Can you behold, without one poignant pang,
The foreign conquests of the brave D'Estaing?[E] North is your friend, and now destruction knocks, Still take his counsel, and regard not Fox.
[C] The Year 1776.--Freneau's note.
[D] Stoney Point, Powles Hook, &c.--Ib. [E] Grenada, &c.--Ib.
King G.
Ah! speak not thus--your words will break my heart, Some softer counsel to my ears impart,
How can I march to meet the insulting foe, Who never yet to hostile plains did go?[Pg 13] When was I vers'd in battles or in blood? When have I fought upon the faithless flood? Much better could I at my palace door
Recline and hear the distant cannons roar. Generals and admirals Britain yet can boast, Some fight on land, and some defend the coast;
The fame of these throughout the globe resounds, To these I leave the glory and the wounds;
But since this honour for no blood atones, I must and will be careful of my bones. What pleasure to your monarch would it be, If Lords and Commons could at last agree;
Could North with Fox in firm alliance stand,
And Burke with Sandwich shake the social hand, Then should we bring the rebels to our feet,
And France and Spain ingloriously retreat, Her ancient glories to this isle return,
And we no more for lost Columbia mourn. Fox
Alliance!--what![F]--Your Highness must be mad: Say, what alliance can with these be had?
Can lambs and wolves in social bands ally?
When these prove friendly, then will North and I. Alliance! no--I curse the horrid thought;
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Ally with those their country's ruin sought! Who to perdition sold their native land,
Leagu'd with the foe, a close connected band-- Ally with these!--I speak it to your face-- Alliance here is ruin and disgrace.
Angels and devils in such bonds unite,
So hell is ally'd to the realms of light--[Pg 14]
Let North or Germaine[13] still my prayers deride, Let turn-coat Johnston[G] take the courtly side, Even Pitt, if living, might with these agree;
But no alliance shall they have with me.
But since no shame forbids your tongue to own
A royal coward fills Britannia's throne;
Since our best chiefs must fight your mad campaigns,
And be disgrac'd at last by him who reigns,[H] No wonder, heaven! such ill success attends!
No wonder North and Mansfield are your friends!
Take my advice, with these to battle go,
These book-learned heroes may confront the foe-- Those first who led us tow'rds the brink of fate, Should still be foremost when at Pluto's gate;
Let them, grown desperate by our run of woes, Collect new fury from this host of foes,
And, ally'd with themselves, to ruin steer, The just conclusion of their mad career.
[F] Alliance!--what, &c. See his speech in the House of Commons, June 22, 1779, in answer to Lord Nugent.--Freneau's note.
[G] Let turn-coat Johnston, &c. The worthy British commissioner, of bribing memory, who, for the sake of a few guineas, belied his own conscience, and sided with the majority.--Freneau's note.
[H] And be disgrac'd at last by him who reigns. As Gage, the Howes, Burgoyne, &c., for not doing impossibilities.--Ib.
King G.
No comfort in these cruel words I find--
Ungrateful words to my tormented mind!
With me alone both France and Spain contend, And not one nation will be call'd my friend: Unpitying now the Dutchman sees me fall,
The Russian leaves me to the haughty[14] Gaul, The German, grown as brutish[15] as the Dane, Consigns my carcase to the jaws of Spain.[Pg 15] Where are the hosts they promis'd me of yore, When rich and great they heard my thunders roar, While yet confess'd the master of the sea,
The Germans drain'd their wide domain for me, And aiding Britain with a friendly hand,
Helpt to subdue the rebels and their land?[I] Ah! rebels, rebels! insolent and mad;
My Scottish rebels were not half so bad,[J] They soon submitted to superior sway;[K] But these grow stronger as my hosts decay:
What hosts have perish'd on their hostile shore! They went for conquest, but return'd no more. Columbia, thou a friend in better times!
Lost are to me thy pleasurable climes. You wish me buried in eternal night,
You curse the day when first I saw the light--
Thy[16] commerce vanish'd, hostile nations share,
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And thus you leave me[17] naked, poor, and bare; Despised by those who should my[18] cause defend, And helpless left without one pitying friend.
These dire afflictions shake my changeful throne,
And turn my brain--a very idiot grown:
Of all the isles, the realms with which I part, Columbia sits the heaviest at my heart,
She, she provokes the deepest, heaviest sigh, And makes me doubly wretched ere I die. Some dreary convent's unfrequented gloom
(Like Charles of Spain)[L] had better be my doom:[Pg 16] There while in absence from my crown I sigh,
The[19] Prince of Wales these ills may rectify; A happier fortune may his crown await,
He yet perhaps may save this sinking state.
I'll to my prayers, my bishops and my beads,[M] And beg God's pardon for my heinous deeds;
Those streams of blood, that, spilt by my command, Call out for vengeance on this guilty land.
[I] The Hessians, Waldeckers, Anspachers, &c.--Freneau's note. [J] The Year 1745.--Ib.
[K] Culloden.--Ib.
[L] Like Charles of Spain, &c. Charles V. who, in 1556, resigning the crown to his son Philip II., shut himself up in the monastery of
St. Just, in Spain, where he died two years after.--Ib.
[M] I'll to my prayers, my bishops, and my beads. This is not said without foundation, as he established the Roman Catholic religion in Canada, in 1775.--Freneau's note.
Fox
You ask for mercy--can you cry to God,[20] Who had no mercy on poor parson Dodd?[N] No inward image of the power divine,
No gentle feelings warm that soul of thine; Convents you have--no need to look for new, Your convents are the brothel and the stew. One horrid act[O] disgrac'd old Jesse's son, And that one blemish have you hit upon;
You seiz'd an English Quaker's tempting wife,[P] And push'd him off to lose his sneaking life;[Pg 17] Even to that coast where freedom sent to quell,
All in their pride the flower of Britain fell.
But ruin'd was your scheme, the plan was vain, For when were Quakers in a battle slain?
As well might Whales by closing waves expire,
Or Salamanders perish in the fire.
When France and Spain are thund'ring at your doors, Is this a time for kings to lodge with whores?
In one short sentence take my whole advice,
(It is no time to flatter and be nice)
With all your soul for instant peace contend, Thus shall you be your country's truest friend--
Peace, heavenly[21] peace, may stay your tottering throne,