Neptune, yet doubtful whom he should obey,
Held to them both the trident of the sea:
The winds were hushed, the waves in ranks
were cast,

15

As awfully as when God's people past:
Those, yet uncertain on whose sails to blow,
These, where the wealth of nations ought to flow. 20
Then with the Duke your Highness ruled the day:
While all the brave did his command obey,
The fair and pious under you did pray.
How powerful are chaste vows! the wind and tide
You bribed to combat on the English side.
Thus to your much-loved lord you did convey
An unknown succour, sent the nearest way.
New vigour to his wearied arms you brought,
(So Moses was upheld while Israel fought) +
While, from afar, we heard the cannon play,
Like distant thunder on a shiny day.

* [As elsewhere, pronounced like "say."-ED.]

66

And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

"But Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

"And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword."-Exodus, chap. xvii. 11-13th verses.

The noise of the battle was distinctly heard at London, as appears from the Introduction to our author's "Essay on Dramatic Poetry," where the dialogue is supposed to pass in a barge, in which the speakers had embarked to hear more distinctly, "those undulations of sound, which, though almost vanishing before they reached them, seemed yet to retain somewhat of their first horror which they had betwixt the fleets." And, by the sound seeming to retire from them, Eugenius draws an omen of the enemy's defeat. This whole scene is imagined with so much liveliness, that we can hardly doubt Dryden was actually an ear-witness of the combat.

25

30

For absent friends we were ashamed to fear,
When we considered what you ventured there.
Ships, men, and arms, our country might restore,
But such a leader could supply no more.
With generous thoughts of conquest he did burn,
Yet fought not more to vanquish than return.
Fortune and victory he did pursue,

35

40

To bring them, as his slaves, to wait on you:
Thus beauty ravished the rewards of fame,
And the fair triumphed, when the brave o'ercame.
Then, as you meant to spread another way
By land your conquests, far as his by sea,
Leaving our southern clime, you marched along
The stubborn north* ten thousand Cupids strong. 45
Like commons the nobility resort,

In crowding heaps, to fill your moving court:
To welcome your approach the vulgar run,
Like some new envoy from the distant sun;
And country beauties by their lovers go,
Blessing themselves, and wondering at the show.
So, when the new-born Phoenix first is seen,
Her feathered subjects all adore their queen,
And, while she makes her progress through the

east,

50

From every grove her numerous train's increased: 55 Each poet of the air her glory sings,

And round him the pleased audience clap their wings.

* [There were some fears of a rising there.—ED.]

ANNUS MIRABILIS;

THE

YEAR OF WONDERS,

1666,

AN HISTORICAL POEM.

[Annus Mirabilis; The Year of Wonders. 1666. An Historical Poem; containing the Progress and various Successes of our Naval War with Holland, under the conduct of his Highness Prince Rupert, and his Grace the Duke of Albemarle, and describing the Fire of London. By John Dryden, Esq.

Multum interest res poscat, an homines latius imperare velint. TRAJAN IMPERATOR ad PLIN.

Urbs antiqua ruit, multos dominata per annos.

VIRG.

London: Printed for Henry Herringman at The Anchor, in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange, 1667.-ED.]