What peace can be where both to one pretend?
(But they more diligent, and we more strong)
Or if a peace, it soon must have an end;
For they would grow too pow'rful were it long.
Behold two nations then, engag'd so far,
That each sev'n years the fit must shake each land;
Where France will side to weaken us by war,
Who only can his vast designs withstand.
See how he feeds th' Iberian with delays,
To render us his timely friendship vain;
And, while his secret soul on Flanders preys,
He rocks the cradle of the Babe of Spain.
Such deep designs of empire does he lay
O'er them whose cause he seems to take in hand;
And prudently would make them Lords at sea,
To whom with ease he can give laws by land.
This saw our King; and long within his breast
His pensive counsels balanc'd to and fro :
He griev'd the land he freed should be opprest,
And he less for it than usurpers do,
His gen'rous mind the fair ideas drew
Of fame and honour, which in dangers lay;
Where wealth like fruit on precipices grew,
Not to be gather'd but by birds of prey.
The loss and gain each fatally were great;
And still his subjects called aloud for war;
But peaceful kings, o'er martial people set,
Each other's poise and counterbalance are.
He first survey'd the charge with careful eyes,
Which none but mighy monarchs could maintain; 50
Yet judg'd, like vapours that from limbics rise,
It would in richer show'rs descend again,
At length resolv'd t' assert the wat'ry ball
He in himself did whole armadoes bring:
Him aged seamen might their master call,
And chuse for gen'ral, were he not their King,
It seems as ev'ry ship their Sov'reign knows,
His awful summons they so soon obey;
So hear the scaly herd when Proteus blows, †
And so to pasture follow thro' the sea.
To see this fleet upon the ocean move,
Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies;
When Proteus blows.]
Coeruleus Proteus immania ponti
"Armenta et magnas pascit sub gurgite Phocas,
And Heav'n, as if there wanted lights above,
For tapers made two glaring comets rise.
Whether they unctuous exhalations are
Fir'd by the sun, or seeming so alone,
Or each some more remote and slipp❜rý star,
Which loses footing when to mortals shown:
Or one, that bright companion of the sun,
Whose glorious aspect seal'd our new-born King; 70
And now a round of greater years begun,
New influence from his walks of light did bring.
Victorious York did first, with fam'd success,
To his known valour make the Dutch give place:
Thus Heav'n our Monarch's fortune did confess,
Beginning conquest from his royal race.
But since it was decreed, auspicious King!
In Britain's right that thou shouldst wed the main, Heav'n as a gage, would cast some precious thing, And therefore doom'd that Lawson should be slain. 80
Lawson amongst the foremost met his fate
Whom sea-green Sirens from the rocks lament:
Thus as an off'ring for the Grecian state,
He first was kill'd who first to battle went.
Their chief blown up, in air, not waves, expir'd,
To which his pride presum❜d to give the law !
The Dutch confess'd Heav'n present and retir'd,
And all was Britain the wide Ocean saw.
To nearest ports their shatter'd ships repair,
Where by our dreadful cannon they lay aw'd;
So rev'rently men quit the open air,
When thunder speaks the angry gods abroad.
And now approach'd their fleet from India, fraught With all the riches of the rising sun:
And precious sand from southern climates brought, The fatal regions where the war begun.
Like hunted castors, conscious of their store,
Their way-laid wealth to Norway's coast they bring ;
There first the North's cold bosom spices bore,
And Winter brooded on the eastern spring.
By the rich scent we found our perfum'd prey,
Which, flank'd with rocks, did close in covert lie;
And round about their murd'ring cannon lay,
At once to threaten and invite the eye.
Fiercer than cannon, and than rocks more hard,
The English undertake th' unequal war:
Sev'n ships alone, by which the port is barr'd,
Besiege the Indies, and all Denmark dare.
These fight like husbands, but like lovers those :
These fain would keep, and those more fain enjoy; 110
And to such height their frantic passion grows,
That what both love both hazard to destroy.
Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball,
And now their odours arm'd against them fly;
Some preciously by shatter'd porcelain fall,
And some by aromatic splinters die.
And tho' by tempests of the prize bereft,
In Heav'n's inclemency some ease we find :;
Our foes we vanquish'd by our valour left,
And only yielded to the seas and wind.
Nor wholly lost we so deserv'd a prey;
For storms repenting part of it restor❜d;
Which, as a tribute from the Baltic sea,
The British Ocean sent her mighty Lord.
Go, Mortals! now, and vex yourselves in vain
For wealth which so uncertainly must come;
When what was brought so far, and with such pain,
Was only kept to lose it nearer home.
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