Margaretta V. Faugeres (1771–1801)

DASH, ye broad waves, and proudly heave and swell;

Rouse aged Neptune from his amber cave,

And bid the nymphs the pebbly strand who lave,

Round this grand bulwark found their coral shell:

For, nightly bending o’er these streams,

Base Treason plotted murderous schemes;

Then stealing soft to Arnold’s bed,

Her visions vague around him shed;

And while dark vapours dimm’d his eyes,

She bade these forms illusive rise:

First, Andre came: his youthful air

Allured the falling chieftain’s eyes,

But when the glittering bribes appear,

A thousand strange ideas rise:

He saw Britannia’s marshall’d hosts,

Countless, advance towards his posts;

Honour he saw, and Wealth, and Fame,

With every good that wish can frame,

Attend their train; he long’d to stretch

Beyond his virtuous brethren’s reach;

His heart, polluted, vainly sigh’d

To bound and swell in titled pride.

Now fair Columbia’s armies come:

His hand hath seal’d their mournful doom;

And in an unrelenting hour

He yields them up to Albion’s power.

Then Murder bloats with horrid pride!

A thousand fall on every side!

And coward Cruelty’s base bands

Dip in warm gore their barbarous hands.

Then the broadsword displays its force,

Drench’d to the very hilt in blood!

While the brave warrior and the frantic horse

Wallow together in the purple flood!

Then rose a name! and, lo! from far

He hears the hum of chariot-wheels;

Divinity within him feels,

And thunders forth the sovereign Lord of War.

His anxious eyes he strain’d for more;

But fickle Fancy dropp’d the scene;

Truth’s radiant rays around him pour,

And show’d the wretch ’twas all a dream!