My father then, gazing throughout the dark,
Cried out on me: Flee, son, they ar at hand.
With that bright sheldes, and shene armours I saw.
But when I knowe not what vnfrendly God
My troubled wit from me biraft for fere :
For while I ran by the most secret stretes,
Eschuing still the common haunted track,
From me catif, alas, bereued was

Creusa then my spouse, I wote not how :
Whether by fate, or missing of the way,
Or that she was by werinesse reteind:
But neuer sithe these eies might her behold;
Nor did I yet perceive that she was lost;
Ne neuer backward turned I my mind,
Till we came to the hill, whereas there stood
The old temple dedicate to Ceres.

SELECT POEMS

OF

GEORGE GASCOIGNE.

WITH

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

BY

EZEKIEL SANFORD.

Hh2

LIFE OF GASCOIGNE.

GEORGE GASCOIGNE was the son of Sir George Gascoigne, in Essex. Having received the preparatory education under a private instructor, he was sent to Cambridge; and, after a term of residence not yet ascertained, removed to Gray's Inn. Law, however, appears to have occupied little of his time. It was his ambition to be a man of fashion and a courtier; and his expenses soon became so enormous, and his amendment so hopeless, that his father concluded to disinherit him. For a time, he endeavoured to support his former extravagance; but his necessities, at length, compelled him to seek relief in some other occupation; and, though this is known to have been his only motive in entering the army, his biographers speak of his being prompted by the hope of gaining laurels in a field dignified by patriotic bravery.'

In the army, he appears to have encountered many mishaps. He was appointed a captain, in one of the regiments employed by the prince of Orange to drive the Spaniards from the Netherlands; and the first adventure, of which we have an account, is a quarrel with his colonel. Which was to blame, we know not; but Gascoigne thought himself ag grieved; and he repaired immediately to Delf, determined, it is said, 'to resign his commission into the hands from which he had received it; the prince in vain endeavouring to close the breach between

his officers.** It appears, however, that he was not quite implacable; and that he lived a captain for a long time after this occurrence.

Before he was perfectly reconciled to his commission, he had an adventure with a lady at the Hague, with whom, having been on ‘intimate terms' with her, (according to the phrase of our predecessors,) he left his portrait, as a token of remembrance. Hague was then in the possession of the Spaniards; and the lady, resolving,-for what reason the reader must enquire,-to return Gascoigne's likeness, and to entrust it with no person but himself, despatched a secret message to solicit an interview. Falling into the hands of Gascoigne's enemies, the letter was displayed as a proof of disloyalty; but he defeated their machinations, it is said, by a frank disclosure of the circumstances to the prince; and, obtaining passports to the Hague, he started to redeem his captive portrait. His story appears to have exuded; for the burghers used to watch his motions with some malice, and call him the Green Knight.

He next had to deal with three thousand Spaniards. At the siege of Middleburg, his zeal and courage were so conspicuous, that the prince rewarded him with three hundred guilders beyond his regular pay, and promised to give him some post above that of captain. He was, however,' says one account, 'surprised soon after by three thousand Spaniards, when commanding, under captain Sheffield, five hundred Englishmen lately landed, and retired, in good order, at night, under the walls of Leyden.' The Dutch refused to open their gates, and the whole band were taken prisoners. We fear, that the biographer just quoted, has imagined, for Gascoigne, an importance which he never possessed; for, we find it difficult to under