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the last of the gascoignes.
My mother, no longer young, used to pray
That I would cherish her declining day.
Alas! how little did we think or know
Of the sad and fearful coming blow
That hovered o'er our once happy home!
Returning one day from a distant field,
I found my mother busy at her spinning wheel:
Suddenly and wildly starting to her feet,
She sprang before me with a piercing shriek.
It was the press-gang. I soon was seized;
My mother wept, imploring on her knees
They would spare her son, her only child.
The cruel leader of the press-gang only smiled;
My mother's skirt, alas! I vainly clasped,
It only yielded to my agonising grasp
As on the ground my mother senseless lay.
Resistance proved vain, and I was torn away.
Weeks passed by, and since that painful scene,
Which seemed like the action of a fearful dream,
To distant lands in a noble ship we sailed,
Borne on by many a rough and gentle gale.
We reached the fair West Indian isles
That are wreathed by many a subtle smile,
Laying robed in such tempting, winning charms
On the wide ocean so soft and calm.
Days, weeks, and months flew swiftly by,
That I would cherish her declining day.
Alas! how little did we think or know
Of the sad and fearful coming blow
That hovered o'er our once happy home!
Returning one day from a distant field,
I found my mother busy at her spinning wheel:
Suddenly and wildly starting to her feet,
She sprang before me with a piercing shriek.
It was the press-gang. I soon was seized;
My mother wept, imploring on her knees
They would spare her son, her only child.
The cruel leader of the press-gang only smiled;
My mother's skirt, alas! I vainly clasped,
It only yielded to my agonising grasp
As on the ground my mother senseless lay.
Resistance proved vain, and I was torn away.
Weeks passed by, and since that painful scene,
Which seemed like the action of a fearful dream,
To distant lands in a noble ship we sailed,
Borne on by many a rough and gentle gale.
We reached the fair West Indian isles
That are wreathed by many a subtle smile,
Laying robed in such tempting, winning charms
On the wide ocean so soft and calm.
Days, weeks, and months flew swiftly by,
