| Citation |
PG-P.781.041
31 Oct 1781:23, 31 (2681)
[At end of an article taken from the Maryland Gazette of
October 25:] Lord Cornwallis, that irresistible wanderer,
hath at length periodicated his rambles, in the mode we
could most have wished, and in the scene of his humanity,
where the feelings of state will be fully gratified. Led by
his evil genius, and prompted by that distraction and
infatuation incident to the schemes of tyranny, we have seen
his Lordship sinking by evasions before the sword of
opposition, and moving in the measure of Burgoynade, trapped
with a fine army in the theatre of his victories; in the
possession of that object of his military adventures, which,
like an ignis fatous, hath lured and danced him into an
inextricable difficulty. Natura ferex, vehemens; maximum
bonum in celeritate putabat*. The catastrophe of this
living military drama, may be in future to some American the
groundwork of a farce; and when time, that candid and most
faithful knight, shall have burst the chains of that spell
and fascination which at present preclude a just calculation
of their losses, when a sensibility of their misfortunes
becomes one of the most striking, though not most
mortifying, characteristic of the British nation, the tale
of Lord Cornwallis, like that of a Richard, may afford to
some native genius the fable of an historic tragedy!
Cambridge, October 15, 1781. [signed] A Republican.
* Sal. Bel. Cat.
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