Erin's minstrels and bards indignant expire,
They saw not, survived not, their country's decay!
Wherever I wander I mournful ponder,
Lamenting the issue of Boyne's woful fray;
O Erin, my country! no lover loved fonder,
Tho' fame with thy freedom have parted asunder;
Like summer clouds fleeting at close of the day,
Their glories fast fading in twilight away!
King James did not appear, in sooth, to be overcharmed with this mournful ditty; and having hasty recourse to his spur, he pressed onward his gallant courser; when dropping one of his stirrups, like Jason of yore, of Argonautic fame; in this expedition the king lost one of his sandals, or royal talaria. So far the mishap differed from Jason's case, that it fell not into a stream, but upon dry ground; and tradition, to the present hour, points out the place, or, as the gentlemen of the long robe would express it, "lays the venue" at Red Gap, where this occurrence took place.