[C] Alluding to Mr. Edmund Burke's rant upon this subject.--_Ib._ The poet here refers to the well-known passage in Burke's _Reflections on the Revolution in France_, published October, 1790, in which after describing the queen of France as he had seen her in 1774 and the "prostrate homage" which her nation had paid to her at that time, he dwells upon the contrast of 1789: "Oh, what a revolution! and what a heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall! Little did I dream when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom; little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, oeconomists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever." Nor He,[D] that once, with fire and sword, This western world alarm'd: Throughout our clime whose thunders roar'd, Whose legions round us swarm'd-- Once more his tyrant arm invades A race[E] that dare be free: His Myrmidons, with murdering blades, In one base cause agree!-- Ill fate attend on every scheme That tends to darken Reason's beam: And, rising with gigantic might In Virtue's cause, I see unite Worlds, under Freedom's Tree! [D] George III.--_Freneau's note._ [E] The French Republicans.--_Ib._ Valour, at length, by Fortune led, The Rights of Man restores; And Gallia, now from bondage freed, Her rising sun adores: On Equal Rights, her fabric plann'd, Storms idly round it rave, No longer breathes in Gallic land A monarch, or a slave! At distance far, and self-remov'd From all he own'd and all he lov'd, See!--turn'd his back on Freedom's blaze, In foreign lands the Emigrant strays, Or finds an early grave! Enroll'd with these--and close immur'd, The gallant chief[F] is found, That, once, admiring crowds ador'd, Through either world renown'd, Here, bold in arms, and firm in heart, He help'd to gain our cause, Yet could not from a tyrant part, But, turn'd to embrace his laws!-- Ah! hadst thou stay'd in fair Auvergne,[G] And Truth from Paine vouchsaf'd to learn; There, happy, honour'd, and retir'd, Both hemispheres had still admir'd, Still crown'd you with applause. [F] La Fayette; at this time in the Prussian prison of Spandau.--_Freneau's note._ [G] The province of France, where the Marquis's family estate lay.--_Ib._