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Before the bride, in a long double row
With solemn pace thirty choice virgins go,
And make a moving galaxy on earth;
All heavenly beauties, all of highest birth;
All clad in liveliest colours, fresh and fair
As the bright flowers that crown'd their brighter
hair;

All in that new-blown age which does inspire
Warmth in themselves, in their beholders fire.
But all this, and all else the sun did e'er,
Or fancy see, in her less-bounded sphere,
The bride herself outshone; and one would say
They made but the faint dawn to her full day.
Behind a numerous train of ladies went,

Who on their dress much fruitless care had spent:
Vain gems, and unregarded cost, they bore,
For all men's eyes were tied to those before.
The bridegroom's flourishing troop fill'd next the
place,

With thirty comely youths of noblest race,
That march'd before; and Heaven around his head
The graceful beams of joy and beauty spread.
So the glad star, which men and angels love,
Prince of the glorious host that shines above
(No light of heaven so cheerful or so gay),
Lifts up his sacred lamp, and opens day.
The king himself, at the tent's crowned gate,
In all his robes of ceremony' and state,
Sate to receive the train; on either hand
Did the high-priest and the great prophet stand:
Adriel behind, Jonathan, Abner, Jesse,
And all the chiefs in their due order press.
First Saul declared his choice, and the just cause
Avow'd by' a general murmur of applause;

Then sign'd her dower; and in few words he pray'd,
And bless'd, and gave the joyful, trembling maid
To' her lover's hands; who, with a cheerful look
And humble gesture, the vast present took.
The nuptial hymn straight sounds, and musics play,
And feasts and balls shorten the thoughtless day
To all but to the wedded; till at last

The long-wish'd night did her kind shadow cast:
At last the' inestimable hour was come

To lead his conquering prey in triumph home.
To' a palace near, dress'd for the nuptial bed,
(Part of her dower) he his fair princess led;
Saul, the high-priest, and Samuel, here they leave,
Who, as they part, their weighty blessings give.
Her vail is now put on; and at the gate
The thirty youths and thirty virgins wait
With golden lamps, bright as the flames they bore,
To light the nuptial pomp, and march before;
The rest bring home in state the happy pair
To that last scene of bliss, and leave them there
All those free joys insatiably to prove,

With which rich Beauty feasts the glutton Love. "But scarce, alas! the first seven days were pass'd,

In which the public nuptial triumphs last,
When Saul this new alliance did repent-
(Such subtle cares his jealous thoughts torment!)
He envy'd the good work himself had done;
Fear'd David less, his servant than his son.
No longer his wild wrath could he command;
He seeks to stain his own imperial hand
In his son's blood; and, that twice cheated too,
With troops and armies does one life pursue.

Said I but one? His thirsty rage extends
To the' lives of all his kindred and his friends;
Even Jonathan had died for being so,
Had not just God put by the' unnatural blow.
"You see, Sir, the true cause which brings us here:
No sullen discontent, or groundless fear;
No guilty act or end calls us from home;
Only to breathe in peace awhile we come ;
Ready to serve, and in mean space to pray
For you who us receive, and him who drives away."

END OF VOL. II.

C. CWhittingham, College House, Chiswick.

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