Brave Captain Bompard
When this challenge he heard,
Though his sails were unbent from the yards,
His topmasts struck down,
And his men half in town;
Yet sent back his humble regards—
The challenge accepted; all hands warned on board,
Bent, their sails, swore revenge, and the frigate unmoored.
The Boston, at sea,
Being under their lee,
For windward manœuvred in vain;
'Till night coming on,
Both laid by 'till dawn,
Then met on the watery plain,
The wind at north-east, and a beautiful day,
And the hearts of the Frenchmen in trim for the fray.
So, to it they went,
With determined intent
The fate of the day to decide
By the virtues of powder;
(No argument louder
Was e'er to a subject applied)
A Gaul with a Briton in battle contends,
Let them stand to their guns, and we'll see how it ends.
As the Frenchman sailed past,
Boston gave him a blast,
Glass bottles, case knives, and old nails,
A score of round shot,
And the devil knows what,
To cripple his masts and his sails.
The Boston supposed it the best of her play
To prevent him from chacing—if she ran away.
The Frenchman most cool,
(No hot-headed fool,)
Returned the broadside in a trice;
So hot was the blast,
He disabled one mast,
And gave them some rigging to splice,
Some holes for to plug, where the bullets had gone,
Some yards to replace, and some heads to put on.
Three glasses, and more,
Their cannons did roar,
Shot flying in horrible squads;
'Midst torrents of smoke,
The Republican spoke,
And frightened the Anglican gods!
Their frigate so mauled, they no longer defend her,
And, Courtney shot down—they bawled out to surrender!
"O la! what a blunder
"To provoke this French thunder!
"We think with the devil he deals—
"But since we dislike
"To surrender and strike,
"Let us try the success of our heels:
"We may save the king's frigate by running away,
"The Frenchman will have us—all hands—if we stay!"
So squaring their yards,
On all Captain Bompard's,
A volley of curses they shed—
Having got their Discharge,
They bore away large,
While the Frenchman pursued, as they fled.
But vain was his haste—while his sails he repaired,
He ended the fray in a chace—
The Gaul got the best of the fight, 'tis declared;
The Briton—the best of the race!
[73] Published in the National Gazette, Aug. 17, 1793. The frigate L'Ambuscade, which had borne Citizen Genet from France to Charleston, where he arrived April 8, 1792, and which was soon after stationed at Philadelphia, caused much trouble to the federal government by making American ports her basis for operations upon English shipping. She captured several British ships, among them the Grange and the Little Sarah. Text from the 1809 edition.