27. Near that of Churchill’s, is a stately monument erected for Sir Palmes Fairborne. Two pyramids of black marble standing on cannon balls, have two Moorish Emperors heads in profile on their tops; these pyramids are adorned with relievos, on one Sir Palmes is shot while viewing the enemy’s lines before the town; and on the other is a hearse and six horses bringing him off wounded to the castle. Above in a lofty dome are the arms of the deceased, with this motto underneath, TUTUS SI FORTIS, and over his arms a Turk’s head on a dagger, by way of crest, which he won by his valour in fighting against that people in the German war. On this monument is the following inscription:
Sacred to the immortal memory of Sir Palmes Fairborne, Knt. Governor of Tangier, in execution of which command, he was mortally wounded by a shot from the Moors, then besieging the town, in the 46th year of his age, October 24, 1680.
His epitaph, wrote by Mr. Dryden, runs thus:
Ye sacred reliques, which your marble keep,
Here undisturb’d by wars, in quiet sleep:
Discharge the trust, which (when it was below) }
Fairborne’s undaunted soul did undergo, }
And be the town’s palladium from the foe. }
Alive and dead these walls he will defend:
Great actions great examples must attend.