Letters of Horace Walpole — Volume I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 308 pages of information about Letters of Horace Walpole — Volume I.

Letters of Horace Walpole — Volume I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 308 pages of information about Letters of Horace Walpole — Volume I.

British foot 1237 killed. 
Ditto horse 90 ditto. 
Ditto foot 1968 wounded. 
Ditto horse 232 ditto. 
Ditto foot 457 missing. 
Ditto horse 18 ditto. 
Hanoverian foot 432 killed. 
Ditto horse 78 ditto. 
Ditto foot 950 wounded. 
Ditto horse 192 ditto. 
Ditto horse and foot 53 missing. 
Dutch 625 killed and wounded. 
Ditto 1019 missing.

So the whole hors de combat is above seven thousand three hundred.  The French own the loss of three thousand; I don’t believe many more, for it was a most rash and desperate perseverance on our side.  The Duke behaved very bravely and humanely; but this will not have advanced the peace.

However coolly the Duke may have behaved, and coldly his father, at least his brother [the Prince of Wales] has outdone both.  He not only went to the play the night the news came, but in two days made a ballad.  It is in imitation of the Regent’s style, and has miscarried in nothing but the language, the thoughts, and the poetry.  Did not I tell you in my last that he was going to act Paris in Congreve’s “Masque”?  The song is addressed to the goddesses.

    I.

    Venez, mes cheres Deesses,
    Venez calmer mon chagrin;
    Aidez, mes belles Princesses,
    A le noyer dans le vin. 
    Poussons cette douce Ivresse
    Jusqu’au milieu de la nuit,
    Et n’ecoutons que la tendresse
    D’un charmant vis-a-vis.

    II.

    Quand le chagrin me devore,
    Vite a table je me mets,
    Loin des objets que j’abhorre,
    Avec joie j’y trouve la paix. 
    Peu d’amis, restes d’un naufrage
    Je rassemble autour de moi,
    Et je me ris de l’etalage
    Qu’a chez lui toujours un Roi.

    III.

    Que m’importe, que l’Europe
    Ait un, ou plusieurs tyrans? 
    Prions seulement Calliope,
    Qu’elle inspire nos vers, nos chants
    Laissons Mars et toute la gloire;
    Livrons nous tous a l’amour;
    Que Bacchus nous donne a boire;
    A ces deux faisons la cour.

    IV.

    Passons ainsi notre vie,
    Sans rever a ce qui suit;
    Avec ma chere Sylvie
    Le tems trop vite me fuit. 
    Mais si, par un malheur extreme,
    Je perdois cet objet charmant,
    Oui, cette compagnie meme
    Ne me tiendroit un moment.

    V.

    Me livrant a ma tristesse,
    Toujours plein de mon chagrin,
    Je n’aurois plus d’allegresse
    Pour mettre Bathurst en train: 
    Ainsi pour vous tenir en joie
    Invoquez toujours les Dieux,
    Qu’elle vive et qu’elle soit
    Avec nous toujours heureuse!

Adieu!  I am in great hurry.

M.  DE GRIGNAN—­LIVY’S PATAVINITY—­THE MARECHAL DE BELLEISLE—­WHISTON PROPHECIES THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD—­THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.

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Letters of Horace Walpole — Volume I from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.