Companions in your mafter's flight you roam
Unenvy'd by your haughty foes at home;
For ever near the Royal Outlaw's fide
You fhare his fortunes and his hopes divide,
On glorious fchemes and thoughts of empire dwell, And with imaginary titles fwell.
Say, for thou know'st I own his facred line,
The paffive doctrine and the right divine,
Say, what new fuccours does the Chief prepare?
The ftrength of armies or the force of pray'r?
Does he from heav'n or earth his hopes derive?
From faints departed or from priests alive? [ftand,
Nor faints nor priests can Brunswick's troops with-
And beads drop useless thro' the zealot's hand.
Heav'n to our vows may future kingdoms owe,
But skill and courage win the crowns below.
Ere to thy cause and thee my heart inclin'd,
Or love to party had feduc'd my mind,
In female joys I took a dull delight,
Slept all the morn and punted half the night;
But now with fears and publick cares poffeft
The Church! the Church! for ever breaks my rest.
The Poftboy on my pillow I explore,
And fift the news of ev'ry foreign fhore,
Studious to find new friends and new allies,
What armies march from Sweden in disguise,
How Spain prepares her banners to unfold,
And Rome deals out her bleffings and her gold;
Then o'er the map my finger taught to ftray
Crofs many a region marks the winding way;
From fea to fea, from realm to realm, I rove,
And grow a mere geographer by love;
But ftill Avignon and the pleasing coaft
That holds thee banish'd claims my care the most;
Oft' on the wellknown fpot I fix my eyes,
And span the distance that between us lies.
Let not our James tho' foil'd in arms despair
Whilft on his fide he reckons half the fair.
In Britain's lovely ifle a fhining throng
War in his caufe, a thousand beauties ftrong.
Th' unthinking victors vainly boaft their pow'rs; 45
Be theirs the mufket while the tongue is ours.
We reason with fuch fluency and fire
The beaux we baffle and the learned tire,
Againft her prelates plead the church's caufe,
And from our judges vindicate the laws.
Then mourn not, hapless Prince! thy kingdoms loft,
A crown tho' late thy facred brows may boast;
Heav'n feems thro' us thy empire to decree;
Those who win hearts have giv'n their hearts to thee.
Haft thou not heard that when profufely gay 55
Our welldreft rivals grac'd their fov'reign's day,
We stubborn damfels met the publick view
In loathfome wormwood and repenting rue ?
What Whig but trembled when our spotless band
In virgin refes whiten'd half the land!
Who can forget what fears the foe poffeft
When oaken boughs mark'd ev'ry loyal breast!
Lefs fear'd than Medway's fiream the Norman flood
When cross the plain he spy'd a marching wood,
Till near at hand a gleam of fwords betray'd
65
The youth of Kent beneath its wand'ring shade.
Those who the fuccours of the fair despise
May find that we have nails as well as eyes.
Thy female bands, O Prince by Fortune croft!
At least more courage than thy men can boast.
Our fex has dar'd the mughouse chiefs to meet,
And purchas'd fame in many a wellfought street:
From Drury-Lane, the region of renown,
The land of love, the Paphos of the Town,
Fair patriots fallying oft' have put to flight
With all their poles the guardians of the night,
And bore with fcreams of triumph to their fide
The leader's ftaff in all its painted pride.
Nor fears the hawker in her warbling note
To vend the difcontented ftatefman's thought,
Tho' red with stripes, and recent from the thong,
Sore fmitten for the love of facred fong,
The tuneful fifters fill pursue their trade
Like Philomela, darkling in the shade.
Poor Trott attends, forgetful of a fare,
And hums in concert o'er his easy chair.
Mean-while regardless of the royal cause
His fword for James no brother fov'reign draws;
The Pope himself, surrounded with alarms,
To France his bulls to Corfu fends his arms,
And tho' he hears his darling son's complaint
Can hardly spare one tutelary faint,
But lifts them all to guard his own abodes,
And into ready money coins his gods.
The dauntless Swede purfu'd by vengeful foes
Scarce keeps his own hereditary fnows;
Nor must the friendly roof of kind Lorrain
With feasts regale our garter'd youth again.
Safe, Bar-le-Duc! within thy filent grove
The pheasant now may perch, the hare
The knight who aims unerring from afar,
Th' advent'rous knight, now quits the fylvan war;
Thy brinded boars may flumber undifmay'd,
Or grunt fecure beneath the chestnut shade.
Inconftant Orleans! (ftill we mourn the day
That trusted Orleans with imperial fway)
Far o'er the Alps our helpless monarch sends,
Far from the call of his defponding friends;
Such are the terms to gain Britannia's grace,
And fuch the terrours of the Brunswick race!
Was it for this the fun's whole luftre fail'd,
And fudden midnight o'er the moon prevail'd?
For this did Heav'n difplay to mortal eyes
Aerial knights and combats in the skies?
Was it for this Northumbrian streams look'd red,
And Thames driv'n backward fhew'd his fecret bed?
Falfe auguries! th' infulting victor's fcorn!
Ev'n our own prodigies against us turn!
O Portents! conftru'd on our fide in vain,
Let never Tory truft eclipse again.
Run clear, ye Fountains! be at peace, ye Skies!
And Thames! henceforth to thy green borders rife.
To Rome then must the Royal Wand'rer go,
And fall a fuppliant at the papal toe?
His mind perhaps at length debauch'd with ease
His life in floth inglorious must he wear,
One half in luxury and one in pray'r?
The proffer'd purple and the hat may please.
Shall he, whofe ancient patriarchal race
To mighty Nimrod in one line we trace,
In folemn conclave fit devoid of thought,
And poll for points of faith his trusty vote?
Be fummon'd to his stall in time of need,
And with his cafting fuffrage fix a creed?
Shall he in robes on ftated days appear,
And English hereticks curse once a-year ?
Garnet and Faux fhall he with pray'rs invoke,
And beg that Smithfield piles once more may smoke?
Forbid it, Heav'n! my foul to fury wrought
Turns almoft Hanoverian at the thought.
From James and Rome I feel my heart decline,
And fear, O Brunswick! it will be wholly thine;
Yet ftill his fhare thy rival will contest,
And fill the double claim divides my breaft.
|