But tell me, Brandon, am I not Nor longer live may I Than when I love your royal grace, But if I do deserve your love, The queen and this brave gentleman And after sought the king's good-will, And of their wishes sped: For Brandon soon was made a duke, Then who but he did flaunt it forth And so from princely Brandon's line, And Mary's did proceed The noble race of Suffolk's house, As after did succeed: From whose high blood the lady Jane, Lord Guilford Dudley's wife, Came by descent, who, with her lord, In London lost her life. CAPTAIN DEATH: WRITTEN BY ONE OF THE SURVIVING CREW. History, perhaps, cannot afford a more remarkable instance of desperate courage than that, which was exerted on December 23rd, 1757, by the officers and crew of an English privateer, called the Terrible, equipped with 26 guns, and manned with 200 men, under the command of Capt. William Death. On the 22nd he engaged and made prize of a large French ship from St. Domingo, after an obstinate battle, in which he lost his own brother, and sixteen seamen. Having secured his prize with forty men, he afterwards fell in with the Vengeance, a privateer of St. Maloes, carrying 36 large cannon, with a complement of 360 men, which attacked and recaptured his prize. Both ships then bore down upon the Terrible, whose main-mast was shot away by the first broadside. Notwithstanding this disaster, the Terrible maintained such a furious engagement against both, as can hardly be paralleled in the British annals. The French commander and his second were killed, with two-thirds of his complement; but the gallant Capt. Death, with the greater part of his officers, and almost his whole crew, having shared the same fate, his ship was boarded by the enemy, who found no more than 26 persons alive, 16 of whom were mutilated by the loss of leg or arm, and the other ten grievously wounded. The ship itself was so shattered, that it could scarcely be kept above water; and the whole exhibited a most dreadful scene of carnage, horror, and desolation. The victor itself lay like a wreck ; and in this condition made shift, with great difficulty, to tow the Terrible into St. Maloes, where she was not beheld without terror and astonishment. This adventure was no sooner known in England, than a liberal subscription was raised for the support of Death's widow, and the surviving crew. The strange combination, mentioned by some writers, of one of the Terrible's Lieutenants being named Devil, the Surgeon Ghost, and of her having been fitted out at Execution-Dock, seem entirely destitute of foundation. The gallant Capt. Death was a native of this county, and his widow and daughters resided, after his death, at Mistley in Essex. THE muse and the hero together are fir'd, His ship was the Terrible, dreadful to see! Each man was determin'd to spend his last breath A prize they had taken diminish'd their force, No heart was dismay'd,-each as bold as Macbeth;--- Fire, thunder, balls, bullets, were seen, heard, and felt; A sight that the heart of Bellona would melt; The shrouds were all torn, and the decks fill'd with blood, And scores of dead bodies were thrown in the flood;-The flood from the days of old Noah and Seth, Ne'er saw such a man as our brave captain Death. At last the dread bullet came wing'd with his fate, Our brave captain dropp'd,-and soon after his mate ; Each officer fell, and a carnage was seen, That soon died the waves to a crimson from green: And Neptune rose up, and took off his wreath, And gave it a Triton to crown captain Death. Thus fell the strong Terrible, bravely and bold; For many brave French were with Englishmen lost. Epistle FROM MARY, QUEEN OF FRANCE,* TO CHARLES BRANDON, DUKE OF SUFFOLK. Mary, youngest sister of Henry the VIIIth, was one of the most beautiful women of her time; and when only sixteen years of age was betrothed to Louis the XIIth. She was sent over to France with a splendid retinue, and Louis met her at Abbeville, * A Portrait of this Lady is given in Gent. Mag. August, 1805. p. 697.. where the espousals were celebrated, on the 9th of October, 1514. He was enchanted with the beauty, grace, and numerous accomplishments of the young princess, but died in less than three months after the marriage. His successor Francis the Ist. proposed the Queen dowager's return to England, to which king Henry consented, after having made the best conditions he could for his sister, and taken security for the payment of her dowry. This done, some of the English nobility were appointed to go over into France to receive the Queen and conduct her back; amongst whom was the Duke of Suffolk; who, upon his arrival, renewing his suit, and being already in her good graces, found it no difficult matter to gain his point; and wisely concluding that Henry might not so readily consent to his marrying the dowager of France, as he would have done to his marrying the princess his sister, he would not delay his happiness, but had the marriage privately solemnized before he left that country. It is known, however, that Suffolk had entirely gained her affections long before she was married to the French monarch. For soon after his arrival she asked him, whether he had now the courage, without farther reflection, to espouse her? And she told him, that her brother would more easily forgive him for not asking his consent, than for acting contrary to his orders. But this was most probably done with the king's connivance. It is, however, certain, that no other subject durst have ventured upon a Queen of France, and a sister of the inexorable Henry the VIth. It is remarkable, that neither this princess nor her sister had any great pride or ambition; for although they both had been wedded to monarchs, we find that the eldest sister, Margaret, after having buried her first husband, James the Vth of Scotland, chose one of her nobles for a second, and married Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus. The Duchess died at the Manor House of Wes |