[Handwritten at top:]
Charles Austin died.
Aug 4th 1806
shot by a pistol
from the hand
of T O Selfridg[e]
[Inserted in a different hand:]
in self defence.
Tried and acquitted
Dec. 1806.
defended by C. Gore & Saml. Dexter

[Printed text of broadside:]

A
FUNERAL DIRGE.
Austin
Liberty and Science mourn a promising and favor Son.
Written by John Horace Nichols.

[First verse appears interspersed with musical notation:] Hark, hark what means that solemn knell, The sad pomp and fun’ral parade. Hear the deep sobs of sorrow, tell ye martyr’d
patr’ot Austin’s dead. Second Verse.

See, down the sage’s furrow’d cheeks.
The tear of melting anguish flow!
Mark, the patr’ots visage speaks
Th’ Indignant poignancy of woe.
While tow’rd the tomb with solemn pace.
Thro’ the deep ranks his relicts move,
The grief bent brow of ev’ry face,
A tribute pays to filial love.

Behold the ven’rate, mourning Sire. [Handwritten:] x
Bereav’d of him his heart held dear,
His ev’ning hope, his soul’s desire;
And O! in pity drop a tear.

Could but the bold assassin view,
The gloomy horror of the scene,
Would he not curse the fatal blow,
Or die, to heal the wound again?
Shall dire, discord and [fel] revenge,
Open the sluices of our blood?
Shall Anarch’s lawless minions plunge,
And wanton in the crimson flood?

Then may a thousand Austins bleed,
And faction drench you streets in gore.
Rouse then! and crush the serpents head
And bear his deadly sting no more.

[Handwritten at bottom of page ] x Honestus – or Ben: Austin--an old fashiondd Jacobin.