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.

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;
But Charles the French as subjects does invite :)
Would Heaven for each some Solomon restore,
Who, by their mercy, may decide their right!

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,
Which without rashness he began before:
As honour made him first the danger choose,
So still he makes it good on virtue's score.

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,
Two such as each seem'd worthiest when alone;
Each able to sustain a nation's fate,

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,
But once possess'd did absolutely reign:
Thus with their Amazons the heroes strove,
And conquer'd first those beauties they would gain.

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,
They make that warmth in others they expect:
Their valour works like bodies on a glass,
And does its image on their men project.

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,
On wings of all the winds to combat flies:
His murdering guns a loud defiance roar,

And bloody crosses on his flag-staffs rise.

Both furl their sails, and strip them for the fight;
Their folded sheets dismiss the useless air:
Th' Elean plains could boast no nobler sight,
When struggling champions did their bodies bare.

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;
Both strive to intercept and guide the wind:
And, in its eye, more closely they come back,
To finish all the deaths they left behind.

On high-rais'd decks the haughty Belgians ride,
Beneath whose shade our humble frigates go:
Such port the elephant bears, and so defy'd
By the rhinoceros her unequal foe.

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
They drive, and squander the huge Belgian fleet
Berkeley alone, who nearest danger lay,

Did a like fate with lost Creusa mect.

His wounded men he first sends off to shore,

Never till now unwilling to obey;
They, not their wounds, but want of strength, deplore,
And think them happy who with him can stay.

Then to the rest," Rejoice," said he, "to-day;
In you the fortune of Great Britain lies:
Among so brave a people, you are they
Whom Heaven has chose to fight for such a prize.

"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
To their known stations cheerfully they go;
And all at once, disdaining to be last,

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,
That like the sword-fish in the whale they fought :
The combat only seem'd a civil war, [wrought;
Till through their bowels we our passage

Never had valour, no not ours, before

Done aught like this upon the land or main,
Where not to be o'ercome was to do more
Than all the conquests former kings did gain.

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:
Such vapours once did fiery Cacus hide :
In these the height of pleas'd revenge is shown,
Who burn contented by another's side.

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:
And, like maim'd fowl, swim lagging on the
Their greater loss their numbers scarce confess,
While they lose cheaper than the English gain.

Have you not seen, when, whistled from the fist,
Some falcon stoops at what her eye design'd,
And with her eagerness the quarry miss'd
Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind?

The dastard crow, that to the wood made wing,
And sees the groves no shelter can afford,
With her loud kaws her craven kind does bring,
Who safe in numbers cuff the noble bird.

Among the Dutch thus Albemarle did fare :
He could not conquer, and disdain'd to fly;
Past hope of safety, 'twas his latest care,
Like falling Cæsar, decently to die.

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 weak ones deep into his rear he bore
Remote from guns, as sick men from the noise.

His fiery cannon did their passage guide,
And following smoke obscur'd them from the foe;
Thus Israel, safe from the Egyptian's pride,

By flaming pillars and by clouds did go.

Elsewhere the Belgian force we did defeat,
But here our courages did theirs subdue :
So Xenophon once led that fam'd retreat,

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,
From shady coverts rous'd, the lion chase:
The kingly beast roars out with loud disdain,
And slowly moves, unknowing to give place.

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,
Who twice victorious did our navy see:
And I alone must view him rise in vain,
Without one ray of all his star for me.

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,
Till the fresh air proclaim'd the morning nigh:
And burning ships, the martyrs of the fight,
With paler fires beheld the eastern sky.

But now, his stores of ammunition spent,
His naked valour is his only guard :
Rare thunders are from his dumb cannon sent,
And solitary guns are scarcely heard.

Thus far had Fortune power, he forc'd to stay,
Nor longer durst with Virtue be at strife:
This is a ransom Albemarle did pay,

For all the glories of so great a life.

For now brave Rupert from afar appears,
Whose waving streamers the glad general knows :
With full-spread sails his eager navy steers,

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,
The broken air loud whistling as she flies:
She stops and listens, and shoots forth again,
And guides her pinions by her young ones' cries.

With such kind passion hastes the prince to fight,
And spreads his flying canvass to the sound:
Him, whom no danger, were he there, could fright,
Now absent every little noise can wound.

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,
Secure of fame whene'er he please to fight:
His cold experience tempers all his heat,
And inbred worth doth boasting valour slight.

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,
Rupert and Albemarle together grow:

He joys to have his friend in safety found,
Which he to none but to that friend would owe.

The cheerful soldiers, with new stores supply'd,
Now long to execute their spleenful will:
And, in revenge for those three days they try'd,
Wish one, like Joshua's, when the Sun stood still.

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,
And his loud guns speak thick like angry men :
It seem'd as slaughter had been breath'd all night,
And Death new pointed his dull dart again.

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,
And for their stakes the throwing nations fear :
Their passions double with the cannons' roar,
And with warm wishes each man combats there.

Ply'd thick and close as when the fight begun,
Their huge unwieldy navy wastes away:
So sicken waneing Moons too near the Sun,
And blunt their crescents on the edge of day.

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;
No tender thoughts of home his heart divide;
Domestic joys and cares he puts away;

[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,
Yet each was perfect to the work design'd:
God and kings work, when they their work surve
A passive aptness in all subjects find.

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
His navy's molted wings he imps once more:
Tall Norway fir, their masts in battle spent,
And English oak, sprung leaks and planks, restart

All hands employ'd the royal work grows warm:
Like labouring bees on a long summer's day,
Some sound the trumpet for the rest to swarm,
And some on bells of tasted lilies play.

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,
Some drive old oakum through each seam and rit
Their left hand does the caulking iron guide,
The rattling mallet with the right they lift.

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.

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,
She seems a sea-wasp flying on the waves.

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.

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.

O truly royal! who behold the law
And rule of beings in your Maker's mind:
And thence, like limbecs, rich ideas draw,
To fit the levell'd use of human kind.

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,
Whose fleet more mighty every day became
By late success, which they did falsely boast,
And now by first appearing seem'd to claim.
Designing, subtle, diligent, and close,

They knew to manage war with wise delay:
Yet all those arts their vanity did cross,

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.