104 Thus far had Fortune power, here forced to stay; This as a ransom Albemarle did pay 105 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. 106 The anxious Prince had heard the cannon long And from that length of time dire omens drew Of English overmatched, and Dutch too strong Who never fought three days but to pursue. 107 Then, as an eagle, who with pious care And finds her callow infants forced away; 108 Stung with her love, she stoops upon the plain, She stops and listens and shoots forth again 109 With such kind passion hastes the Prince to fight As in a drought the thirsty creatures cry And gape upon the gathered clouds for rain, And first the martlet meets it in the sky, And with wet wings joys all the feathered train; III With such glad hearts did our despairing men 112 The Dutch, who came like greedy hinds before 113 Full in the Prince's passage, hills of sand And dangerous flats in secret ambush lay, Where the false tides skim o'er the covered land And seamen with dissembled depths betray. 114 The wily Dutch, who, like fallen angels, feared This new Messiah's coming, there did wait, And round the verge their braving vessels steered To tempt his courage with so fair a bait. 115 But he unmoved contemns their idle threat, His cold experience tempers all his heat, And inbred worth does boasting valour slight. 116 Heroic virtue did his actions guide, And he the substance, not the appearance, chose; To rescue one such friend he took more pride Than to destroy whole thousands of such foes. 117 But when approached, in strict embraces bound He joys to have his friend in safety found, Which he to none but to that friend would owe. 118 The cheerful soldiers, with new stores supplied, Now long to execute their spleenful will; 119 Thus reinforced, against the adverse fleet, Still doubling ours, brave Rupert leads the way; 120 His presence soon blows up the kindling fight, 121 The Dutch too well his mighty conduct know 122 The wind he shares, while half their fleet offends Upon the rest at pleasure he descends And doubly harmed he double harms bestows. 123 Behind, the General mends his weary pace * So glides, &c. From Virgil: 'Quum medii nexus extremæque agmina caudæ Fourth day's battle. 124 The increasing sound is borne to either shore 125 Plied thick and close as when the fight begun, 126 And now, reduced 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. 127 The warlike Prince had severed from the rest Already battered by his lee they lay; In vain upon the passing winds they call; The passing winds through their torn canvas play And flagging sails on heartless sailors fall. 129 Their opened sides receive a gloomy light, 130 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. 131 So have I seen some fearful hare maintain A course, till tired before the dog she lay, Who, stretched behind her, pants upon the plain, Past power to kill as she to get away: 132 With his lolled tongue he faintly licks his prey; 133 The Prince unjustly does his stars accuse, 134 This lucky hour the wise Batavian takes And warns his tattered fleet to follow home; Proud to have so got off with equal stakes, Where 'twas a triumph not to be o'ercomes. 135 The General's force, as kept alive by fight, 136 He casts a frown on the departing foe And sighs to see him quit the watery field; His stern fixed eyes no satisfaction show For all the glories which the fight did yield. |