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or the men will yield. This, to be sure, is a matter of but little consequence to great military geniuses like myself, to whom the citizen soldiers pay a sort of involuntary respect; but I have often seen your common-place captains put to their wit's end to make their men obey them. But this is a digression.

The election took place in the month of August, and was soon followed by the company training, preliminary to the regimental review. It is not my intention to dwell upon this training, as I must hasten on to greater things. I will only say, therefore, that the day passed off without any considerable incident; except, that as ill luck would have it, just before Mr. Fairservice's door, the company was thrown into sad confusion, and was like to have been run over, by a drove of oxen. However, notwithstanding this accident, Miss Fairservice allowed, that Captain Doggett himself could not have manœuvred the company better; and, to tell the truth, it was nothing but my uncommon presence of mind, in ordering the company to "form parallel lines with a space between 'em," and so letting the cattle pass through, that saved us from suffering some serious loss.

The regimental muster was now approaching. The companies were ordered to assemble at Ragamuffin Plain, and it was currently reported that two or three regiments were to meet there, and that there was to be a great sham fight. I recollected, that, hitherto, my military reputation had not extended beyond the limits of Applesbury, and, considering that here was an opportunity of distinguishing myself in the face of the whole county, I resolved that it should not pass unimproved. I instilled some of my own ardor into my company, and every day drilled such of the men as I could get together, taking special care to instruct them in the true art of loading and firing in double quick time.

The eventful day came; and though Ragamuffin Plain was at least fifteen miles distant from Applesbury, my company was on the field by five o'clock in the morning. I pass by the review and other preliminary matters, and hasten on to the sham fight. There were two regiments mustered together, and one was to be fitted against the other. Colonel Timothy Blazeaway, with the regiment under his command, was stationed near the top of Booby Hill, which slopes gradually down upon Ragamuffin Plain; he was strongly entrenched behind a brush fence; and Colonel Napthali Eatemall, to whose regiment I belonged, was to attack him, and drive him from his entrenchments; for the colonels had cast lots for the honor of the victory, and the lucky lot had fallen to our regiment.

The regiment was drawn up in two columns, and my company was placed at the head of the left column; midway between the enemy and ourselves, was a ledge of rocks, which was supposed to be a strong battery occupied by the enemy; but, as all their companies were necessary to fill their lines at the top of the hill, the battery was served by an imaginary battalion.

It was impossible to attack Colonel Blazeaway, without first carrying this battery, and my company was detached for this purpose. My heart beat hard, at the thoughts of such dangerous service; but, repressing all emotions of fear, I gave the order to trail arms, and pushed boldly forward at the head of my company. The imaginary 62

VOL. II.

battalion, that occupied the fancied battery, was supposed to keep up a most incessant and tremendous fire of grape and cannister; but, undismayed and undaunted, I rushed on through the fire, and, after a desperate struggle, carried the battery at the point of the bayonet.

Colonel Blazeaway immediately detached two companies of grenadiers to dislodge me, but, our regiment advancing, they were obliged to fall back without effecting their purpose. I now took my place at the head of the left column, when the Colonel led us up within an hundred yards of the enemy, under a tremendous fire of artillery and small arms, and ordered the columns to deploy. The regiments stood firing at each other till they had spent all their cartridges, when the word was given to assault the enemy's entrenchments. Having now become accustomed to the smell of powder, and my blood being heated, and my spirits raised, I rushed forward, sword in hand, followed by my company. We soon succeeded in making a breach in Farmer Cornstalk's brush fence, and were rushing forward, in full pursuit of the enemy, when, too intent upon the battle, I ran against a scrub oak, and made a grievous rent in my regimental breeches. Though thus severely wounded, I was too full of fight to leave the field, and, binding up my leg with a red silk handkerchief, I rallied my men, and continued the battle.

The brush fence had, by this time, been stormed throughout its whole extent; and, according to the previous arrangement, Colonel Blazeaway and his troops were bound to take to their heels; and so they all did, except Captain Smashem, the blacksmith, who commanded the Rantipole Sharpshooters, and whose place in the line was just opposite to mine. Enraged at the flight of his comrades, when I hinted to him that it was time for him to run, too, he set his arms akimbo, swore he would not budge a step, and challenged me and my company to a round of fisticuffs. Captain Smashem was a stout, brawny blacksmith, and I was but a stripling; but, angry that he did not run away agreeably to contract, I accepted his challenge at once, threw down my sword, and stood on my defence. The men of both companies imitated our example. They threw aside their guns, and, squaring up to each other, began to turn the sham fight into earnest. I had a confused vision of hard knocks, and bloody noses, but my head soon began to grow dizzy, and I sunk to the ground beneath the blows of Captain Smashem.

The sur

When I came to my senses, I found myself in the colonel's tent, with half the officers of the regiment standing about me. geon was bathing my temples, and the chaplain,-kind soul!-was pinning together the fragments of my new uniform coat, which hung about my shoulders in most lamentable tatters. Every voice was loud in the praises of my invincible courage, and I was told that my men had done themselves the greatest honor, not one in ten having escaped without a black eye or a bloody nose. The Sharpshooters had been surrounded by the other companies and compelled to surrender at discretion. Captain Smashem was immediately put under arrest, and threatened with the double visitation of a Court Martial and an indictment for an assault and battery. For myself,-my eyes were SO swollen that I could scarcely see, and my nose was pretty much beat to pieces. My new uniform was quite ruined, my feather spoiled, and

my cap out of all shape. But I recollected that such is the fortune of war, and comforted myself with the thought of the glory I had acquired; and this sham fight on Booby Hill, which some of my kind readers may think I had little cause to rejoice in, eventuated, as I will presently show, in my being chosen colonel of the regiment. BELLEROPHON BURDOCK.

DRAMATIC REMINISCENCES.

NO. IV.

PREVIOUS to the period alluded to in the concluding paragraph of the last number, a company of amateurs had been organized in Portsmouth, consisting of young men of respectable character and connexions. Their first performances were at an assembly-room in Vaughn-street. Afterwards an old store in Bow-street, near St. John's church, was fitted up for their purposes, and provided with all necessary and some convenient accommodations. The scenery, some of which was very fine, was painted by a Spaniard of the name of Seville. Seville was also the stage-manager. The principal musician's name was Garnett, a man of considerable taste and skill in the science. A gentleman residing at Portsmouth has furnished the writer with the names of the young gentlemen composing this company, many of whom are still living, and some of them in offices of high trust and importance, in the state and United States governments. The expense of fitting up the theatre was defrayed by the subscriptions of about one hundred and fifty persons, among whom were some of the most respectable in the town. The performances were also countenanced and patronized by the members of the General Court, which then held its sittings in Portsmouth.

The performances were chiefly confined to comedy, though the tragedies of Julius Cæsar and Hamlet were attempted. Pantomimes were occasionally got up by Seville. Among other contrivances to amuse the audience, he constructed an enormous goose, of paste-board, on which a person in the character of a tailor rode on to the stage; the legs of the rider being introduced into those of his steed through the back, while imitations of his own legs were fixed on the side of the goose, placed in stirrups, and provided with spurs. Another of Seville's contrivances, was the king of the Antipodes, represented as walking on his hands with his feet in the air. The arms of the actor were stretched above his head, and surmounted by a pair of boots, the head being obscured by a fac simile of the reverse part of the human figure.

Sewall, a poet of considerable note, took great interest in the Bowstreet theatre. This gentleman was born in Salem, Mass. in 1748, and died in Portsmouth in 1808, where, it is believed, some of his family are yet living. He spent the early part of his youth in a merchant's counting-house in Salem, but left it on account of ill health. After a voyage to Spain, having regained his health, he went to Portsmouth,

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where he studied law with Judge Pickering. He never opened an office, nor could he bring himself to conform to the common routine of business. His life was, in some degree, a transcript of that of the poet Savage; he had all the carelessness, prodigality, and imprudence of the prototype. He sometimes pleaded eloquently at the bar, but he never obtained much business. Many instances of his eloquent and satirical manner are related by those who knew him. He was once employed by a parent to bring a suit against a schoolmaster for abusing a child. In the course of the investigation it was stated that the parent swore tremendously on hearing the treatment his child had received. Swore," said Sewall, "if the child had been mine, I should have sworn thunder and stamped earthquakes." He wrote several occasional addresses for the Bow-street theatre. sion he had promised to furnish an epilogue, and also to speak it. He neglected it, till the evening of performance arrived. While the play was going on, he was seen busy with his pen in the orchestra, and, by the time the play was finished, he had completed his prologue, and went on to the stage at the proper time to recite it. But, unluckily, he had forgotten the first line. After waiting a few seconds to receive the word from the prompter, he turned towards him, and, with great coolness, exclaimed, " Mr. Parker, you are a very clever fellow, and for aught I know a good preacher,* but certainly the worst prompter I ever knew." The prompter gave him his cue, and he went on with his recitation without further difficulty.

On one occa

Sewall was fond of music; he sung well, and played delightfully on the violin. He was at times extremely petulant and irritable; but, at other times, he was the delight of every circle, and frequently set the table in a roar, by the brilliancy of his wit, and the elegance and pith of his conversation.

For some years previous to his death, Sewall confined himself chiefly to his own house. During this period, his muse was completely inactive, and his mind much obscured. A short time before his death, a number of gentlemen requested him to write a song for the birth-day of Washington; but he obstinately and petulantly refused. At length, however, he promised one of the committee, that he would give him something; and, at the appointed time, he sent the following, as an additional stanza to the favorite song, "Hail Columbia, happy land." It was probably his last effort.

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Among the pieces represented at the Bow-street theatre in Portsmouth, during this period, was the tragedy of Cato, for which Sewall wrote an epilogue, which, although it may be familiar to some readers,

The prompter was a respectable mechanic, and sometimes took a part in the religions services of the society of Universalists.

will probably be a novelty to many, and has sufficient merit to entitle it to a place in these sketches of the dramatic history of the times.

EPILOGUE TO CATO.

You see mankind the same in every age:
Heroic fortitude, tyrannic rage,
Boundless ambition, patriotic truth,

And hoary treason, and untainted youth,
Have deeply marked all periods and all climes,
The noblest virtues, and the blackest crimes.
Did Cæsar, drunk with power, and madly 'brave,
Insatiate burn, his country to enslave?

Did he, for this, lead forth a servile host

To spill the choicest blood that Rome could boast?
The British Cæsar, too, hath done the same,
And doomed this age to everlasting fame.
Columbia's crimsoned fields still smoke with gore;
Her bravest heroes cover all the shore :
The flower of Britain, in full martial bloom,
In this sad war, sent headlong to the tomb.
Did Rome's brave senate nobly dare to oppose
The mighty torrent, stand confessed their foes,
And boldly arm the virtuous few, and dare
The desperate horrors of unequal war?
Our senate, too, the same bold deed have done,
And, for a Cato, armed a Washington;
A chief, in all the ways of battle skilled,
Great in the council, mighty in the field.
His martial arm, and steady soul alone,
Made Britain's legions shake, her navy groan,
And her proud empire totter to the throne.
O, what thou art, mayest thou forever be,
And death the lot of any chief but thee!
We've had our Decius, too; and Howe could say,
Health, pardon, peace, George sends America;
Yet brought destruction for the olive wreath;
For health, contagion, and for pardon, death.
Rise, then, my countrymen! for fight prepare;
Gird on your swords, and, fearless, rush to war :
'T is your bold task the generous strife to try;
For your grieved country nobly dare to die;
No pent-up Utica contracts your powers;
For the whole boundless continent is ours!

During the year 1793, the building of the theatre in Boston went on rapidly. In the mean time, Powell, who was to be the lessee, and sole manager, went to England to procure a company, with which he returned in the autumn of that year. The most distinguished members of his corps were Messrs. Baker, Bartlett, Collins, Kenney, Jones, Nelson, and S. Powell (brother to the manager;) Mrs. and Miss Baker, Mrs. Abbott, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Collins, Miss Harrison (afterwards Mrs. S. Powell,) and Mrs. Powell.

The theatre was opened on Monday, the third of February, 1794. The play selected for the occasion was Brooke's celebrated tragedy of Gustavus Vasa, to which was added O'Keefe's laughable farce of Modern Antiques, or the Merry Mourners. Perhaps it would not have been possible to have selected from the whole catalogue of English plays, one, which would have been more appropriate to the occasion, than Gustavus Vasa. It contains nothing to offend the most rigid moralist; and its political sentiments corresponded with those of a

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