Our British heaven was all ferene,

No threatning cloud was nigh,

Not the leaft wrinkle to deform the sky;
We liv'd as unconcern'd and happily

As the first age

in nature's golden scene;

Supine amidst our flowing store,

We flept fecurely, and we dreamt of more : When fuddenly the thunder-clap was heard, It took us unprepar'd and out of guard, Already loft before we fear'd.

Th' amazing news of Charles at once were spread, At once the general voice declar'd,

"Our gracious prince was dead."

No fickness know before, no flow disease,
To foften grief by just degrees :

But like an hurricane on Indian feas,
The tempest rofe;

An unexpected burft of woes:

With scarce a breathing space betwixt,
This now becalm'd, and perishing the next.
As if great Atlas from his height

Should fink beneath his heavenly weight,

And with a mighty flaw, the flaming wall
As once it fhall,

Should gape immenfe, and rushing down, o'erwhelm this nether ball;

So fwift and fo furprising was our fear :

Out Atlas fell indeed; but Hercules was near.

II.

His pious brother, fure 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 greatnefs thus he always pray'd,
Nor knew nor wifh'd thofe 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 hafty and fo artlefs was his grief:

Approaching greatness met him with her

charms

Of

power

and future ftate ;

But look'd fo ghastly 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 so vaft a woe:

The grief of all the rest like fubject-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 scene,
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 refemblance here below;

And mild forgiveness intercede

To ftop 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 skies 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 least, 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'infpire 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 fmiles again was drest, Gladness in every face expreft,

Their

eyes before their tongues confest.