Page:Poetical Works of the Right Hon. Geo. Granville.djvu/20

viii infamous, and he will, we are perſuaded, be of opinion, that had his Majeſty poſſeſſed a thouſand kingdoms he deſerved to loſe them all for this one act of genuine barbarity.

Lord Lanſdowne, who did not conſider, or was not then capable of diſcovering, the dangers to which this prince expoſed his people, wrote the following letter to his father, earneſtly preſſing him to permit his entering voluntarily into King James’s ſervice.

“Your having no proſpect of obtaining a commiſſion for me, can no way alter or cool my deſire, at this important juncture, to venture my life, in ſome manner or other, for my king and country. I cannot bear to live under the reproach of lying obſcure and idle, in a country retirement, when every man who has the leaſt ſenſe of honour ſhould be preparing for the field. You may remember, Sir, with what reluctance I ſubmitted to your commands upon Monmouth’s rebellion, when no importunity could prevail with you to permit me to leave the academy: I was too young to be hazarded; but, give me leave to ſay, it is glorious, at any age, to die for one’s country; and the ſooner the nobler ſacrifice: I am now older by three years. My uncle Bath was not ſo old when he was left among the ſlain at the battle of Newberry, nor you yourſelf, Sir, when you made your eſcape from your tutors to join