XXXI.
Reading edition
ON CAPTAIN FRANCIS GROSE.
[This was a festive sally: it is said that Grose, who was very fat, though he joined in the laugh, did not relish it.]
The devil got notice that Grose was a-dying, So whip! at the summons, old Satan came flying; But when he approach’d where poor Francis lay moaning, And saw each bed-post with its burden a-groaning, Astonish’d! confounded! cry’d Satan, “By ——, I’ll want him, ere I take such a damnable load!”