The Female Souldier: Or, the Virgin Volunteer:

I sing in the Fame
Of a pritty young Dame,
And praise of her Warlike behavior;
With a heart void of fear,
She went Volunteer,
No Souldier, no Souldier, could ever do braver.

John Change, by that Name,
To the Marshal she came,
Disguised, and said she was willing,
To serve their Majesties,
On the Land or the Seas;
The Marshal then Listed the Youth with a shilling.

Then he Cloath’d her in Red,
Put a Sword by her side,
With all things a Souldier adorning:
Who at night went to Bed
With a young brisk Comrade,
And rose undiscover’d a Maid in the Morning.

So pritty a Face,
And so comely a Grace,
With an Eloquent Tongue so Ingenious,
Had her new Comrade
Known she was a Maid,
No doubt he’d a serv’d her as Mars did his Venus.

To Tillbury Forth,
She was sent, being too short,
For the Guards which in Town now are Quarter’d:
But too young being thought,
Was back again brought,
Thus all her designs by ill Fortune were thwarted.

At the Marshals she lay,
Still expecting each day
To be Mustred and made a Dragooner:
But an unlucky trick,
Happen’d just in the nick,
A scurvy Misfortune chanc’d to light upon her.

One Night her Comrade,
When they both were in Bed,
Mistrusting what he would not tell her:
As she lay asleep,
Did close to her creep,
And found a she Volunteer was his Bed-Fellow.

When the Riddle was known,
She arose and run home,
With such innocent Blushed they’d charm yee:
Then what need we fear
The French coming here,
Since young pritty Women run into the Army.

Let the Souldiers now raise,
A new Trophy in prase
Of a Virign as brave as a Roman:
Why may not each Wench,
Encounter the French,
Since the bravest of Heroes are conquer’d by Women.

Let each jolly Blade,
Do then as this Maid,
And with Courage go fight for King William:
Were all men so stout,
We the French soon should rout,
Our true English Courage with Terror should fill ’em.

FINIS

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Printed for C. Bates next to Crown-Tavern, in West-Smithfield.

EBBA ID Number: 20969

ESTC Citation Number: R188049