Though some suppose 'twas but to shew

How much they scorn'd the Saints, the few,
Who, 'cause they 're wasted to the stumps,
Are represented best by rumps:
But Jesuits have deeper reaches
In all their politic far fetches,

And, from the Coptic priest Kircherus,
Found out this mystic way to jeer us :
For as th' Egyptians us'd by bees
T'express their antique Ptolomies,
And by their stings, the swords they wore,
Held forth authority and pow'r;

Because these subtle animals

Bear all their int'rests in their tails,
And when they're once impair'd in that,
Are banish'd their well-order'd state,
They thought all governments were best
By hieroglyphic rumps exprest.

For as, in bodies natural,

The rump's the fundament of all,
So, in a commonwealth or realm,
The government is call'd the Helm,
With which, like vessels under sail,
They're turn'd and winded by the tail:
The tail, which birds and fishes steer
Their courses with through sea and air,
To whom the rudder of the rump is

The same thing with the stern and compass.
This shews how perfectly the rump

And commonwealth in Nature jump:

For as a fly that goes to bed

Rests with his tail above his head,
So in this mongrel state of ours
The rabble are the supreme powers,
That hors'd us on their backs, to show us
A jadish trick at last, and throw us.

The learned Rabbins of the Jews
Write there's a bone, which they call Luez,

I' th' rump of man, of such a virtue
No force in Nature can do hurt to;
And therefore, at the last great day,
All th' other members shall, they say,
Spring out of this, as from a seed
All sorts of vegetals proceed;
From whence the learned sons of Art
Os sacrum justly style that part.
Then what can better represent
Than this rump-bone the Parliament,
That, after several rude ejections
And as prodigious resurrections,
With new reversions of nine lives
Starts up, and like a cat revives?

But now, alas! they 're all expir'd,
And th' House as well as members fir'd;
Consum'd in kennels by the rout,
With which they other fires put out;
Condemn'd t' ungoverning distress,
And paltry private wretchedness;
Worse than the devil to privation
Beyond all hopes of restoration;
And parted, like the body and soul,
From all dominion and control.

We who could lately, with a look,
Enact, establish, or revoke,
Whose arbitrary nods gave law,
And frowns kept multitudes in awe;
Before the bluster of whose huff
All hats, as in a storm, flew off;
Ador'd and bow'd to by the great.
Down to the footman and valet ;
Had more bent knees than chapel-mats,
And prayers than the crowns of hats;

Shall now be scorn'd as wretchedly,
For ruin's just as low as high;
Which might be suffer'd, were it all
The horror that attends our fall:
For some of us have scores more large
Than heads and quarters can discharge;
And others, who, by restless scraping,
With public frauds, and private rapine,
Have mighty heaps of wealth amass'd,
Would gladly lay down all at last;
And, to be but undone, entail
Their vessels on perpetual jail,
And bless the dev'l to let them farms
Of forfeit soul on no worse terms.

This said, a near and louder shout
Put all th' assembly to the rout, t

*This the Regicides in general would have done gladly but the ringleaders of them were executed in terrorem. Those that came in upon proclamation were brought to the bar of the house of lords, 25th November, 1661, to answer what they could say for themselves why judgment should not be executed against them? They severally alleged "That upon his Majesty's gracious Declaration from Breda, and the votes of the parliament, &c. they did ren der themselves, being advised that they should thereby secure their lives; and humbly crave the benefit of the proclamation, &c." And Harry Martyn briskly added, "That he had never obeyed any proclamation before this, and hoped he should not be hanged for taking the king's word now." A bill was brought in for their execution, which was read twice, but afterwards dropt, and so they were all sent to their several prisons, and little more heard of. Ludlow and some others, escaped by flying among the Swiss Cantons.

+ When sir Martyn came to this cabal, he left the rabble at Temple-bar; but, by the time he had concluded his discourse, they were advanced near Whitehall and Westminster. This alarmed our caballers, and perhaps terrified them with the apprehension of being hanged or burned

Who now began t' outrun their fear,
As horses do from those they bear;
But crowded on with so much haste,
Until they 'ad block'd the passage fast,
And barricado'd it with haunches

Of outward men, and bulks, and paunches,
That with their shoulders strove to squeeze,
And rather save a crippled piece

Of all their crush'd and broken members,
Than have them grillied on the embers;
Still pressing on with heavy packs
Of one another on their backs,
The van-guard could no longer bear
The charges of the forlorn rear,
But, borne down headlong by the rout,
Were trampled sorely under foot;
Yet nothing prov'd so formidable
As th' horrid cookery of the rabble;
And fear, that keeps all feeling out,
As lesser pains are by the gout,
Reliev'd them with a fresh supply
Of rallied force, enough to fly,
And beat a Tuscan running-horse,
Whose jockey-rider is all spurs.

in reality, as some of them that very instant were effigy
No wonder, therefore, they broke up so precipitately, and
that each endeavoured to secure himself The manner of
it is described with a poetical licence, only to embelish
this Canto with a diverting catrastophe.

PART III-CANTO III.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Knight and Squire's prodigious flight
To quit th' enchanted bow'r by night,
He plots to turn his amorous suit
T'a plea in law, and prosecute:
Repairs to counsel, to advise
'Bout managing the enterprise:
But first resolves to try by letter,

And one more fair address, to get her.

WHO would believe what strange bugbears
Mankind creates itself of fears,

That spring, like fern, that infant weed,
Equivocally without seed,

And have no possible foundation

But merely in th' imagination?

And yet can do more dreadful feats

Than hags with all their imps and teats;
Make more bewitch and haunt themselves
Than all their nurseries of elves.

• Our Poet now resumes his princiipal subject; and the reason why he is so full in the recapitulation of the odd adventure of the Knight and Squire is, because we had lost sight of our heroes for the space of the longest Cant in the whole Poem

311

T