Yet writes his king in boasting tone As once they used, in Homer's day, * General Clinton's official dispatches, giving an account of his marching from Monmouth by moonlight, furnished a subject of much pleasantry in America; where it was known that the moon had set two hours before the march began. London Edit. A small mistake! your meaning right ; And dimm'd when Washington arises. "And see how Fate, herself turn'd traitor, Inverts the ancient course of nature; His sails* innum'rous shape their way, * In 1779, the French king sent a powerful fleet to the In warlike line the billows sweep, The western islands fall their prize; Yet ere our glories sink in night, A gleam of hope shall strike your sight; As lamps, that fail of oil and fire, "For lo, where southern shores extend, Behold our gather'd hosts descend, West-Indies, which was very successful in the conquest of St. Vincents and Grenada, the defeat of Admiral Biron in a naval engagement, and the capture of a British ship of the line and several frigates, on the Americancoast. Where Charleston views, with varying beams The southern realms and Georgian shore See, shrinking from his conq'ring eye, The Rebel legions fall or fly; And with'ring in these torrid skies, * General Lincoln was second in command in the army of General Gates, during the campaign of 1777, which ended in the capture of General Burgoyne. He afterwards commanded the army in South-Carolina, and was taken prisoner with the garrison of Charleston in 1780. London Edit. This happened in consequence of the determination of Congress, that Charleston should at all events be defended. + This refers to the fortune of General Gates, who after having conquered Burgoyne in the North, was defeated by Cornwallis in the South. London Edit. With rapid force he leads his train And boasts the southern realm his own. Ev'n Tryon's fame grows dim, and mourning He yields the civic crown of burning. I see, with pleasure and surprize, New triumph sparkling in your eyes; *Arnold in the year 1781, having been converted to our cause, commanded a detachment of our army in Virginia; where he plundered many cargoes of negroes and tobacco, and sent them to Jamaica for his own account. How far Lord Rodney may have excelled him in this kind of heroic achievements, time perhaps will never discover. London Edit. |