"_For God will be your King to-day_" (Vol. vii., p. 67.).--In reply to your
querist H. A. S. with respect to the above line, I believe that it belongs
not to Somersetshire, but to Ireland; not to Monmouth's rebellion, but to
the civil wars of 1690.
It is the closing couplet of a stanza in the popular ballad on the "Battle
of the Boyne."
A very perfect copy of this ballad will be found in Wilde's _Beauties of
the Boyne_, p. 271., beginning with--
"July the first, of a morning clear,
One thousand six hundred and ninety,
King William did his men prepare--
Of thousands he had thirty,--
To fight King James and all his host,
Encamp'd near the Boyne water," &c.
The passage from which the lines in question are taken is as follows:
"When that King William he observed,
The brave Duke Schomberg falling,
He rein'd his horse with a heavy heart,
On the Enniskilleners calling.
"'What will you do for me, brave boys?
See yonder men retreating;
Our enemies encouraged are,
And English drums are beating.'
"He says, 'My boys feel no dismay,
At the losing of one commander,
_For God shall be our King this day,_
_And I'll be general under_.'"