No. XXVII.

May 14, 1798.

The gallant defence of theIsles of St. Marcouwould justify a more serious celebration than is attempted in the following poem; and the modest and unassuming manner in whichLieutenant Pricegives the account of services so highly meritorious, adds to the hope which we entertain that he will meet a more solid reward than any verse of ours or of our correspondent’s could bestow.

Citizen Muskein, if he understands Horace, and can read English, will be amply rewarded for the victory of which he has, no doubt, by this time, made a pompous report to the Directory, by the perusal of the 14th Ode of the 1st Book, for which we have to return our thanks to a classical correspondent.

BY CITIZEN MUSKEIN.O navis! referent in mare te novi fluctus.

BY CITIZEN MUSKEIN.

O navis! referent in mare te novi fluctus.

O gentle Gun-Boats, whom the SeineDischarged from Havre to the main;Now leaky, creaking, blood-bespattered,With rudders broken, canvas shattered—O tempt the treacherous sea no more,But gallantly regain the shore.Scarce could our guardian goddess, Reason,Ensure your timbers through the season.Though built of wood from famed Marseilles,Well-manned from galleys, and from jails,Though withLepaux’sandRewbell’said,ByPleville’s[256]skill your keel was laid;Though lovelyStael, and lovelierStone,[256]Have worked their fingers to the bone,And cut their petticoats to ragsTo make your bright three-coloured flags;Yet sacrilegious grape and ballDeform the works ofStoneandStael,And trembling, without food or breeches,Our sailors curse thepainted——.[257]Children of Muskein’s anxious care,Source of my hope and my despair,Gun-Boats—unless you mean hereafterTo furnish food for British laughter—SweetGun-Boats, with your gallant crew,Tempt not the rocks ofSaint Marcou;Beware the Badger’s bloody pennant,And that d——d invalidLieutenant!

O gentle Gun-Boats, whom the Seine

Discharged from Havre to the main;

Now leaky, creaking, blood-bespattered,

With rudders broken, canvas shattered—

O tempt the treacherous sea no more,

But gallantly regain the shore.

Scarce could our guardian goddess, Reason,Ensure your timbers through the season.Though built of wood from famed Marseilles,Well-manned from galleys, and from jails,Though withLepaux’sandRewbell’said,ByPleville’s[256]skill your keel was laid;Though lovelyStael, and lovelierStone,[256]Have worked their fingers to the bone,And cut their petticoats to ragsTo make your bright three-coloured flags;Yet sacrilegious grape and ballDeform the works ofStoneandStael,And trembling, without food or breeches,Our sailors curse thepainted——.[257]

Scarce could our guardian goddess, Reason,

Ensure your timbers through the season.

Though built of wood from famed Marseilles,

Well-manned from galleys, and from jails,

Though withLepaux’sandRewbell’said,

ByPleville’s[256]skill your keel was laid;

Though lovelyStael, and lovelierStone,[256]

Have worked their fingers to the bone,

And cut their petticoats to rags

To make your bright three-coloured flags;

Yet sacrilegious grape and ball

Deform the works ofStoneandStael,

And trembling, without food or breeches,

Our sailors curse thepainted——.[257]

Children of Muskein’s anxious care,Source of my hope and my despair,Gun-Boats—unless you mean hereafterTo furnish food for British laughter—SweetGun-Boats, with your gallant crew,Tempt not the rocks ofSaint Marcou;Beware the Badger’s bloody pennant,And that d——d invalidLieutenant!

Children of Muskein’s anxious care,

Source of my hope and my despair,

Gun-Boats—unless you mean hereafter

To furnish food for British laughter—

SweetGun-Boats, with your gallant crew,

Tempt not the rocks ofSaint Marcou;

Beware the Badger’s bloody pennant,

And that d——d invalidLieutenant!

LYRICS OF HORACE. ODE XIV., BOOK I.TRANSLATED BY ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM.

LYRICS OF HORACE. ODE XIV., BOOK I.

TRANSLATED BY ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM.

O Ship, fresh billows soon againShall bear thee to the boisterous main!Firm, keep the port. See, see thy side,Without a single oar to guide!Wounded by tempests is thy mast;Thy sail-yards groan beneath the blast;Nor can thy keel, uncabled, braveThe swelling of th’ imperious wave.Torn are thy sails! nor Gods hast thou,When danger threats, to hear thy vow.Though born of noblest wood, ’twas thineTo tower a vigorous Pontic pine;’Tis vain thy race, thy name, to prize:Nought on his painted stern reliesThe trembling seaman. Storms afarThicken to mock thy strength: beware.Thou, who wast late my anxious fear,Thou now my fondest, tenderest care:O shun, dear Ship, those tossing seasWhich part the white-cliff’d Cyclades!

O Ship, fresh billows soon again

Shall bear thee to the boisterous main!

Firm, keep the port. See, see thy side,

Without a single oar to guide!

Wounded by tempests is thy mast;

Thy sail-yards groan beneath the blast;

Nor can thy keel, uncabled, brave

The swelling of th’ imperious wave.

Torn are thy sails! nor Gods hast thou,

When danger threats, to hear thy vow.

Though born of noblest wood, ’twas thine

To tower a vigorous Pontic pine;

’Tis vain thy race, thy name, to prize:

Nought on his painted stern relies

The trembling seaman. Storms afar

Thicken to mock thy strength: beware.

Thou, who wast late my anxious fear,Thou now my fondest, tenderest care:O shun, dear Ship, those tossing seasWhich part the white-cliff’d Cyclades!

Thou, who wast late my anxious fear,

Thou now my fondest, tenderest care:

O shun, dear Ship, those tossing seas

Which part the white-cliff’d Cyclades!

[Muskeinwas an inhabitant of Antwerp, whom the Directory not only appointed to superintend the construction of the flat-bottomed boats for the invasion of Great Britain (usually called by the French sailors “bateaux à la Muskein”), but made a “capitaine de vaisseau”. An attack was ordered to be made upon the two small islands ofSaint Marcouf(each not more than 200 yards in length), of which, in July, 1795,Sir Sidney Smith, with the Diamond frigate, had taken unobstructed possession, and which were considered to give to the English great facility in intercepting between the ports of Havre and Cherbourg. The islands are situated off the river Isigny, on the coast of Normandy, and about four miles distant from the French shore. After being garrisoned with about 500 seamen and marines, including a great proportion of invalids, these small islands were placed under the command ofLieut. Charles Papps Price, ofThe Badger, a cruiser-converted Dutch hoy, mounting four, or at most six, guns.

On the 8th April, 1798,Muskein, with 33 flat-bottomed boats, with a body of troops on board, and a few gun-brigs, was about to make a combined attack on the two islands, but was driven off by two British frigates,The Diamond,Capt. Sir R. J. Strachan, andThe Hydra,Capt. Sir Francis Laforey, and stood into Caen river. While there for three weeks, repairing damages, he was joined by seven heavy gun-brigs, and about 40 flat-boats and armed fishing vessels, bringing with them additional troops.

On the 6th May,Lieut. Pricereceived information that an attack was meditated during the night. By 10 p.m., owing to the prevailing calm, the small naval force on the station, consisting of the 50–gun ship,Adamant,Capt. Wm. Hotham, 24–gun ship,Eurydice,Capt. John Talbot, and 18–gun brig-sloop,Orestes,Capt. W. Haggitt, had not been able to approach nearer to the islands than six miles—precisely what the assailants wanted. The attacking force consisted of 52–gun brigs and flat-bottomed boats, having on board, as was reported, about 6000 men. At day-break, on the 7th, the flotilla was seen drawn up in a line opposite to the south-west front of the western redoubt; and instantly was opened, upon the brigs and flats composing it, a fire from 17 pieces of cannon, consisting of four 4, two 6, and six 24 pounder long guns, and three 24 and two 32–pounder carronades, being all the guns that would bear. The brigs remained at a distance of from 300 to 400 yards, in order to batter the redoubt with their heavy long guns, while the boats, with great resolution, rowed up until within musket-shot of the battery. But the guns of the latter, loaded with round, grape, and canister, soon poured destruction amongst these, cutting several of the boats “into chips,” and compelling all that could keep afloat to seek their safety in flight. Six or seven boats were seen to go down, and one small flat, No. 13, was afterwards towed in, bottom upwards. She appeared, by some pieces of paper found in her, to have had 144 persons on board, including 129 of the second company of the Boulogne battalion.

The loss sustained by the British garrison amounted to one private-marinekilled, and two private-marines and two seamen wounded. According to one French account, the invaders lost about 900 in killed or drowned, and between 300 and 400 wounded. As a reward for their conduct on this occasion, LieutenantsPriceandBournewere each promoted to the rank of Commander. The former died a Post Captain, at Hereford, in 1813, aged 62.—James’s Naval History, vol. ii., pp. 128–131: ed. 1886.—Ed.]

[M.Plévillewas Minister of Marine, and, shortly after this unsuccessfuldébutof the famous flotilla, was succeeded by Rear-Adm. Bruix, who directed Rear-Adm. La Crosse to take the command, and to make a second attack upon the islands. This, however, the French Government declined to make.—Ed.]

HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS.

Helen Maria Williams.—[“Among the literary celebrities of the French Revolution was Helen Maria Williams, at whose house were wont to assemble the most distinguished of the liberal writers of France, her own reputation giving considerableéclatto these meetings. She wrote some of the most beautiful hymns in our language, was a prisoner under thereign of terror, and published a work on the French Revolution which is full of the most touching incidents, and adorned with specimens of the ardent and pathetic poetry, the product of French genius under the excitement of those most mysterious days. A. Humboldt was much attached to her, and committed to her care the translation and publication of some of his most elaborate works.

“She had two nephews,AthanasandCharles Coquerel, whom she educated, and who both attained considerable fame, one in the theological and the other in the political field. Athanas was for some time the preacher in the Protestant Church at Amsterdam, and married the daughter of a Swiss gentleman, the only person I have ever known on the Continent to adopt the dress and profess the opinions of an English Quaker. Miss Williams maintained intimate relations with her English friends, was familiar with the great lights of the Revolution, and her conversation was most instructive, entertaining, and varied. All her sympathies were on the side of freedom, and though she was not so prominent as to be persecuted by the Emperor, like Madame de Staël, she was the object of a good deal of suspicion and narrowly watched by the police.”—Autobr. Recollections by Sir John Bowring, pp. 353–4.—Ed.]

[Miss Williams, for some years, wrote that portion of theNew Annual Registerwhich relates to France. Among many other productions she was the author of the songEvan Banks(to the tune ofSavourna Delish), which has often been attributed to Burns; a novel calledJulia, and aTour in Switzerland. Horace Walpole called her in hisCorrespondencea “scribbling trollop”.

She lived for many years, and until the death of that gentleman—in Paris, 1818—under theprotectionofJohn Hurford Stone, a man of letters, who in the early part of the French Revolution had removed with his wife to Paris, where he formed an intimacy with Miss Williams. She was born about 1762, and died in Paris in 1827 as a friend to the Bourbons, and the enemy of the Revolution!

ThisMr. Stonewas born at Tiverton in 1763. While in Paris he was in the confidence of the Directory, and became one of the chief printers there. In 1805, he brought out an edition of theGeneva Bible, and published several English reprints; also Miss Williams’s translation ofHumboldt’sTravels. His brother,Wm. Stone, was tried in 1796 for High Treason, for holding treasonable correspondence with him.—Ed.]

The following exquisite tribute to the memory of an unfortunate republican is written with such a touchingsensibility, that those who can command salt tears must prepare to shed them. The narrative is simple and unaffected; the event in itself interesting; the moral obvious and awful.—We have only to observe, that as this account of the transaction is taken from the French papers, it may possibly be somewhat partial.—TheDey’sown statement of the affair has not yet been received. Every friend of humanity will join with us in expressing a candid and benevolent hope, that this business may not tend to kindle the flames of war between these two unchristian powers; but that, by mutual concession and accommodation, they may come to some point (short of the restoration ofJean Bon’shead on his shoulders, which in this stage of the discussion is hardly practicable) by which the peace of the Pagan world may be preserved. For our part, we pretend not to decide from which quarter the concessions ought principally to be made. It is but candid to allow that there are probably faults onboth sides, in this, as in most other cases. For the character of theDeywe profess a sincere respect on the one hand; and on the other, we naturally wish that the head ofJean Bon St. Andréshould be reserved for his own guillotine.

I.All in the town ofTunis,In Africa the torrid,On a Frenchman of rankWas played such a prank,AsLepauxmust think quite horrid.II.No story half so shocking,By kitchen fire or laundry,Was ever heard tell,—As that which befelThe greatJean Bon St. André.[258]III.Poor John was a gallant Captain,In battles much delighting;He fled full soonOn the first of June—But he bade the rest keep fighting.IV.To Paris then returning,And recovered from his panic,He translated the planOfPaine’s Rights of Man,Into language Mauritanic.V.He went to teach at Tunis—Where as Consul he was settled—Amongst other things,“That the people are kings!”Whereat theDeywas nettled.VI.The Moors being rather stupid,And in temper somewhat mulish,Understood not a wordOf the doctrine they heard,And thought the Consul foolish.VII.He formed aClubofBrothers,And moved some resolutions—“Ho! ho! (says theDey),“So this is the way“That the French makeRevolutions”.VIII.TheDeythen gave his ordersIn Arabic and Persian—“Let no more be said—But bring me his head!TheseClubsare my aversion”.IX.The Consul quotedWicquefort,AndPuffendorfandGrotius;And proved fromVattelExceedingly well,Such a deed would be quite atrocious.X.’Twould have moved a Christian’s bowelsTo hear the doubts he stated;—But the Moors they didAs they were bid,And strangled him while he prated.XI.His head with a sharp-edged sabreThey severed from his shoulders,And stuck it on high,Where it caught the eye,To the wonder of all beholders.XII.This sure is a doleful storyAs e’er you heard or read of;—If at Tunis you prateOf matters of state,Anon they cut your head off!XIII.But we hear the French DirectorsHave thought the point so knotty;That theDeyhaving shownHe dislikesJean Bon,They have sent himBernadotté.

All in the town ofTunis,In Africa the torrid,On a Frenchman of rankWas played such a prank,AsLepauxmust think quite horrid.

All in the town ofTunis,

In Africa the torrid,

On a Frenchman of rank

Was played such a prank,

AsLepauxmust think quite horrid.

II.

No story half so shocking,By kitchen fire or laundry,Was ever heard tell,—As that which befelThe greatJean Bon St. André.[258]

No story half so shocking,

By kitchen fire or laundry,

Was ever heard tell,—

As that which befel

The greatJean Bon St. André.[258]

III.

Poor John was a gallant Captain,In battles much delighting;He fled full soonOn the first of June—But he bade the rest keep fighting.

Poor John was a gallant Captain,

In battles much delighting;

He fled full soon

On the first of June—

But he bade the rest keep fighting.

IV.

To Paris then returning,And recovered from his panic,He translated the planOfPaine’s Rights of Man,Into language Mauritanic.

To Paris then returning,

And recovered from his panic,

He translated the plan

OfPaine’s Rights of Man,

Into language Mauritanic.

He went to teach at Tunis—Where as Consul he was settled—Amongst other things,“That the people are kings!”Whereat theDeywas nettled.

He went to teach at Tunis—

Where as Consul he was settled—

Amongst other things,

“That the people are kings!”

Whereat theDeywas nettled.

VI.

The Moors being rather stupid,And in temper somewhat mulish,Understood not a wordOf the doctrine they heard,And thought the Consul foolish.

The Moors being rather stupid,

And in temper somewhat mulish,

Understood not a word

Of the doctrine they heard,

And thought the Consul foolish.

VII.

He formed aClubofBrothers,And moved some resolutions—“Ho! ho! (says theDey),“So this is the way“That the French makeRevolutions”.

He formed aClubofBrothers,

And moved some resolutions—

“Ho! ho! (says theDey),

“So this is the way

“That the French makeRevolutions”.

VIII.

TheDeythen gave his ordersIn Arabic and Persian—“Let no more be said—But bring me his head!TheseClubsare my aversion”.

TheDeythen gave his orders

In Arabic and Persian—

“Let no more be said—

But bring me his head!

TheseClubsare my aversion”.

IX.

The Consul quotedWicquefort,AndPuffendorfandGrotius;And proved fromVattelExceedingly well,Such a deed would be quite atrocious.

The Consul quotedWicquefort,

AndPuffendorfandGrotius;

And proved fromVattel

Exceedingly well,

Such a deed would be quite atrocious.

’Twould have moved a Christian’s bowelsTo hear the doubts he stated;—But the Moors they didAs they were bid,And strangled him while he prated.

’Twould have moved a Christian’s bowels

To hear the doubts he stated;—

But the Moors they did

As they were bid,

And strangled him while he prated.

XI.

His head with a sharp-edged sabreThey severed from his shoulders,And stuck it on high,Where it caught the eye,To the wonder of all beholders.

His head with a sharp-edged sabre

They severed from his shoulders,

And stuck it on high,

Where it caught the eye,

To the wonder of all beholders.

XII.

This sure is a doleful storyAs e’er you heard or read of;—If at Tunis you prateOf matters of state,Anon they cut your head off!

This sure is a doleful story

As e’er you heard or read of;—

If at Tunis you prate

Of matters of state,

Anon they cut your head off!

XIII.

But we hear the French DirectorsHave thought the point so knotty;That theDeyhaving shownHe dislikesJean Bon,They have sent himBernadotté.

But we hear the French Directors

Have thought the point so knotty;

That theDeyhaving shown

He dislikesJean Bon,

They have sent himBernadotté.

On recurring to the French papers to verify our Correspondent’s statement of this singular adventure ofJean Bon St. André, we discovered, to our great mortification, that it happened atAlgiers, and not atTunis. We should have corrected this mistake, but for two reasons—first, thatAlgierswould not stand in the verse; and, secondly, that we are informed by the young man who conducts the Geographical Department of theMorning Chronicle, that both the towns are in Africa, orAsia (he is not quite certain which), and, what is more to the purpose, that both are peopled by Moors.Tunis, therefore, may stand.

[Marshal Bernadotté, the FrenchPrince of Monté Corvo, died asCharles John XIV.,King of Sweden, 8th March, 1844, in his eighty-first year. He married, in 1798,Eugenia-Bernardina-Désirée de Clary, daughter of a Marseilles merchant, and sister ofMadame Joseph Buonaparte(Queen of Spain). “She, who was not a common-place person,” saysMadame de Rémusat, in her valuableMemoirs, “had before her marriage been very much in love with Napoleon, and appears to have always preserved the memory of that feeling! It has been supposed that her hardly extinguished passion caused her obstinate refusal to leave France.” She survived her husband many years, and died in Paris, in the Rue d’Anjou Saint Honoré. Her husband was succeeded on the throne of Sweden by their son,Oscar I., who marriedJoséphine,daughter ofEugène Beauharnais, Duc de Leuchtenberg, andgranddaughter of theEmpress Josephine.

Bernadottéowed his elevation to the throne to the misgovernment of Gustavus IV., who had brought the nation to the verge of ruin, and who was deposed in 1809, when his uncle, the Duke of Sudermania, became king as Charles XIII.; and the next year,Bernadottéwas electedCrown Prince, and successor to the throne.

In 1813, he rendered great assistance to the Allies, for, as Crown Prince, he joined the confederacy against France with 30,000 men; and, after defeating Marshal Ney, with great loss, on the 6th September, he, on the 18th October, with the co-operation of Blücher, again defeated him at the decisive Battle of Leipsic; and, on the 19th, the Emperor Alexander, the King of Prussia, and the Crown Prince, entered the great square of Leipsic, amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. He was a decided democrat, and hated by Napoleon, but was the only sovereign of the revolutionary branch who was permitted to retain his dominions after the great reaction in 1814. The choice made of this great soldier of fortune excited the surprise of all Europe at the time, but the wisdom of it was soon demonstrated by his prudent conduct. He had distinguished himself from all Napoleon’s other marshals by his clemency in victory. For half a century before his accession, Sweden had not known the peace and prosperity in which he left the country on his death.

InT. Raikes’sDiarywill be found some interesting anecdotes ofBernadotté’sgratitude for services rendered him while a young subaltern. But one is of a more startling nature, as it records his narrow escape from the death intended for him by the widow of the late king, who had purposely prepared a poisoned cup of coffee for him, which she herself presented to him at her own table. Having been suddenly warned, he succeeded in forcing it upon her. She resolutely accepted her fate, and died during the night.—Ed.]

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