MAJOR ANDRÉ.
In a satirical poem written by Major André some time prior to his arrest as a spy, he, curiously enough, alludes to the means of his own death. A newspaper published soon after the Revolutionary War gives some extracts from the poem, and calls it a “remarkable prophecy.” Could the ill-starred poet and soldier have looked into futurity and seen his own sad end, he would hardly have indulged in the humor which is indicated in his poem. The piece was entitled “The Cow-Chase,” and was suggested by the failure of an expedition undertaken by Wayne for the purpose of collecting cattle. Great liberties were taken with the names of the American officers employed on the occasion,—
Harry Lee and his dragoons,
And Proctor with his cannon.
But the point of his irony seemed particularly aimed at Wayne, whose entire baggage, he asserts, was taken along, comprising
His Congress dollars and his prog,
His military speeches,
His corn-stalk whiskey for his grog,
Black stockings and blue breeches.
The satirist brings his doggerel to a close by observing that it is necessary to check the current of his satire,—
Lest the same warrior-drover Wayne
Should catch and hang the poet!