True glory, everlasting sanctity.
i. e. in the edition of 1807, but this sonnet was previously printed in 1803 in The Poetical Register, vol. iii. p. 340, in the Anti-Gallican (1804), and in the Poetical Repository (1805).—Ed.
Note:
This sonnet, as the title indicates, does not refer to an actual victory; because, since the Norman conquest, no "Invaders" have ever set foot "on British ground." It was written—like the two preceding sonnets, and the one that follows it—"in anticipation" of Napoleon's project for the invasion of England being actually carried out; a project never realised. The assembling of the immense French army destined for this purpose—one of the finest brought together since the days of the Roman legions—between the mouths of the Seine and the Texel, roused the spirit of English patriotism as it had never been roused before. Three hundred thousand volunteers were enlisted in Great Britain by the 10th of August 1803;