Cursed be the Wretch, and blasted rot his name, Who dares to stab an injured G----n's fame! Who (while his public virtue stands confest, And lives within his ROYAL MASTER'S breast) Can rake for Scandal in his private life, And widen breaches between man and wife; Who casts a stone (like some unthinking Elf), That haply shall recoil against himself! Anguish, Remorse, and Terror seize his Soul, And waste it quick where fiends malicious howl; May those rank pests through which his father fell, Announce his coming to the Gates of Hell! And yet, or ere he plunge into the Lake, Where no cool stream his endless thirst can slake, May CHRIST in mercy deprecate his doom, And may to HIM his promised Kingdom come! "SIDNEY SWINNEY." Not content with future punishment, the Doctor, in another poem, threatens present vengeance: "But hark thee, wretch; believe him while he swears; SID (by the gods) will crop thine asses ears, Should thou persist a G----n to impeach, And blast those virtues thou canst never reach." As Draper had taken Granby under his protection, so Swinney must needs play the chivalrous in defence of Grafton. The dedication of _The Battle of Minden_ is dated 20th May, 1769, and the poet in the _exordium_ goes out of his way to notice, as I suppose, the attacks of Junius: "His [Sid's] blood recoils with an indignant rage, 'Gainst the base hirelings of a venal age. Wretches! that spare nor ministers nor kings, Blend good with bad, profane with sacred things; Whose vengeful hearts, with wrath and malice curst, Blast virtuous deeds; and then, with envy burst, They dart their arrows, innocence traduce, And load e'en G----n with their vile abuse." To this passage he appends the following note, which occupies, in his magnificent typographical volume, a whole quarto page: "It is observable that this amiable personage [the Duke of Grafton], and most consummate statesman, has been bespattered with as much low calumny and abuse, from various quarters, as if he had been the declared enemy of his country, instead of having manfully and courageously stood up in support of its true interests.--S." Let us consider now, What are the probabilities of Swinney never having spoken to Lord George Sackville? That he did on that occasion speak to Lord George--that he did ask him "whether or no he was the author of Junius"--may be assumed: and it is very probable that Junius heard of it, at first or at second hand, from Swinney himself; for the impertinent blockhead that would ask such a question, was just the man to tell what he had done, and to think it a good thing. But had he never before spoken to Sackville? Was this a fact or a flourish--an affectation of secret information, like the "sent" and "went" about Garrick--the "every particular next day"--which we now know to have been untrue.