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TO JAMES FORBES, ESQ.

Author of The Oriental Memoirs, WHO ASKED FOR SOME LINES OF MY HAND-WRITING ON LEAVING FRANCE, AFTER HIS CAPTIVITY AT VERDUN.
* Mr. Forbes, well-known in the literary world, was claimed by the Royal Society of London, in a letter addressed to the Institute of France; his particular talent for drawing was mentioned to Buonaparte, and the very remarkable circumstance of his being in possession of several thousand sketches he had taken of the scenery of different parts of the globe which he had visited. Buonaparte ordered him and his family to be immediately set at liberty. Mr. Forbes is now no more! but to those who knew him he has left a void which will not easily be filled up: they will long remember that enthusiastic love of nature which gave elevation to his mind; that extreme simplicity of manners, which has such a peculiar charm when united with superior intellect, and proceeding, not from ignorance of the world, but from having passed through it with a purity unsullied by its contact; that virtue which the seductions of wealth, and the corruptions of the east, had no power to alter; and that piety which has found its reward.

1 WHEN sever'd from this hostile shore,
2 A weary captive now no more,
3 Home, cherish'd home, shall glad your sight
4 In blessedness of fresh delight;
5 While love shall weave new spells around
6 That spot of consecrated ground,
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7 Where sweet domestic joy imparts
8 The charm that binds congenial hearts,
9 And filial tenderness prepares
10 A balm for all terrestrial cares:
11 Forget not, ah, forget not those
12 Who sought to soothe the captive's woes!
13 Exult, be happy, and be free,
14 But give one pensive thought to me!

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Title (in Source Edition): TO JAMES FORBES, ESQ. Author of “The Oriental Memoirs,” WHO ASKED FOR SOME LINES OF MY HAND-WRITING ON LEAVING FRANCE, AFTER HIS CAPTIVITY AT VERDUN.
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Williams, Helen Maria, 1759-1827. Poems on various subjects: with introductory remarks on the present state of science and literature in France. London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1823, pp. [251]-252.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)

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Other works by Helen Maria Williams