Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/74

34 ON THE DEATH OF MR. FOX,

THE FOLLOWING ILLIBERAL IMPROMPTU APPEARED IN THE "MORNING POST."

TO WHICH THE AUTHOR OF THESE PIECES SENT THE FOLLOWING REPLY FOR INSERTION IN THE "MORNING CHRONICLE."

, factious viper! whose envenom'd tooth

Would mangle, still, the dead, perverting truth;

What, though our "nation's foes" lament the fate,

With generous feeling, of the good and great;

Shall dastard tongues essay to blast the name

Of him, whose meed exists in endless fame?

When expir'd in plenitude of power,

Though ill success obscur'd his dying hour,