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Title: On The Demolition Of The French Monarchy
Author: Philip Freneau [
More Titles by Freneau]
From Bourbon's brow the crown remov'd,
Low in the dust is laid;
And, parted now from all she lov'd,
Maria's[1] beauties fade:
What shall relieve her sad distress,
What power recall that former state
When drinking deep her seas of bliss,
She smil'd, and look'd so sweet!--
With aching heart and haggard eye
She views the palace,[2] towering high,
Where, once, were pass'd her brightest days,
And nations flood, in wild amaze,
Louis! to see you eat.
This gaudy vision to restore
Shall fate its laws repeal,
And cruel despots rise once more
To plan a new Batille!
Shall, from their sheathes, ten tboufand blades[3]
In glittering vengeance start
To mow down slaves, and slice off heads,
Taking a monarch's part?--
Ah no!--the heavens this hope refuse;
Despots! they send you no such news--
Nor Conde, fierce, nor Frederick, stout,
Nor Catharine brings this work about,
Nor Brunswick's warlike art:
Nor He,[4] 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 [5] 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!
Valour, at length, by Fortune led,
The Rights of Man restore;
And Gallia, now from bondage freed,
Her rising sun adores:
On Equal Rights, her fabric plann'd,
Storms idly round it rave,
Nor 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!
Enrolled with these--and close immur'd,
The gallant chief [6] 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, [7]
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,
See!--doom'd to fare on famish'd steeds.
The rude Hungarians fly;
Brunswick with drooping courage leads
Death's meagre family:
In dismal groups, o'er hosts of dead,
Their madness they bemoan,
No friendly hand to give them bread,
No Thionville their own!
The Gaul, enrag'd as they retire,
Hurls at their heads his blaze of fire--
What hosts of Frederick's reeking crew
Dying, have bid the world adieu,
To dogs their flesh been thrown!
Escap'd from death, a mangled train
In scatter'd bands retreat:
Where, bounding on Silesia's plain,
The Despot[8] holds his seat;
With feeble step, I see them go
The heavy news to tell
Where Oder's lazy waters flow,
Or glides the swift Moselle;
Where Rhine his various journey move
Through marshy lands and ruin'd groves,
Or, where the vast Danubian flood
(So often stain'd by Austrian blood)
Foams with the autumnal swell.
But shall they not some tidings bear
Of Freedom's sacred flame,
And shall not groaning millions hear
The long abandon'd name?--
Through ages past, their spirits broke,
I see them spurn old laws,
Indignant, burst the Austrian yoke,
And clip the Eagle's [9] claws:
From shore to shore, from sea to sea,
They join, to set the wretched free,
And, driving from the servile court
Each titled slave--they help support
THE Democratic Cause!
O France! the world to thee must owe
A debt they ne'er can pay:
The Rights of Man you bid them know,
And kindle Reason's Day!
Columbia, in your friendship blest,
Your gallant deeds shall hail--
On the same ground our fortunes rest,
Must flourish, or must fail:
But--should all Europe's slaves combine
Against a cause fo fair as thine,
And Asia aid a league so base--
Defeat would all their aims disgrace,
And Liberty Prevail!
PHILADELPHIA, December 19, 1792.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Maria Antoinette, late queen of France
[2]Thuilleries -- within view of which the royal family of France were at this time imprisoned--1792
[3] Aluding to Mr. Edmund burke's rant upon this subject.
[4] George III
[5] The French Republican
[6] La Fayette; at this time in the Prussian prison of Spandau.
[7] The province of France, where the Marquis's family estate lay.
[8] The Monarch of Prussia
[9] The imperial standard of Germany
[The end]
Philip Freneau's poem: On The Demolition Of The French Monarchy
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