239

Near as he draws, thick harbingers of smoke
With gloomy pillars cover all the place;
Whose little intervals of night are broke

By sparks that drive against his sacred face.

240

More than his guards his sorrows made him known
And pious tears which down his cheeks did shower;
The wretched in his grief forgot their own;
So much the pity of a king has power.

241

He wept the flames of what he loved so well
And what so well had merited his love;
For never prince in grace did more excel
Or royal city more in duty strove.

242

Nor with an idle care did he behold:

Subjects may grieve, but monarchs must redress;
He cheers the fearful and commends the bold
And makes despairers hope for good success.

243

Himself directs what first is to be done

And orders all the succours which they bring;
The helpful and the good about him run
And form an army worthy such a King.

244.

He sees the dire contagion spread so fast
That, where it seizes, all relief is vain,

And therefore must unwillingly lay waste

That country which would else the foe maintain.

245

The powder blows up all before the fire;

The amazed flames stand gathered on a heap,

And from the precipice's brink retire,

Afraid to venture on so large a leap.

1

246

Thus fighting fires a while themselves consume,
But straight, like Turks forced on to win or die,
They first lay tender bridges of their fume
And o'er the breach in unctuous vapours fly.

247

Part stays for passage, till a gust of wind
Ships o'er their forces in a shining sheet;
Part, creeping under ground, their journey blind
And, climbing from below, their fellows meet.
248

Thus to some desert plain or old wood-side
Dire night-hags come from far to dance their

round,

And o'er broad rivers on their fiends they ride
Or sweep in clouds above the blasted ground.

249

No help avails: for, hydra-like, the fire

Lifts up his hundred heads to aim his way; And scarce the wealthy can one half retire Before he rushes in to share the prey.

250

The rich grow suppliant and the poor grow proud: Those offer mighty gain and these ask more;

So void of pity is the ignoble crowd,

When others' ruin may increase their store.

251

As those who live by shores with joy behold
Some wealthy vessel split or stranded nigh,
And from the rocks leap down for shipwracked gold
And seek the tempest which the others fly:

252

So these but wait the owners' last despair
And what's permitted to the flames invade;
Even from their jaws they hungry morsels tear
And on their backs the spoils of Vulcan lade.

253

The days were all in this lost labour spent ;

And when the weary King gave place to night, His beams he to his royal brother lent,

And so shone still in his reflective light.

254

Night came, but without darkness or repose,
A dismal picture of the general doom;
Where souls distracted, when the trumpet blows,
And half unready with their bodies come.

255

Those who have homes, when home they do repair, To a last lodging call their wandering friends; Their short uneasy sleeps are broke with care,

To look how near their own destruction tends:

256

Those who have none sit round where once it was And with full eyes each wonted room require, Haunting the yet warm ashes of the place,

As murdered men walk where they did expire.

257

Some stir up coals and watch the vestal fire,
Others in vain from sight of ruin run

And, while through burning labyrinths they retire,
With loathing eyes repeat what they would shun.

258

The most in fields like herded beasts lie down,
To dews obnoxious on the grassy floor;

And while their babes in sleep their sorrows drown,
Sad parents watch the remnants of their store.

259

While by the motion of the flames they guess
What streets are burning now, and what are near,
An infant, waking, to the paps would press

And meets instead of milk a falling tear.

260

No thought can ease them but their Sovereign's care,
Whose praise the afflicted as their comfort sing;
Even those whom want might drive to just despair
Think life a blessing under such a King.

261

Meantime he sadly suffers in their grief,

Outweeps an hermit and outprays a saint;
All the long night he studies their relief,

How they may be supplied and he may want.

262

King's prayer. 'O God,' said he, 'Thou patron of my days,
Guide of my youth in exile and distress!

Who me unfriended broughtst by wondrous ways,
The kingdom of my fathers to possess:

263

'Be Thou my judge, with what unwearied care
I since have laboured for my people's good,

To bind the bruises of a civil war

And stop the issues of their wasting blood.

264

'Thou who hast taught me to forgive the ill
And recompense as friends the good misled,
If mercy be a precept of Thy will,

Return that mercy on Thy servant's head.

265

'Or if my heedless youth has stepped astray,
Too soon forgetful of Thy gracious hand,

On me alone Thy just displeasure lay,

But take Thy judgments from this mourning land.

266

'We all have sinned, and Thou hast laid us low As humble earth from whence at first we came; Like flying shades before the clouds we show,

And shrink like parchment in consuming flame.

267

'O let it be enough what Thou hast done,

When spotted deaths ran armed through every street,

With poisoned darts, which not the good could shun, The speedy could outfly or valiant meet.

268

'The living few and frequent funerals then Proclaimed Thy wrath on this forsaken place; And now those few, who are returned again, Thy searching judgments to their dwellings trace. 269

'O pass not, Lord, an absolute decree

Or bind Thy sentence unconditional, But in Thy sentence our remorse foresee

And in that foresight this Thy doom recall.

270

'Thy threatenings, Lord, as Thine Thou mayest re

voke:

But if immutable and fixed they stand,

Continue still Thyself to give the stroke,
And let not foreign foes oppress Thy land.'

271

The Eternal heard, and from the heavenly quire
Chose out the cherub with the flaming sword,
And bad him swiftly drive the approaching fire
From where our naval magazines were stored.

272

The blessed minister his wings displayed,

And like a shooting star he cleft the night; He charged the flames, and those that disobeyed He lashed to duty with his sword of light.

273

The fugitive flames, chastised, went forth to prey
On pious structures by our fathers reared;

By which to Heaven they did affect the way,

Ere faith in churchmen without works was heard.