The Memoirs of Captain George Carleton: And The Life and Adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies

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D.A. Talboys, 1840 - Great Britain - 418 pages

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Page xix - A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pigmy body to decay, And o'er-informed the tenement of clay...
Page xix - There my retreat the best companions grace, Chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place: There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl The feast of reason and the flow of soul: And he, whose lightning pierced the' Iberian lines, Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines; Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain, Almost as quickly as he conquer'd Spain.
Page xvii - His meagre corpse, though full of vigour, Would halt behind him, were it bigger. So wonderful his expedition, When you have not the least suspicion, He's with you like an apparition. Shines in all climates like a star; In senates bold, and fierce in war ; A land commander, and a tar. Heroic actions early bred in, Ne'er to be matched in modern reading, But by his namesake, Charles of Sweden.
Page ix - THE MEMOIRS OF AN English Officer, Who serv'd in the Dutch War in 1672. to the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713. Containing several Remarkable TRANSACTIONS both by Sea and Land, and in divers countries, but chiefly those wherein the Author was personally concerned.
Page 21 - I had the curiosity to advance a little further, when, at the mouth of the oven, which had not yet wholly lost its heat, I spied the corpse of a man so bloated, swollen and parched, as left me little room to doubt that the oven had been the scene of his destiny.
Page 113 - But on his marching out of it next morning a shot in the back laid that officer dead upon the spot ; and, as it had been before concerted, the Spaniards of the place at the same time fell upon the poor weak soldiers, killing several, not even sparing their wives. This was but a prelude to their barbarity : their savage cruelty was only whetted, not glutted. They took the surviving few, hurried and dragged them up a hill a little without the villa. On the top of this hill there was a hole, or opening,...
Page xv - Peterborough's parts were of too lively and mercurial a quality, and that his letters showed more wit than became a general ; a commonplace objection, raised by the dull malignity of common-place minds against those whom they see discharging with ease and indifference the tasks which they themselves execute (if at all) with the sweat of their brow, and in the heaviness of their heart. It is no uncommon error of judgment to maintain...
Page 235 - COURAGE and personal BRAVERY. Taken from her own Mouth when A Pensioner of Chelsea-Hospital, And known to be true by Many who were engaged in those great Scenes of ACTION. LONDON: Printed for and Sold by R. MONTAGU, at the BookWare-House, in Great Wylde- Street, 1740. PREFACE. IN the following life of Mrs. CHRISTIAN DAVIES, taken from her own mouth, we may remark examples of uncommon intrepidity but rarely found in the fair sex.
Page 237 - She was long before her death afflicted with a complication of distempers, as dropsy, scurvy, &c., at length her husband being taken ill, she would sit up with him at nights, by which she- contracted a cold that threw her into a continual fever, which carried her off in four days. She died on the 7th of July, 1739, and was interred in the burying-ground belonging to Chelsea Hospital, with military honours. THE LIFE AND ENTERTAINING ADVENTURES OF MRS, CHRISTIAN DAVIES, COMMONLY CALLED MOTHER HOSS.
Page 63 - The earl, however, having made his proper dispositions, and delivered out his orders, began his march in the evening, with twelve hundred foot and two hundred horse, which, of necessity, were to pass by the quarters of the prince of Hesse. That prince, on their appearance, was told that the general was come to speak with him ; and, being brought into his apartment, the earl acquainted him, that he had at last resolved upon an attempt against the enemy ; adding, that now, if he pleased, he might be...

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