Whole heaps of filver tokens, nightly paid

The careful wife, or the neat dairy-maid,

Sunk not his ftores. With fmiles and powerful bribes
He gain'd the leaders of his neighbour tribes,
And ere the night the face of heav'n had chang'd,
Beneath his banners half the fairies rang'd.

Mean-while driv'n back to earth, a lonely way

The cheerless Albion wander'd half the day,

A long, long journey, choak'd with brakes and thorns,
Ill-meafur'd by ten thoufand barley-corns.

Tir'd out at length, a spreading stream he spy'd
Fed by old Thame, a daughter of the tide :
'Twas then a spreading ftream, though now, its fame
Obfcur'd, it bears the creek's inglorious name,
And creeps, as through contracted bounds it ftrays,
A leap for boys in these degenerate days.

On the clear cryftal's verdant bank he flood,
And thrice look'd backward on the fatal wood,
And thrice he groan'd, and thrice he beat bis breast,
And thus in tears his kindred gods address'd.

If true, ye watry powers, my lineage came
From Neptune mingling with a mortal dame;
• Down to his court, with coral garlands crown'd,

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Through all your grottoes waft my plaintive found,
And urge the god, whofe trident shakes the earth,
To grace his off-fpring, and affert my birth.'
He faid. A gentle Naiad heard his prayer,
And, touch'd with pity for a lover's care,

Shoots

Shoots to the fea, where low beneath the tides
Old Neptune in th' unfathom'd depth refides.
Rous'd at the news the fea's ftern fultan fwore
Revenge, and scarce from present arms forbore;
But first the nymph his harbinger he fends,
And to her care his fav'rite boy commends.

As through the Thames her backward course she guides,
Driven up his current by the refluent tides,
Along his banks the pigmy legions spread
She spies, and haughty Oriel at their head.
Soon with wrong'd Albion's name the host she fires,
And counts the ocean's god among his fires;

The ocean's god, by whom shall be o'erthrown

(Styx heard his oath) the tyrant Oberon.

See here beneath a toadftool's deadly gloom

Lies Albion: Him the Fates your leader doom. • Hear and obey; 'tis Neptune's powerful call, By him Azuriel and his king shall fall.'

She faid. They bow'd: and on their fhield up-bore

With fhouts their new-faluted emperor.

Even Oriel fmil'd at least to smile he ftrove,
And hopes of vengeance triumph'd over love.
See now the mourner of the lonely fhade
By gods protected, and by hofts obey'd,
A flave, a chief, by fickle Fortune's play,
In the short course of one revolving day.
What wonder if the youth, fo ftrangely bleft,
Felt his heart flutter in his little breast!

His

His thick-embattled troops, with fecret pride,
He views extended half an acre wide;

More light he treads, more tall he seems to rife,
And ftruts a fraw-breadth nearer to the skies.

O for thy Mufee, great Bard, whofe lofty ftrains
In battle join'd the Pygmies and the Cranes !
Each gaudy knight, had I that warmth divine,
Each colour'd legion in my verse should shine.
But fimple I, and innocent of art,

The tale, that footh'd my infant years, impart,
The tale I heard whole winter eves, untir'd,
And fing the battles, that my nurse infpir'd..

Now the fhrill corn-pipes, echoing loud to arms,
To rank and file reduce the straggling fwarms.
Thick rows of fpears at once, with fudden glare,
A grove of needles, glitter in the air;
Loofe in the wind fmall ribbon ftreamers flow,
Dipt in all colours of the heav'nly bow,
And the gay hoft, that now its march pursues,
Gleams o'er the meadows in a thousand hues,

On Buda's plains thus formidably bright,
Shone Afia's fons, a pleafing dreadful fight.
In various robes their filken troops were feen,
The blue, the red, and prophet's facred green;

* ΠΥΓΜΑΙΟ-ΓΕΡΑΝΟΜΑΧΙΑ five Prelium inter Pygmmos et Grues commiffum. By Mr. Addison.

When

When blooming BRUNSWICK f near the Danube's flood,
Firft ftain'd his maiden fword in Turkish blood.
Unfeen and filent march the flow brigades.
Through pathlefs wilds, and unfrequented shades,
In hopes already vanquish'd by furprize,
In Albion's power the fairy empire lies;
Already has he feiz'd on Kenna's charms,
And the glad beauty trembles in his arms.

The march concludes; and now in prospect near,
But fenc'd with arms, the hoftile towers appear;
For Oberon, or Druids falfely fing,

Wore his prime vifir in a magic ring,

A fubtle fpright, that opening plots foretold
By fudden dimnefs on the beamy gold.
Hence in a crefcent form'd, his legions bright
With beating bofoms waited for the fight;

To charge their foes they march, a glitt'ring band,
And in their van doth bold Azuriel ftand.

What rage that hour did Albion's foul poffefs,
Let chiefs imagine, and let lovers guefs!
Forth iffuing from his ranks, that strove in vain
To check his courfe, athwart the dreadful plain

At the conclufion of the truce of Ratisbon, a confiderable body of troops were fent to the affiance of the Emperor Leopold, then at war with the Turks. In this campaign, King George II. gave Very ftriking proofs of his valour,

He

He ftrides indignant: and with haughty cries
To fingle fight the fairy prince defies.

Forbear, rafh youth, th' unequal war to try;
Nor, fprung from mortals, with immortals vie.
No god stands ready to avert thy doom,

Nor yet thy grandfire of the waves is come.
My words are vain-no words the wretch can move,
By beauty dazzled, and bewitch'd by love :
He longs, he burns to win the glorious prize,
And fees no danger, while he fees her eyes.
Now from each hoft the eager warriors start,
And furious Albion flings his hafty dart:
'Twas feather'd from the bee's tranfparent wing,
And its fhaft ended in a hornet's fting;

But, tofs'd in rage, it flew without a wound,
High o'er the foe, and guiltless pierc'd the ground.
Not fo Azuriel's: with unerring aim

Too near the needle-pointed javelin came,

Drove through the seven-fold shield and filken vest,
And lightly ras'd the lover's ivory breast.
Rous'd at the smart, and rifing to the blow,
With his keen fword he cleaves his fairy foe,
Sheer from the fhoulder to the waift he cleaves,
And of one arm the tott'ring trunk bereaves.

His ufelefs fteel brave Albion wields no more,
But fternly fmiles, and thinks the combat o'er;
So had it been, had ought of mortal strain,
Or less than fairy felt the deadly pain,

But