Oii9  One askte me, why I mournde

Notes. After the failure of the English assault on the citadel of St. Martin on 27 October 1627, the expeditionary force had little option but to leave the island. The 29 October retreat was a disaster. French troops attacking from the rear slaughtered many English soldiers and officers as they tried to make their way across a poorly defended narrow bridge to the ships. Among the dead was one of Buckingham’s colonels, Sir John Radcliffe, who is mourned, at Buckingham’s expense, in this poem.