223.

The ghosts of traitors from the bridge descend, With bold fanatic fpectres to rejoice:

About the fire into a dance they bend,

And fing their fabbath notes with feeble voice. 224.

Our guardian angel saw them where they fate
Above the palace of our flumbering king:
He figh'd, abandoning his charge to fate,
And drooping, oft look'd back upon the wing.

225.

At length the crackling noise and dreadful blaze Call'd up fome waking lover to the fight;

And long it was ere he the reft could raise, Whose heavy eyelids yet were full of night. 226.

The next to danger, hot purfu'd by fate,
Half-cloth'd, half-naked, haftily retire :

And frighted mothers ftrike their breafts too late,
For helpless infants left amidst the fire.

227.

Their cries foon waken all the dwellers near; Now murmuring noises rife in every ftreet: The more remote run ftumbling with their fear, And in the dark men juftle as they meet.

So weary

228.

bees in little cells reposc ;

But if night-robbers lift the well-stor'd hive, An humming through their waxen city grows, And out upon each other's wings they drive.

229.

Now ftreets grow throng'd and bufy as by day: Some run for buckets to the hallow'd quire: Some cut the pipes, and fome the engines play; And fome more bold mount ladders to the fire. 230.

In vain for from the Eaft a Belgian wind

His hoftile breath through the dry rafters fent ;
The flames impell'd foon left their foes behind,
And forward with a wanton fury went.
231.

A key of fire ran all along the fhore,
And lighten'd all the river with a blaze:
The waken'd tides began again to roar,
And wondering fish in shining waters gaze.
232.

Old father Thames rais'd up

his reverend head,

But fear'd the fate of Simois would return :

Deep in his ooze he fought his fedgy bed,

And fhrunk his waters back into his urn.

233.

The fire, mean-time, walks in a broader grofs; To either hand his wings he opens wide:

He wades the streets, and straight he reaches crofs,

And plays his longing flames on th' other fide.

234.

At first they warm, then fcorch, and then they

take;

Now with long necks from fide to fide they feed: At length grown ftrong their mother-fire forfake, And a new colony of flames fucceed.

Το

235.

every nobler portion of the town

The curling billows roll their restless tide:
In parties now they ftraggle up and down,
As armies unoppos'd for prey divide.
236.

One mighty fquadron with a fide-wind fped,
Through narrow lanes his cumber'd fire does

hafte,

By powerful charms of gold and filver led,

The Lombard bankers and the Change to waste.

237.

Another backward to the Tower would go, And flowly eats his way against the wind; But the main body of the marching foe Against th' imperial palace is defign'd. 238.

Now day appears, and with the day the king, Whofe early care had robb'd him of his rest: Far off the cracks of falling houses ring,

And shrieks of subjects pierce his tender breast. 239.

Near as he draws, thick harbingers of smoke
With gloomy pillars cover all the place;
Whofe little intervals of night are broke
By fparks, that drive against his facred face.

240.

More than his guards his forrows made him known,
And pious tears which down his cheeks did show'r:
The wretched in his grief forgot their own;
So much the pity of a king has pow'r.

241.

He wept the flames of what he lov'd so well,
And what fo 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 chears the fearful and commends the bold, And makes despairers hope for good fuccefs. 243.

Himfelf directs what firft is to be done,

And orders all the fuccours which they bring: The helpful and the good about him run,

And form an army worthy such a king.

244.

He fees the dire contagion spread so fast,
That where it seizes all relief is vain:
And therefore must unwillingly lay waste
That country, which would elfe the foe main-

tain.

245.

The powder blows up all before the fire:

Th' amazed flames stand gather'd on a heap;
And from the precipice's brink retire,
Afraid to venture on fo large a leap.
246.

Thus fighting fires a while themselves confume,
But ftraight like Turks forc'd on to win or die,
They first lay tender bridges of their fume,
And o'er the breach in unctuous vapors fly.