the eve
of the battle of Hastings. It appears to me that her _devoir_ is
superior to Charlotte's in power and in imagination, and fully equal to
it in language; and that this, in both cases, considering how little
practical knowledge of French they had when they arrived at Brussels in
February, and that they wrote without the aid of dictionary or grammar,
is unusual and remarkable. We shall see the progress Charlotte had made,
in ease and grace of style, a year later.
In the choice of subjects left to her selection, she frequently took
characters and scenes from the Old Testament, with which all her writings
show that she was especially familiar. The picturesqueness and colour
(if I may so express it), the grandeur and breadth of its narrations,
impressed her deeply. To use M. Heger's expression, "Elle etait nourrie
de la Bible." After he had read De la Vigne's poem on Joan of Arc, she
chose the "Vision and Death of Moses on Mount Nebo" to write about; and,
in looking over this _devoir_, I was much struck with one or two of M.
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