Note 205 — IV. SUNBURY.
Reading edition
The following lines descriptive of the desolations wrought by this invading force, are extracted from a quaint old-fashioned poem composed by John Baker, a son of Colonel John Baker, and found among the MSS of the latter:
“Where’er they march, the buildings burn, Large stacks of rice to ashes turn: And me [Midway] a pile of ruin made Before their hellish malice staid. “Nor did their boundless fury spare The house devote to God and prayer: Brick, coal, and ashes shew the place Which once that sacred house did grace. “The churchyard, too, no better sped, The rabble so against the dead Transported were with direful fumes, They tore up and uncover’d tombs.”