hin the British lines at New York.
It is only an incident, I confess, but it is of a character to furnish
a scene for the "mind's eye," an incident which, though it could never
occupy a very prominent place upon the canvass, might prove itself
a fine auxiliary, spreading a sweet and tender effect over the more
distant parts of the picture. There are many similar events which
seem fated to be lost in the rapid changes of feeling and the constant
revolutions of business; many too that would give interest to the tale,
and pathos to the ballad. It is not generally known that some of the
elite of the English nobility served in this country during the
revolution, but the fact may be ascertained by referring to the
biographical notices which from time to time appear in foreign
publications.
Many gallant young men, who were the only hope of their families, and
made their first essay in arms against their transatlantic brethren,
were doomed to fall at the onset of their career.
Some of the choicest blood of English chivalry bedewed the plains of
Brandywine, and valour, birth and merit were alike an unavailing
sacrifice in the struggle at Saratoga.
There was one distinguished family in England, which lost its head at
this memorable battle, and in which the voice of weeping was heard upon
the advent of its melancholy tidings. I allude to that of Sir Francis
Carr Clerke, the aid de camp of general Burgoyne, who, although he
possessed hereditary honours, and a fair estate in Lancashire, was at
the age of twenty nine mortally wounded in the wilds of America, and
now sleeps in an obscure grave near that of the unfortunate Frazer.
Several of our prints have lately copied an obituary of the Earl of
Balcarras, who was also at Saratoga and had two remarkable rencontres
with general Arnold, the one, when at the head of the British Light
Infantry, he defended himself against his desperate valour, and the
other when he subsequently refused to recognise him as an acquaintance
at the court of St. James, even upon the introduction of the King
himself.
He was one of the most important witnesses examined in relation to
the military conduct of his commander, and his testimony is the most
interesting part of the celebrated narrative of the Expedition. He is
said to have been to the last, frank, communicate and hospitable, and
to have abounded in anecdotes of his American campaign.
Perhaps he had not forgotten, and if he had, certain
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