XII Never will I give advice, Till you please to ask me thrice: Which if you in scorn reject, 'Twill be just as I expect. Thus we both shall have our ends, And continue special friends. [Footnote 1: Addressed to Lady Acheson.--_W. E. B._] [Footnote 2: That is, will do no harm--we shall not disagree. "At Blank-Blank Square;--for we will break no squares By naming streets." _Don Juan_, Canto XIII, st. xxv. See Mr. Coleridge's note on this; Byron's Works, edit. 1903.--_W. E. B._] POLITICAL POETRY PARODY ON THE RECORDER OF BLESSINGTON'S ADDRESS TO QUEEN ANNE _Mr. William Crowe, Recorder of Blessington's Address to her Majesty, as copied from the London Gazette_. To the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, The humble Address of the Sovereign, Recorder, Burgesses, and Freemen, of the Borough of Blessington. May it please your Majesty, Though we stand almost last on the roll of boroughs of this your majesty's kingdom of Ireland, and therefore, in good manners to our elder brothers, press but late among the joyful crowd about your royal throne: yet we beg leave to assure your majesty, that we come behind none in our good affection to your sacred person and government; insomuch, that the late surprising accounts from Germany have filled us with a joy not inferior to any of our fellow-subjects. We heard with transport that the English warmed the field to that degree, that thirty squadrons, part of the vanquished enemy, were forced to fly to water, not able to stand their fire, and drank their last draught in the Danube, for the waste they had before committed on its injured banks, thereby putting an end to their master's long-boasted victories: a glorious push indeed, and worthy a general of the Queen of England. And we are not a little pleased, to find several gentlemen in considerable posts of your majesty's army, who drew their first breath in this country, sharing in the good fortune of those who so effectually put in execution the command of your gallant, enterprizing general, whose twin-battles have, with his own title of Marlborough, given immortality to the otherwise perishing names of Schellenberg and Hogstete: actions that speak him born under stars as propitious to England as that he now wears, on both which he has so often reflected lustre, as to have now abundantly repaid the glory they once lent him. Nor can we but congratulate with a joy proportioned to the success of your majesty's fleet, our last campaign at sea, since by it we observe the French obliged to steer their wonted course for security, to their ports; and Gibraltar, the Spaniards' ancient defence, bravely stormed, possessed, and maintained by your majesty's subjects.