[100] The first trace that I can find of this poem is in the Oct. 18, 1775, issue of Anderson's _Constitutional Gazette_, where it has the title, "Reflections on Gage's Letter to Gen. Washington of Aug. 13." It was published in the 1786 edition with the title, "On the Conqueror of America shut up in Boston. Published in New York, _August_ 1775." The 1795 edition changed the title to "The Misnomer." I have followed the title and text of the 1809 edition. [101] General Gage's proclamation, issued June 12, 1775, was as follows: "Whereas the infatuated multitudes, who have long suffered themselves to be conducted by certain well-known incendiaries and traitors, in a fatal progression of crimes against the constitutional authority of the state, have at length proceeded to avowed rebellion, and the good effects which were expected to arise from the patience and lenity of the king's government have been often frustrated, and are now rendered hopeless by the influence of the same evil counsels, it only remains for those who are intrusted with the supreme rule, as well for the punishment of the guilty as the protection of the well-affected, to prove that they do not bear the sword in vain." [102] "The hopeful general."--_Constitutional Gazette._ [103] On June 11, Washington had written Gage, among other things, "that the officers engaged in the cause of liberty and their country, who by the fortune of war had fallen into your hands, have been thrown indiscriminately into a common gaol appropriated for felons," and threatening retaliation in like cases, "exactly by the rule you shall observe towards those of ours now in your custody." To this Gage replied, on the 13th: "Britons, ever pre-eminent in mercy, have outgone common examples, and overlooked the criminal in the captive. Upon these principles your prisoners, whose lives, by the law of the land, _are destined to the cord_, have hitherto been treated with care and kindness," &c.--_Duyckinck._ [104] "Gage shall be."--_Gazette._ [105] "Black monster."--_Gazette._ [106] The _Gazette_ version adds here the lines, "Nay, with himself, ere freedom sent to quell Had seen the lowest lurking place of hell." [107] "British clemency."--_Ed. 1786._ [108] "Their past records show."--_Ed, 1786._ "Gage already lets us know."--_Gazette._ [109] "The viper foe."--_Gazette._ [110] This and the preceding line not in the earlier versions. In place of them the _Gazette_ has the lines: "Spoil'd of their shrouds and o'er Canadia's plains Be hung aloft to terrify in chains." [111] The _Gazette_ version ends the poem from this point as follows: "Let Baker's head be snatch'd from infamy, And Carleton's Popish scull be fixt on high, And all like him o'er St. John's castle swing, To show that freedom is no trifling thing." [112] "Their tyrant of a king."--_Ed. 1786._ THE VERNAL AGUE