Like hills th' afpiring ramparts rise on high,
Like valleys at their feet the trenches lie;
Batteries on batteries guard each fatal pass,
Threatening deftruction; rows of hollow brass,
Tube behind tube, the dreadful entrance keep,
Whilft in their wombs ten thousand thunders fleep:
Great Churchill owns, charm'd with the glorious fight,
His march o'er-paid by fuch a promis'd fight.
The western fun now fhot a feeble ray,
And faintly scatter'd the remains of day :
Ev'ning approach'd; but oh what host of foes.
Were never to behold that evening close.!
Thickening their ranks, and wedg'd in firm array,
The close-compacted Britons win their way;
In vain the cannon their throng'd war defac`d ·
With tracts of death, and laid the battle waste ;
Still preffing forward to the fight, they broke
Through flames of fulphur, and a night of smoke,
Till flaughter'd legions fill'd the trench below,
And bore their fierce avengers to the foe.

High on the works the mingling hosts engage;
The battle, kindled into tenfold rage,

With showers of bullets and with ftorms of fire
Burns in full fury; heaps on heaps expire,
Nations with nations mix'd confus'dly die,
And loft in one promifcuous carnage lie.
How many generous Britons meet their doom,
New to the field, and heroes in the bloom!
Th' illuftrious youths, that left their native shore
To march where Britons never march'd before,

(O fatal

(O fatal love of fame! O glorious heat

Only destructive to the brave and great !)`
After fuch toils o'ercome, fuch dangers past,
Stretch'd on Bavarian ramparts breathe their last!
But hold, my Mufe, may no complaints appear,
Nor blot the day with an ungrateful tear:
While Marlborough lives, Britannia's ftars difpenfe -
A friendly light, and shine in innocence.
Plunging through feas of blood his fiery fteed
Where-e'er his friends retire, or foes fucceed;
Those he fupports, these drives to fudden flight,
And turns the various fortune of the fight.

Forbear, great man, renown'd in arms, forbear
To brave the thickest terrors of the war,
Nor hazard thus, confus'd in crowds of foes,
Britannia's fafety, and the world's repofe;
Let nations, anxious for thy life abate

This fcorn of danger, and contempt of fate :-
Thou liy ft not for thyself; thy Queen demands
Conqueft and peace from thy victorious hands;
Kingdoms and empires in thy fortune.join,
And Europe's destiny depends on thine.

At length the long-difputed pass they gain,.
By crowded armies fortify'd in vain ;
The war breaks in, the fierce Bavarians yield,
And fee their camp with British legions fill'd.
So Belgian mounds bear on their fhatter'd fides
The fea's whole weight increas'd with fwelling tides;
But if the rushing wave a paffage finds,

Enrag'd by watery moons, and warring winds,

The trembling peasant fees his country round
Cover'd with tempefts, and in oceans drown'd.
The few furviving foes disperst in slight,
(Refuse of fwords, and gleanings of a fight)
In every rustling wind the victor hear,

And Marlborough's form in every fhadow fear,
Till the dark cope of night with kind embrace
Befriends the rout, and covers their difgrace.
To Donavert, with unrefifted force,

The

gay victorious army bends its course.

The growth of meadows, and the pride of fields,
Whatever spoils Bavaria's fummer yields

(The Danube's great increase), Britannia shares,
The food of armies and fupport of wars:
With magazines of death, deftructive balls,
And cannon doom'd to batter Landau's walls,
The victor finds each hidden cavern ftor'd,
And turns their fury on their guilty Lord.
Deluded prince! how is thy greatnefs croft,
And all the gaudy dream of empire lost,
That proudly fet thee on a fancy'd throne,
And made imaginary realms thy own!
Thy troops, that now behind the Danube join,
Shall fhortly feek for shelter from the Rhine,
Nor find it there! Surrounded with alarms,
Thou hop'ft the affiftance of the Gallic arms;
The Gallic arms in fafety fhall advance,

And crowd thy standards with the power of France,
While, to exalt thy doom, th' afpiring Gaul
Shares thy deftruction, and adorns thy fall.

4

Unbounded

Unbounded courage and compaffion join'd,
Tempering each other in the victor's mind,
Alternately proclaim him good and great,
And make the Hero and the Man compleat.
Long did he strive th' obdurate foe to gain
By proffer'd grace, but long he ftrove in vain ;
Till, fir'd at length, he thinks it vain to spare
His rifing wrath, and gives a loose to war.
In vengeance rous'd, the foldier fills his hand
With fword and fire, and ravages the land,
A thousand villages to athes turns,

In crackling flames a thousand harvests burns.
To the thick woods the woolly flocks retreat,
And mixt with bellowing herds confus'dly bleat;
Their trembling lords the common shade partake,
And cries of infants found in every brake:
The liftening foldier fixt in forrow stands,
Loth to obey his leader's juft commands;
The leader grieves, by generous pity sway'd,
To fee his just commands fo well obey'd.
But now the trumpet terrible from far
In fhriller clangors animates the war;
Confederate drums in fuller concert beat,
And echoing hills the loud alarm repeat:
Gallia's proud ftandards, to Bavaria's join'd,
Unfurl their gilded lilies in the wind;
The daring prince his blafted hopes renews,
And, while the thick embattled hoft he views
Stretcht out in deep array, and dreadful length,
His heart dilates, and glories in his strength.

The

The fatal day its mighty course began,

That the griev'd world had long defir'd in vain
States that their new captivity bemoan'd,

Armies of martyrs that in exile groan'd,

Sighs from the depth of gloomy dungeons heard,
And prayers in bitterness of foul preferr'd,
Europe's loud cries, that Providence affail'd,
And Anna's ardent vows at length prevail'd;
The day was come when heaven defign'd to show
His care and conduct of the world below.
Behold in awful march and dread array
The long extended squadrons fhape their way!·
Death, in approaching terrible, imparts
An anxious horror to the braveft hearts';
Yet do their beating breasts demand the ftrife,
And thirst of glory quells the love of life.
No vulgar fears can British minds control :-
Heat of revenge, and noble pride of foul,
O'erlook the foe, advantag'd by his poft,
Leffen his numbers, and contract his hoft;
Though fens and floods possest the middle space,
That unprovok'd they would have fear'd to pass;
Nor fens nor floods can stop Britannia's bands,
When her proud foe rang'd on their borders ftands.
But O, my Mufe, what numbers wilt thou find
To fing the furious troops in battle join'd!
Methinks I hear the drums tumultuous found
The victors fhouts and dying groans confound,
The dreadful burft of cannon rend the skies,
And all the thunder of the battle rife..

'Twas