The miscellaneous works of David Humphreys Late Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Court of Madrid |
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 | The miscellaneous works of David Humphreys |  |
As fly autumal leaves athwart some dale,
Borne on the pinions of the sounding gale;
Or glides thin gossamer o'er rustling reeds,
Bland's, Sheldon's, Moylan's, Baylor's, battle steeds
So skimm'd the plain. Helms plum'd and broad-swords bright
Cast glimses o'er the ground like northern light.
There quick-ey'd Arnold, not a traitor then,
Vain, on his courser, soar'd mid mightiest men:
Now fall'n like Lucifier, the son of morn,
By Britain brib'd and doom'd to deathless scorn:
For falsehood mark'd, to infamy consign'd,
One grateful truth he left to glad mankind,
That in so long a war his lonely crime
Should stain the annals of recording Time.—
Borne on the pinions of the sounding gale;
Or glides thin gossamer o'er rustling reeds,
Bland's, Sheldon's, Moylan's, Baylor's, battle steeds
So skimm'd the plain. Helms plum'd and broad-swords bright
Cast glimses o'er the ground like northern light.
There quick-ey'd Arnold, not a traitor then,
Vain, on his courser, soar'd mid mightiest men:
Now fall'n like Lucifier, the son of morn,
By Britain brib'd and doom'd to deathless scorn:
For falsehood mark'd, to infamy consign'd,
One grateful truth he left to glad mankind,
That in so long a war his lonely crime
Should stain the annals of recording Time.—
| The miscellaneous works of David Humphreys | |