Note 103 — Chapter XXXIV

So, at least, records in homely prose and verse a reverend historiographer of Mount Vernon. “When old Lord Fairfax heard that Washington had captured Lord Cornwallis and all his army, he called to his black waiter, ‘Come, Joe! carry me to bed, for it is high time for me to die!’”

“Then up rose Joe, all at the word,

And took his master’s arm,

And thus to bed he softly led

The lord of Greenway farm.

“There oft he called on Britain’s name,

And oft he wept full sore,

Then sighed—thy will, O Lord, be done—

And word spake never more.”

See Weems’ Life of Washington.