[55] On July 14, 1789, the French people made their first armed stand against monarchial institutions, attacking and destroying the Bastile.
TO CRISPIN O'CONNER
A Back-Woodsman[56]
[Supposed to be written by Hezekiah Salem]
Wise was your plan when twenty years ago
From Patrick's isle you first resolved to stray,
Where lords and knights, as thick as rushes grow,
And vulgar folks are in each other's way;
Where mother-country acts the step-dame's part,
Cuts off, by aid of hemp, each petty sinner,
And twice or thrice in every score of years
Hatches sad wars to make her brood the thinner.
How few aspire to quit the ungrateful soil
That starves the plant it had the strength to bear:
How many stay, to grieve, and fret, and toil,
And view the plenty that they must not share.
This you beheld, and westward set your nose,
Like some bold prow, that ploughs the Atlantic foam,
And left less venturous weights, like famished crows,—
To feed on hog-peas, hips, and haws, at home.