They had boasted far too often that we ne’er would dare to face them.
THE PROVINCIALS ON PUNKATASSET.
How they staggered, how they trembled, how they panted at pursuing,
How they hurried broken columns that had marched to their undoing;
How their stout commander, wounded, urged along his frightened forces,
That had marked their fearful progress by their comrades’ bloody corses;
How they rallied, how they faltered, how in vain returned our firing,
While we hung upon their footsteps with a zealousness untiring.
With nine hundred came Lord Percy, sent by startled Gage to meet them,