12 The loss and gain each fatally were great; And still his subjects call'd aloud for war; But peaceful kings, o'er martial people set, Each other's poise and counterbalance are. 13 He first survey'd the charge with careful eyes, 14 At length resolved to assert the watery ball, He in himself did whole Armadas bring: Him aged seamen might their master call, And choose for general, were he not their king. 15 It seems as every ship their sovereign knows, 16 To see this fleet upon the ocean move, Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies; 17 Whether they unctuous exhalations are, 18 Or one, that bright companion of the sun, Whose glorious aspect seal'd our new-born king; And now a round of greater years begun, New influence from his walks of light did bring. 19 Victorious York did first with famed success, 20 But since it was decreed, auspicious King, In Britain's right that thou shouldst wed the main, Heaven, as a gage, would cast some precious thing, And therefore doom'd that Law son1 should be slain. 21 Lawson amongst the foremost met his fate, Whom sea-green Sirens from the rocks lament; He first was kill'd who first to battle went. 22 Their chief blown up in air, not waves, expired, 23 To nearest ports their shatter'd ships repair, Where by our dreadful cannon they lay awed: So reverently men quit the open air, When thunder speaks the angry gods abroad. 24 And now approach'd their fleet from India, fraught With all the riches of the rising sun: And precious sand from southern climates brought, 25 Like hunted castors, conscious of their store, Their waylaid wealth to Norway's coasts they bring: ''Lawson:' Sir John Lawson, rear admiral of the red, killed by a ball that wounded him in the knee. There first the north's cold bosom spices bore, 26 By the rich scent we found our perfumed prey, 27 Fiercer than cannon, and than rocks more hard, 28 These fight like husbands, but like lovers those: 29 Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball, 30 And though by tempests of the prize bereft, 31 Nor wholly lost1 we so deserved a prey; For storms repenting part of it restored: 1 Wholly lost:' the Dutch ships on their return home, being separated by a storm, the rear and vice-admirals of the East India fleet, with four men of war, were taken by five English frigates. Soon after, four men of war, two fire-ships, and thirty merchantmen, being driven out of their course, joined our fleet instead of their own, and were all taken. These things happened in 1665. Which, as a tribute from the Baltic sea, 32 Go, mortals, now; and vex yourselves in vain 33 The son, who twice three months on th' ocean tost, 34 This careful husband had been long away, Whom his chaste wife and little children mourn; 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! 36 The undistinguish'd seeds of good and ill, Heaven, in his bosom, from our knowledge hides: 37 Let Munster's prelate 1 ever be accurst, In whom we seek the German faith in vain : That fraud and avarice in the Church could reign! 'Munster's prelate:' the famous Bertrand Von Der Ghalen, Bishop of Munster, excited by Charles, marched twenty thousand men into the province of Ove 38 Happy, who never trust a stranger's will, Whose friendship's in his interest understood! 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: 40 That eunuch guardian of rich Holland's trade, Who envies us what he wants power t' 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 show: 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; 44 Were subjects so but only by their choice, And not from birth did forced dominion take, ryssel, under the dominion of the republic of Holland, where he committed great outrages. |