Then twitch, with fairy hands, the frolic pin—
Down falls the impatient axe with deafening din;
The liberated head rolls off below,[[255]]
And simpering Freedom hails the happy blow!
[The following lines of Dr. Darwin’s, in Canto ii., gave great offence to the Government:—
So, borne on sounding pinions to the west,
When tyrant-power had built his eagle nest;
While from his eyry shriek’d the famish’d brood,
Clench’d their sharp claws, and champ’d their beaks for blood,
Immortal Franklin watch’d the callow crew,