So swift and so surprising was our fear :

Out Atlas fell indeed; but Hercules was near.

II.

His pious brother, sure the best

Who ever bore that name,

Was newly risen from his rest,
And with a fervent flame,

His ufual morning vows had just addrest
For his dear fovereign's health;
And hop'd to have them heard,
In long increase of years,

In honor, fame, and wealth:

Guiltless of greatness thus he always pray'd,
Nor knew nor wifh'd those vows he made,
On his own head should be repay'd.

Soon as th'ill-omen'd rumor reach'd'his ear,
Ill news is wing'd with fate, and flies apace,
Who can defcribe th'amazement of his face!
Horror in all his
pomp was there,

Mute and magnificent without a tear:

And then the hero firft was feen to fear.
Half unarray'd he ran to his relief,
So hasty and so artless was his grief:

Approaching greatness met him with her

charms

Of power and future state ;

But look'd so ghaftly in a brother's fate,
He shook her from his arms.

Arriv'd within the mournful room, he saw
A wild diftraction, void of awe,
And arbitrary grief unbounded by a law.
God's image, God's anointed lay
Without motion, pulfe, or breath,
A fenfeless lump of facred clay,
An image now of death.

Amidft his fad attendants groans and cries,
The lines of that ador'd forgiving face,
Distorted from their native

grace;

An iron flumber fat on his majestic eyes.

The pious duke----Forbear, audacious muse,

No terms thy feeble art can use

Are able to adorn fo vaft a woe:

The grief of all the rest like subject-grief did fhow,

His like a fovereign did tranfcend ;

No wife, no brother, fuch a grief could know,
Nor any name but friend.

III.

O wondrous changes of a fatal fcene,

Still varying to the last!

Heaven, tho its hard decree was past,

Seem'd pointing to a gracious turn agen:
And death's uplifted arm arrested in its hafte.
Heaven half repented of the doom,
And almost griev'd it had foreseen,

What by forefight it will'd eternally to come. Mercy above did hourly plead

For her resemblance here below;

And mild forgiveness intercede

To stop the coming blow.

New miracles approach'd th'etherial throne, Such as his wondrous life had oft and lately known,

And urg'd that still they might be shown.
On earth his pious brother pray'd and vow'd,
Renouncing greatness at fo dear a rate,

Himself defending what he could,

From all the glories of his future fate.
With him th' innumerable crowd,

Of armed prayers

Knock'd at the gates of heaven, and knock'd aloud;

The first well-meaning rude petitioners.

All for his life affail'd the throne,

All would have brib'd the fkies by offering up

their own.

So great a throng not heaven itself could bar;
"Twas almost born by force as in the giants' war.
The prayers, at leaft, for his reprieve were heard;
His death, like Hezekiah's, was deferr'd:
Against the fun the shadow went;

Five days, those five degrees, were lent

To form our patience and prepare th' event. The fecond caufes took the fwift command, The medicinal head, the ready hand,

All eager to perform their part;

All but eternal doom was conquer'd by their art: Once more the fleeting foul came back

T'inspire the mortal frame;

And in the body took a doubtful stand,
Doubtful and hovering like expiring flame,
That mounts and falls by turns, and trembles o'er
the brand.

IV.

The joyful short-liv'd news foon spread around, Took the fame train, the fame impetuous bound: The drooping town in smiles again was drest, Gladness in every face expreft,

Their eyes before their tongues confest. Men

Men met each other with erected look,
The steps were higher that they took,

Friends to congratulate their friends made hafte 3
And long inveterate foes faluted as they past:
Above the rest heroic James appear'd
Exalted more, because he more had fear'd:
His manly heart, whofe noble pride
Was ftill above

Diffembled hate or varnish'd love,

Its more than common transport could not hide; But like an eagre rode in triumph o'er the tide. Thus, in alternate course,

The tyrant paffions, hope and fear,

Did in extremes appear,

And flash'd upon the foul with equal force.

Thus, at half ebb, a rolling fea

Returns and wins upon the fhore;

The watry herd, affrighted at the roar,

Rest on their fins awhile, and stay,

Then backward take their wondring way!

The prophet wonders more than they,

At prodigies but rarely feen before,

And cries a king muft fall, or kingdoms change