That eunuch guardian of rich Holland's trade, Offended that we fought without his leave, He takes this time his secret hate to show: Which Charles does with a mind so calm receive, As one that neither seeks nor shuns his foe. 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. Lewis had chas'd the English from his shore; Were subjects so but only by their choice, And not from birth did forc'd dominion take, Our prince alone would have the public voice; And all his neighbours' realms would deserts make. He without fear a dangerous war pursues, 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. With equal power he does two chiefs create, Since both had found a greater in their own. 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. The prince long time had courted Fortune's love, The duke beheld, like Scipio, with disdain, That Carthage, which he ruin'd, rise once more; And shook aloft the fasces of the main, To fright those slaves with what they felt before. 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. With them no riotous pomp, nor Asian train, To infect a navy with their gaudy fears; To make siow fights, and victories but vain : But war severely like itself appears. Diffusive of themselves, where'er they pass, Our fleet divides, and straight the Dutch appear, In number, and a fam'd commander, bold: The narrow seas can scarce their navy bear, Or crowded vessels can their soldiers hold. The duke, less numerous, but in courage more, And bloody crosses on his flag-staffs rise. Both furl their sails, and strip them for the fight; Borne 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 unfix'd, and floating nations strove. Now pass'd, on either side they nimbly tack; On high-rais'd decks the haughty Belgians ride, And as the built, so different is the fight: Their mounting shot is on our sails design'd; Deep in their hulls our deadly bullets light, And through the yielding planks a passage find. Our dreaded admiral from far they threat, Whose batter'd rigging their whole war receives : All bare, like some old oak which tempests beat, He stands, and sees below his scatter'd leaves. Heroes of old, when wounded, shelter sought; But he who meets all danger with disdain, Ev'n in their face his ship to anchor brought, And steeple-high stood propt upon the main. At this excess of courage, all amaz'd, The foremost of his foes awhile withdraw: With such respect in enter'd Rome they gaz'd, Who on high chairs the godlike fathers saw. And now, as where Patroclus' body lay, Here Trojan chiefs advanc'd, and there the Greek; Ours o'er the duke their pious wings display, And theirs the noblest spoils of Britain seek. Meantime his busy mariners he hastes, His shatter'd sails with rigging to restore; And willing pines ascend his broken masts, Whose lofty heads rise higher than before. Straight to the Dutch he turns his dreadful prow, More fierce th' important quarrel to decide: Like swans, in long array his vessels show, Whose crests advancing do the waves divide. They charge, recharge, and all along the sea Did a like fate with lost Creusa mect. His wounded men he first sends off to shore, Never till now unwilling to obey; Then to the rest," Rejoice," said he, "to-day; "If number English courages could quell, We should at first have shunn'd, not met our foes: Whose numerous sails the fearful only tell: [grows. Courage from hearts, and not from numbers He said, nor needed more to say: with haste Solicit every gale to meet the foe. Nor did th' encourag'd Belgians long delay, But bold in others, not themselves, they stood: So thick, our navy scarce could steer their way, But seem'd to wander in a moving wood. Our little fleet was now engag'd so far, Never had valour, no not ours, before Done aught like this upon the land or main, The mighty ghosts of our great Harries rose, And armed Edwards look'd with anxious eyes, To see this fleet among unequal foes, [should rise. By which Fate promis'd them their Charles Meantime the Belgians tack upon our rear, [send And raking chace-guns through our sterns they Close by, their fire-ships, like jackals, appear, Who on their lions for the prey attend. Silent, in smoke of cannon they come on: Sometimes from fighting squadrons of each fleet, Deceiv'd themselves, or to preserve some friend, Two grappling Etnas on the ocean meet, And English fires with Belgian flames contend. Now at each tack our little fleet grows less; [main: Have you not seen, when, whistled from the fist, The dastard crow, that to the wood made wing, Among the Dutch thus Albemarle did fare : Yet pity did his manly spirit move, To see those perish who so well had fought: And generously with his despair he strove, Resolv'd to live till he their safety wrought. Let other Muses write his prosperous fate, Of conquer'd nations tell, and kings restor❜d: But mine shall sing of his eclips'd estate, Which, like the Sun's, more wonders does afford He drew his mighty frigates all before, On which the foe his fruitless force employs: His fiery cannon did their passage guide, By flaming pillars and by clouds did go. Elsewhere the Belgian force we did defeat, Which first the Asian empire overthrew. The foe approach'd; and one for his bold sin Was sunk; as he that touch'd the ark was slain; The wild waves master'd him and suck'd him in, And smiling eddies dimpled on the main. This seen, the rest at awful distance stood: As if they had been there as servants set To stay, or to go on, as he thought good, And not pursue but wait on his retreat. So Libyan huntsmen, on some sandy plain, But if some one approach to dare his force, He swings his tail, and swiftly turns him round: With one paw seizes on his trembling horse, And with the other tears him to the ground. Amidst these toils succeeds the balmy night; Now hissing waters the quench'd guns restore; And weary waves withdrawing from the fight, Lie lull'd and panting on the silent shore. The Moon shone clear on the becalmed flood, Where, while her beams like glittering silver play, Upon the deck our careful general stood, And deeply mus'd on the succeeding day. "That happy Sun," said he, “will rise again, Yet, like an English general will I die, And all the ocean make my spacious grave: Women and cowards on the land may lie; The sea's a tomb that 's proper for the brave." Restless he pass'd the remnant of the night, But now, his stores of ammunition spent, Thus far had Fortune power, he forc'd to stay, For all the glories of so great a life. For now brave Rupert from afar appears, And every ship in swift proportion grows. The anxious prince had heard the cannon long, And from that length of time dire omens drew Of English overmatch'd, and Dutch too strong, Who never fought three days, but to pursue. Then, as an eagle, who with pious care Was beating widely on the wing for prey, To her now silent eiry does repair, And finds her callow infants forc'd away : Stung with her love, she stoops upon the plain, With such kind passion hastes the prince to fight, As in a drought the thirsty creatures cry, And gape upon the gather'd clouds for rain: And first the martlet meets it in the sky, And with wet wings joys all the feather'd train: With such glad hearts did our despairing men Salute th' appearance of the prince's fleet; And each ambitiously would claim the ken, That with first eyes did distant safety meet. The Dutch, who came like greedy hinds before, To reap the harvest their ripe ears did yield, Now look like those, when rolling thunders roar, And sheets of lightning blast the standing field. Full in the prince's passage, hills of sand, And dangerous flats in secret ambush lay, Where the false tides skim o'er the cover'd land, And seamen with dissembled depths betray. The wily Dutch, who like fall'n angels fear'd This new Messiah's coming, there did wait, And round the verge their braving vessels steer'd, To tempt his courage with so fair a bait. But he unmov'd contemns their idle threat, Heroic virtue did his actions guide, And he the substance, not th' appearance, chose : To rescue one such friend, he took more pride, Than to destroy whole thousands of such foes. But when approach'd, in strict embraces bound, He joys to have his friend in safety found, The cheerful soldiers, with new stores supply'd, Thus reinforc'd, against the adverse fleet, Still doubling ours, brave Rupert leads the way: With the first blushes of the morn they meet, And bring night back upon the new-born day.' His presence soon blows up the kindling fight, The Dutch too well his mighty conduct knew, And matchless courage, since the former fight: Whose navy like a stiff-stretch'd cord did show, Till he bore in and bent them into flight. The wind he shares, while half their fleet offends His open side, and high above him shows: Upon the rest at pleasure he descends, And doubly harm'd he double harms bestows. Behind the general mends his weary pace, And sullenly to his revenge he sails: So glides some trodden serpent on the grass, And long behind his wounded volume trails. Th' increasing sound is borne to either shore, Ply'd thick and close as when the fight begun, And now reduc'd on equal terms to fight, Their ships like wasted patrimonies show; Where the thin scattering trees admit the light, And shun each other's shadows as they grow. The warlike prince had sever'd from the rest Two giant ships, the pride of all the main ; Which with his one so vigorously he press'd, And flew so home they could not rise again. Already batter'd, by his lee they lay, In vain upon the passing winds they call: The passing winds through their torn canvass play, And flagging sails on heartless sailors fall. Their open'd sides receive a gloomy light, Dreadful as day let into shades below; Without grim Death rides barefac'd in their sight, And urges entering billows as they flow. When one dire shot, the last they could supply, Close by the board the prince's main-mast bore: All three now helpless by each other lie, And this offends not, and those fear no more. So have I seen some fearful hare maintain A course, till tir'd before the dog she lay : Who stretch'd behind her pants upon the plain, Past power to kill, as she to get away. With his loll'd tongue he faintly licks his prey; His warm breath blows her flix up as she lies; She, trembling, creeps upon the ground away, And looks back to him with beseeching eyes. The prince unjustly does his stars accuse, Which hinder'd him to push his fortune on; For what they to his courage did refuse, By mortal valour never must be done. This lucky hour the wise Batavian takes, And warns his tatter'd fleet to follow home: Proud to have so got off with equal stakes, Where 'twas a triumph not to be o'ercome. The general's force, as kept alive by fight, Now, not oppos'd, no longer can pursue: Lasting till Heaven had done his courage right; . When he had conquer'd he his weakness knew. He casts a frown on the departing foe, And sighs to see him quit the watery field: His stern fix'd eyes no satisfaction show, For all the glories which the fight did yield. Though, as when fiends did miracles avow, He stands confess'd ev'n by the boastful Dutch : He only does his conquest disavow, And thinks too little what they found too much. Return'd, he with the fleet resolv'd to stay; [guid For realms are households which the great m As those who unripe veins in mines explore, On the rich bed again the warm turf lay, Till time digests the yet imperfect ore, And know it will be gold another day: So looks our monarch on this early fight, Th' essay and rudiments of great success: Which all-maturing Time must bring to light, While he like Heaven does each day's labour bles Heaven ended not the first or second day, In burthen'd vessels first, with speedy care, His plenteous stores do season'd timber send: Thither the brawny carpenters repair, And as the surgeons of maim'd ships attend. With cord and canvass, from rich Hamburgh sent All hands employ'd the royal work grows warm: With glewy wax some new foundations lay Of virgin-combs, which from the roof are hung Some arm'd within doors upon duty stay, Or tend the sick, or educate the young. So here some pick out bullets from the sides, With boiling pitch another near at hand, From friendly Sweden brought, the seams instos Which, well paid o'er, the salt sea waves withstand And shakes them from the rising beak in drops Some the gall'd ropes with dawby marline bind, Or sear-cloth masts with strong tarpawling co To try new shrouds one mounts into the wind, And one below their ease or stiffness notes. Our careful monarch stands in person by, His new-cast cannons' firmness to explore: The strength of big-corn'd powder loves to try, And ball and cartridge sorts for every bore. Each day brings fresh supplies of arms and men, And ships which all last winter were abroad; And such as fitted since the fight had been, Or new from stocks, were fall'n into the road. The goodly London in her gallant trim, The Phenix, daughter of the vanish'd old, Like a rich bride does to the ocean swim, And on her shadow rides in floating gold. ANNUS MIRABILIS. Her flag aloft spread ruffling to the wind, And sanguine streamers seem the flood to fire: The weaver, charm'd with what his loom design'd, 2 Goes on to sea, and knows not to retire. With roomy decks, her guns of mighty strength, Whose low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves: Deep in her draught, and warlike in her length, This martial present, piously design'd, The loyal city give their best-lov'd king: And with a bounty ample as the wind, Built, fitted, and maintain'd, to aid him bring. By viewing Nature, Nature's handmaid, Art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow: Thus fishes first to shipping did impart, Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow. Some log perhaps upon the waters swam, An useless drift, which, rudely cut within, And hollow'd first, a floating trough became, And cross some rivulet passage did begin. In shipping such as this, the Irish kern, And untaught Indian on the stream did glide : Ere sharp-keel'd boats to stem the flood did learn, Or fin-like oars did spread from either side. Add but a sail, and Saturn so appear'd, When from lost empire he to exile went, And with the golden age to Tyber steer'd, Where coin and commerce first he did invent. Rude as their ships was navigation then ; Of all who since have us'd the open sea, Than the bold English none more fame have won : Beyond the year, and out of Heaven's high way, They make discoveries where they see no Sun. But what so long in vain, and yet unknown, By poor mankind's benighted wit is sought, Shall in this age to Britain first be shown, And hence be to admiring nations taught. The ebbs of tides and their mysterious flow, We, as Art's clements, shall understand, And as by line upon the ocean go, Whose paths shall be familiar as the land. Instructed ships shall sail to quick commerce, Where some may gain, and all may be supply'd. Then we This I foretell from your auspicious care, Who great in search of God and Nature grow; Who best your wise Creator's praise declare, Since best to praise his works is best to know. O truly royal! who behold the law But first the toils of war we must endure, And from th' injurious Dutch redeem the seas: War makes the valiant of his right secure, And gives up fraud to be chastis'd with ease. Already were the Belgians on our coast, They knew to manage war with wise delay: And by their pride their prudence did betray. Nor staid the English long; but well supply'd, Appear as numerous as th' insulting foe: The combat now by courage must be try'd, And the success the braver nation show. |