University of Virginia Library


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10. BANK MELODY—No. IX.

BURIAL OF THE RIGHT HON. MRS. BANK.

Not a speech was heard, not a Lawyer's tongue,
As we raised the shrunk corse to our shoulders;
Not a stave of distress, not a melody sung
O'er the ditch where the old lady moulders.
We buried her privately, late at night,
In a lone bye place; Major Downing
“Vow'd by jings, that he never yet see such a sight,”
And he called it “a judgment crownen.”
No heaped up mound, nor vault we tricked;
But splash! in the water we pitched her,
And she raised up her head, and grunted, and kicked,
As if the old boy had bewitched her.
Hal Clay said a prayer; it was rather brief;
He was so overcome with sorrow;
And we all more or less, had a touch of grief,
For we knew what would come on the morrow.
We knew—as we laid the old woman down,
For the mummies and eels to feed on—
That her goods and effects were to go to the town,
As had early in life been agreed on.

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We knew that we all had to settle our loans,
That the time had gone by for renewal,
That the Demos would laugh at our sighs and groans,
And the sheriff be callous and cruel.
We had just got done, and we stood in the damp,
And were talking about absconding;
When we heard the deputy tipstaff's tramp,
And the marshal's voice resounding.
Quicker than lightning, we all cleared out,
And we cursed every Troglodyte Tory;
Not a line did we write, not a speech did we spout.
But we left her all alone with her glory.
END OF VOL. II.