Then the Eagle, whose gaze in that moment was blasted, Had still soared with eyes fixed on Victory's sun! 3. Farewell to thee, France!-but when Liberty rallies Once more in thy regions, remember me thenThe violet still grows in the depth of thy valleys; Though withered, thy tears will unfold it again— Yet, yet, I may baffle the hosts that surround us, And yet may thy heart leap awake to my voiceThere are links which must break in the chain that bas bound us, Then turn thee and call on the Chief of thy choice! NOTES ΤΟ THE POEMS. Note 1, page 33. Written after swimming from Sestos to Abydos. ON the 3d of May, 1810, while the Salsette (Captain Bathurst) was lying in the Dardanelles, Lieutenant Ekenhead of that frigate and the writer of these rhymes swam from the European shore to the Asiatic-by-the-by, from Abydos to Sestos would have been more correct. The whole distance from the place whence we started to our landing on the other side, including the length we were carried by the current, was computed by those on board the frigate at upwards of four English miles; though the actual breadth is barely one. The rapidity of the current is such that no boat can row directly across, and it may in some measure be estimated from the circumstance of the whole distance being accomplished by one of the parties in an hour and five, and by the other in an hour and ten, minutes. The VOL. IV. L |