30.

And though by tempests of the prize bereft,
In heaven's inclemency some ease we find;
Our foes we vanquished by our valour left,
And only yielded to the seas and wind.

31.

Nor wholly lost we so deserved a prey;
For storms, repenting, part of it restored;
Which as a tribute from the Baltic sea,
The British ocean sent her mighty lord.

32.

Go, mortals, now, and vex yourselves in vain
For wealth, which so uncertainly must come;
When what was brought so far, and with such pain,
Was only kept to lose it nearer home.

33.

The son, who twice three months on th' ocean tost,
Prepared to tell what he had passed before,
Now sees in English ships the Holland coast,
And parents' arms, in vain, stretched from the shore.

34.

This careful husband had been long away,

Whom his chaste wife and little children mourn; Who on their fingers learned to tell the day, On which their father promised to return.

35.

Such are the proud designs of human-kind,
And so we suffer shipwreck every where !
Alas, what port can such a pilot find,

Who in the night of fate must blindly steer!

*Note X.

↑ Si bene calculum ponas, ubique fit naufragium. PETRONIUS.

36.

The undistinguished seeds of good and ill,
Heaven in his bosom from our knowledge hides;
And draws them in contempt of human skill,
Which oft, for friends mistaken, foes provides.

37.

Let Munster's prelate ever be accurst,

In whom we seek the German faith in vain; Alas, that he should teach the English first, That fraud and avarice in the church could reign!

38.

Happy, who never trust a stranger's will,

Whose friendship's in his interest understood; Since money given but tempts him to be ill, When power is too remote to make him good.

39.

Till now, alone the mighty nations strove;
The rest, at gaze, without the lists did stand;
And threatening France, placed like a painted Jove,
Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand.

40.

That eunuch guardian of rich Holland's trade,
Who envies us what he wants power'to enjoy ;

Whose noiseful valour does no foe invade,
And weak assistance will his friends destroy.

41.

Offended that we fought without his leave,
He takes this time his secret hate to shew;
Which Charles does with a mind so calm receive,
As one that neither seeks nor shuns his foe.

*Note XI.

42.

With France, to aid the Dutch, the Danes unite; France as their tyrant, Denmark as their slave. But when with one three nations join to fight, They silently confess that one more brave.

43.

Lewis had chased the English from his shore,
But Charles the French as subjects does invite; †
Would heaven for each some Solomon restore,
Who, by their mercy, may decide their right.

44.

Were subjects so but only by their choice,
And not from birth did forced dominion take,
Our prince alone would have the public voice,
And all his neighbours' realms would deserts make.

45.

He without fear a dangerous war pursues,
Which without rashness he began before;
As honour made him first the danger chuse,
So still he makes it good on virtue's score.

46.

The doubled charge his subjects' love supplies,
Who in that bounty to themselves are kind:

So glad Egyptians see their Nilus rise,

And in his plenty their abundance find. †

47.

With equal power he does two chiefs create,
Two such as each seemed worthiest when alone;

Each able to sustain a nation's fate,

Since both had found a greater in their own.

Note XII.

+ Note XIII.

↑ Note XIV.

Prince Rupert, and duke Albemarle. See note XV.

48.

Both great in courage, conduct, and in fame,
Yet neither envious of the other's praise;
Their duty, faith, and interest too the same,
Like mighty partners equally they raise.

49.

The Prince long time had courted fortune's love, But once possessed did absolutely reign;

Thus with their Amazons the heroes strove, And conquered first those beauties they would gain.

50.

The Duke beheld, like Scipio, with disdain,
That Carthage, which he ruined, rise once more;
And shook aloft the fasces of the main,

To fright those slaves with what they felt before.

51.

Together to the watery camp they haste,

Whom matrons passing to their children show ; Infants first vows for them to heaven are cast, And future people bless them as they go.

52.

With them no riotous pomp, nor Asian train,
To infect a navy with their gaudy fears;
To make slow fights, and victories but vain;
But war severely, like itself, appears.

53.

Diffusive of themselves, where'er they pass,
They make that warmth in others they expect;
Their valour works like bodies on a glass,
And does its image on their main project.

* Examina infantium, futurusque populus. Plin. jun. in pan. ad Trajanum.

54.

*

Our fleet divides, and straight the Dutch appear,
In number, and a famed commander, bold;
The narrow seas can scarce their navy bear,
Or crowded vessels can their soldiers hold.

55.

The Duke, less numerous, but in courage more,
On wings of all the winds to combat flies;
His murdering guns a loud defiance roar,
And bloody crosses on his flag-staffs rise.

56.

Both furl their sails, and strip them for the fight;
Their folded sheets dismiss the useless air ;
The Elean plains could boast no nobler sight,
When struggling champions did their bodies bare.

57.

Born each by other in a distant line,

The sea-built forts in dreadful order move; So vast the noise, as if not fleets did join, But lands unfixed, and floating nations strove.

58.

Now passed, on either side they nimbly tack;
Both strive to intercept and guide the wind;
And, in its eye, more closely they come back, §
To finish all the deaths they left behind.

*Note XVI.

+ Where the Olympic games were celebrated.

Credas innare revulsas Cyclades.

§ Ahey! what, in the wind's eye, brother? Where did you learn your seamanship."-Commodore Trunnion.