"Than they to fave their lives. Till, lo! at last, 1015 "Nature, whofe power he had fo long furpafs'd, "Would yield no more, but to him ftronger foes, "Drought, faintnefs, and fierce hunger, did oppose. Reeking all o'er in duft, and blood, and sweat, "Burnt with the fun's and violent action's heat, 1020 "'Gainst an old oak his trembling limbs he staid, "For fome fhort eafe; Fate in th' old oak had laid "Provisions up for his relief; and lo! 1025 1030 "The hollow trunk did with bright honey flow. "With timely food his decay'd spirits recruit, "Strong he returns, and fresh, to the pursuit; "His ftrength and spirits the honey did restore ; "But, oh! the bitter-sweet strange poison bore! "Behold, Sir, and mark well the treacherous fate, "That does fo clofe on human glories wait! "Behold the strong, and yet fantastic net, "T'enfnare triumphant virtue darkly fet! "Could it before (fcarce can it fince) be thought, "The Prince-who had alone that morning fought "A duel with an hoft, had the hoft o'erthrown, 1035 "And threescore thousand hands difarm'd with one; "Wash'd-off his country's shame, and doubly dy'd "In blood and blushes the Philiftan pride; "Had fav'd and fix'd his father's tottering crown, "And the bright gold new burnish'd with renown,— "Should be ere night, by 's King and Father's breath, "Without a fault, vow'd and condemn'd to death? "Deftin'd the bloody facrifice to be "Of thanks, himself, for his own victory? « Alone, "Alone, with various fate, like to become, "Fighting, an hoft; dying, an hecatomb? "Yet fuch, Sir, was his cafe; "For Saul, who fear'd left the full plenty might (In the abandon'd camp expos'd to fight) "His hungry men from the purfuit diffuade, 4 1045 1050 "A rafh, but folemn vow to Heaven had made"Curs'd be the wretch, thrice curfed let him be, "Who fhall touch food this bufy day, faid he, "Whilst the bleft fun does with his favouring light "Affift our vengeful fwords against their flight: 1055 "Be he thrice curs'd! and, if his life we fpare, "On us thofe curfes fall that he fhould bear! "Such was the king's rash vow; who little thought "How near to him Fate th' application brought. "The two-edg'd oath wounds deep, perform'd or broke } "Ev'n perjury its leaft and bluntest stroke. "'Twas his owu fon, whom God and mankind lov'd, "His own victorious fon, that he devov'd ; "On whofe bright head the baleful curfes light: "But Providence, his helmet in the fight, "Forbids their entrance or their fettling there; "They with brute sound dissolv'd into the air. "Him what religion, or what vow, could bind, "Unknown, unheard-of, till he his life did find Entangled in 't? whilft wonders he did do, "Muft he die now for not being prophet too? "To all but him this oath was meant and faid; "He, afar off, the ends for which 'twas made 1065 1070 Was 1075 "Was acting then, till, faint and out of breath, “In his own cause; who falsely fear'd, beside, 1085 "Not Saul's proud heart could mafter his swoln eye; "A victory now he o'er himself might boast; *They "They all confent all Ifrael ought to be "Accurs'd and kill'd themselves, rather than he. 1005 "Thus with kind force they the glad king withstood, "And fav'd their wondrous faviour's facred blood!" Thus David spoke ; and much did yet remain Behind, th' attentive prince to entertain; Edom and Zoba's war-for what befel 1110 In that of Moab, was known there too well: 1115 END OF THE DA VIDEIS.. A DIS A DISCOURSE, BY WAY OF VISION, CONCERNING THE GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWELL. T was the funeral day of the late man who made IT himself to be called protector. And though I bore but little affection, either to the memory of him, or to the trouble and fully of all public pageantry, yet I was forced by the importunity of my company to go along with them, and be a fpectator of that folemnity, the expectation of which had been so great, that it was said to have brought fome very curious perfons (and no doubt fingular virtuofos) as far as from the Mount in Cornwall, and from the Orcades. I found there had been much more coft bestowed than either the dead man, or indeed death itself, could deferve. There was a mighty train of black affiftants, among which, too, divers princes in the perfons of their ambassadors (being infinitely afflicted for the lofs of their brother) were pleased to attend; the hearfe was magnificent, the idol crowned, and (not to mention all other ceremonies which are practifed at royal interments, and therefore by no means could be omitted here) the vast multitude of fpectators made up, as it ufes to do, no fmall part of the fpectacle itself. But yet, I know not how, the whole was fo managed, that, methought, it fomewhat reprefented the life of him for whoin it VOL. II. P was |