| Citation |
FJ.781.003
16 May 1781:21 (4)
False honours please, and false reports disgrace,
And trouble, whom? the vicious and the base.
Flight is a confession of guilt, as well as of cowardice.
Sinon was invited to a magnificent ball which the Chevalier
de la Touche gave on board his frigate on Wednesday evening
last. Sinon had engaged a partner for the dance. But alas!
The last Freeman's Journal fell into his hands the Wednesday
morning preceding that entertainment. Sinon was planet-
struck at the fatal paper. Sinon is fond of the ball.
Ludicrous as it was for a man of his years and make, and a
member of Congress too, to be labouring and sweating his fat
sides in a public dance, Sinon seldom failed last winter of
exhibiting his aukward movements at the French Ambassador's
balls. But strange to tell! Such was the magic power of
the paper, that the smiles and graces which illume his fair
face, instantaneously disappeared.
The novelty of a ball on ship board, the allurements of
female charms, his own pre-engagement to the amiable fair,
and to the gallant Frenchman, all lost their force on Sinon.
He decamped that very forenoon. Alas, poor Sinon! Thou
mayest now furnish morality for an Almanac.
Various are the speculations on Sinon's sudden retreat.
Some good sort of folks think he was very wrong in not
shewing himself at the ball. There are others who think he
acted very wisely in avoiding it. The latter probably had
an eye to a line in Ovid . . . [7 lines, signed] Lucilius
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