Life of Count Rumford. 589 



sailed from New York on July 24 in the ship Drum- 

 mond, which was captured, as a suspected blockade- 

 runner, by the brig of war Cadmus, off Bordeaux, and 

 carried into Plymouth September 7, her jewels and 

 other personal property being taken from her. 



The Countess wrote to Sir Charles Blagden from Ply- 

 mouth on September 9, informing him of the annoying 

 circumstances under which she had arrived. He replied, 

 from Maidenhead, on September 13. He refers to sev- 

 eral previous letters to her, which she seems not to have 

 received, and informs her that, being ill at the house of 

 a friend, he shall not be able to visit her. Through the 



' O 



help of that friend, Admiral Sir Charles Pole, he puts 

 her in the way of recovering her effects, by advising a 

 simple memorial from herself, addressed to the Lords 

 of the Treasury, stating that she was on her route to 

 join her father in France, and asking that her goods be 

 restored to her on her embarking in a cartel forthat 

 country. " If their lordships take no notice of it, you 

 have no remedy, but must pay the duty on what you 

 do not choose to lose, and leave in possession of the 

 officers of the customs what you do not think worth 

 the duty." 



lines from the poem in my hands, for the sake of the tribute which it pays to the 

 Countess's father. 



"Cheer him who cheers a grateful age j 

 And, winged by duty, fly to hail 

 At once the father and the sage ! 

 Oft the false lights that learning shows 

 But lead the 'wildered wretch astray; 

 The Meteor, Genius, often glows 

 Only to dazzle and dismay. 

 A nobler image pictures him ; 

 No baleful star in vengeance hurled, 

 The central orb, whose blessed beam 

 Not only lights, but warms, the world." 



