49.

The prince long time had courted fortune's love,

But once poffefs'd did abfolutely reign:

Thus with their Amazons the heroes ftrove, And conquer'd first those beauties they would gain.

50.

The duke beheld, like Scipio, with disdain,
That Carthage, which he ruin'd, rise once more;
And shook aloft the the fafces of the main,
To fright those flaves with what they felt before.
51.

Together to the watery camp they haste,

Whom matrons paffing to their children fhew: Infants firft vows for them to heaven are caft, And future people bless them as they go.

52.

With them no riotous pomp, nor Afian train,
To infect a navy with their gaudy fears;
To make flow fights, and victories but vain :
But war feverely like itself appears.

53.

Diffufive 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.

54.

Our fleet divides, and straight the Dutch appear,

In number, and a fam'd commander, bold: The narrow feas can scarce their navy bear, Or crowded veffels can their foldiers hold.

55.

The Duke, lefs numerous, but in courage more,
On wings of all the winds to combat flies :
His murdering guns a loud defiance, roar,
And bloody croffes on his flag-staffs rise.
56.

Both furl their fails, and strip them for the fight;
Their folded sheets difmifs the ufelefs air:
Th'Elean plains could boaft no nobler fight,
When struggling champions did their bodies

bare.

57.

Born each by other in a distant line,

The fea-built forts in dreadful order move : So vaft the noife, as if not fleets did join, But lands unfix'd, and floating nations ftrove.

58.

Now pass'd, on either fide 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,

59.

On high-rais'd decks the haughty Belgians ride,
Beneath whose shade our humble frigates go:
Such port the elephant bears, and fo defy'd
By the rhinoceros her unequal foe.
60.

And as the built, fo diff'rent is the fight;
Their mounting shot is on our fails defign'd:
Deep in their hull's our deadly bullets light,
And through the yielding planks a paffage find.
61.

Our dreaded admiral from far they threat,

Whose batter'd rigging their whole war receives:

All bare, like fome old oak which tempefts beat, He stands, and fees below his scatter'd leaves.

62.

Heroes of old, when wounded, shelter fought; But he who meets all danger with disdain, E'en in their face his fhip to anchor brought, And steeple-high stood propt upon the main. 63.

At this excess of courage, all amaz'd,

The foremost of his foes awhile withdraw : With fuch respect in enter'd Rome they gaz'd, Who on high chairs the god-like fathers faw.

64.

And now, as where Patroclus' body lay,

Here Trojan chiefs advanc'd, and there the
Greek ;

Ours o'er the Duke their pious wings difplay,

And theirs the nobleft spoils of Britain seek.
65.

Mean-time his bufy mariners he hastes,
His shatter'd fails with rigging to restore;
And willing pines ascend his broken masts,
Whose lofty heads rife higher than before.
66.

Straight to the Dutch he turns his dreadful prow,
More fierce th'important quarrel to decide:

Like fwans, in long array his veffels show, Whose crests advancing do the waves divide. 67.

They charge, recharge, and all along the fea They drive, and fquander the huge Belgian fleet. Berkley alone, who nearest danger lay,

Did a like fate with loft Creufa meet.
68.

The night comes on, we eager to pursue
The combat ftill, and they asham'd to leave :
Till the last streaks of dying day withdrew,
And doubtful moon-light did our rage deceive.

69.

In the English fleet each ship refounds with joy, And loud applause of their great leader's fame : In fiery dreams the Dutch they still destroy,

And lumbering fmile at the imagin'd flame.

70.

Not fo the Holland fleet, who tired and done, Stretch'd on their decks like weary oxen lie: Faint fweats all down their mighty members run; Vaft bulks which little fouls but ill fupply.

71.

In dreams they fearful precipices tread :
Or fhipwreck'd, labor to some distant shore;
Or in dark churches walk among the dead;

They wake with horror, and dare fleep no more.

72.

The morn they look on with unwilling eyes,

Till from their main-top joyful news they hear Of fhips, which by their mould bring new supplies, And in their colours Belgian lions bear,

73.

Our watchful general had difcern'd from far

This mighty fuccour, which made glad the foe: He figh'd, but like a father of the war,

His face fpake hope, while deep his forrows

flow.