When blooming Brunswick near the Danube's flood
Firft ftain'd his maiden fword in Turkish blood.
Unfeen and filent march the flow brigades
Thro' pathlefs wilds and unfrequented fhades.
In hope already vanquish'd by surprise
In Albion's pow'r the fairy empire lies;
Already has he feiz'd on Kenna's charms,
And the glad beauty trembles in his arms.

335

The march concludes; and now in profpect near, But fenc'd with arms, the hostile tow'rs appear; 340 For Oberon, or Druids falfely fing,

Wore his Prime Vizier in a magick ring,

345

A fubtle spright! that op'ning plots foretold
By fudden dimness 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 inagine and let lovers guefs!
Forth iffuing from his ranks, that strove in vain
To check his course, athwart the dreadful plain
He ftrides indignant, and with haughty cries
To fingle fight the Fairy prince defies.

350

Forbear, rash Youth! th' unequal war to try, 355 Nor fprung from mortals with immortals vie : No god ftands 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 warriours start,
And furious Albion flings his hafty dart.

360

'Twas feather'd from the bee's tranfparent wing, 365 And its fhaft ended in a hornet's fting;

But toaft 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 jav'lin came,

Drove thro' the fevenfold fhield and filken veft,
And lightly ras'd the lover's iv'ry breast.
Rous'd at the fmart, and rifing to the blow,
With his keen fword he cleaves his Fairy foe,

370

Sheer from the fhoulder to the waift he cleaves, 375
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 aught of mortal ftrain,
Or less than Fairy felt the deadly pain;
But empyreal forms, howe'er in fight
Gafh'd and difmember'd, eafily unite.

380

As fome frail cup of China's pureft mould,
With azure varnish'd and bedropt with gold,
Tho' broke, if cur'd by fome nice virgin's hands 385
In its old ftrength and priftine beauty stands,

The tumults of the boiling Bohea braves,
And holds fecure the coffee's fable waves;
So did Azuriel's arm, if Fame say true,

Rejoin the vital trunk whence firft it grew,

390

And whilst in wonder fix'd poor Albion stood,
Plung'd the curft fabre in his heart's warm blood.
The golden broid'ry tender Milkah wove,
The breaft to Kenna facred and to love,

Lie rent and mangled, and the gaping wound
Pours out a flood of purple on the ground:
The jetty lufire fickens in his eyes,

395

On his cold cheeks the bloomy freshness dies:
"Oh Kenna! Kenna!" thrice he try'd to fay;
"Kenna! farewell!" and figh'd his foul away. 400
His fall the Dryads with loud fhrieks deplore
By fifter Naiads echo'd from the fhore,
Thence down to Neptune's fecret realms convey'd
Thro' grots and glooms, and many a coral fhade.
The fea's great fire with looks denouncing war 405
The trident shakes and mounts the pearly car,
With one stern frown the wide-spread deep deforms,
And works the madding ocean into storms:
O'er foaming mountains and thro' bursting tides
Now high, now low, the bounding chariot rides, 410
Till thro' the Thames in a loud whirlwind's roar
It fhoots, and lands him on the deftin'd fhore.

Now fix'd on earth his tow'ring ftature stood, Hung o'er the mountains and o'erlook'd the wood:

To Brumpton's grove one ample ftride he took, 415 (The vallies trembled and the forefts fhook)

The next huge ftep reach'd the devoted shade Where chok'd in blood was wretched Albion laid, Where now the vanquish'd with the victors join'd Beneath the regal banners flood combin'd.

420

425

Th' embattled dwarfs with rage and fcorn he paft, And on their town his eye vindictive caft; In deep foundations his strong trident cleaves, And high in air th' uprooted empire heaves; On his broad engine the vast ruin hung, Which on the foe with force divine he flung: Aghaft the legions in th' approaching fhade Th' inverted fpires and rocking domes survey'd, That downward tumbling on the hoft below Crush'd the whole nation at one dreadful blow: 430 Tow'rs, arms, nymphs, warriours, are together loft, And a whole empire falls to footh fad Albion's ghoft! Such was the period long restrain'd by Fate, And fuch the downfal of the Fairy state. This Dale, a pleasing region, not unbleft, This Dale poffeft they, and had still poffeft, Had not their monarch with a father's pride Rent from her lord th' inviolable bride; Rash to diffolve the contract feal'd above, The folemn vows and facred bonds of Love.

435

440

Now where his elves fo fprightly danc'd the round No violet breathes nor daisy paints the ground;

His tow'rs and people fill one common grave,
A shapeless ruin and a barren cave.

Beneath huge hills of smoking piles he lay Stunn'd and confounded a whole fummer's day; At length awak'd, (for what can long restrain Unbody'd spirits?) but awak'd in pain,

And as he faw the defolated wood,

445

And the dark den where once his empire flood, 450 Grief chill'd his heart; to his half-open'd eyes

In ev'ry oak a Neptune feem'd to rife:

He fled, and left with all his trembling peers
The long poffeffion of a thousand years.

Thro' bush, thro' brake, thro' groves and gloomy

dales,

455 Thro' dank and dry, o'er streams and flow'ry vales, Direct they fled, but often look'd behind,

And stopt and started at each rustling wind.
Wing'd with like fear his abdicated bands
Difperfe and wander into diff'rent lands;
Part hid beneath the Peak's deep caverns lie

460

In filent glooms impervious to the sky;

Part on fair Avon's margin feek repose,

465

Whofe ftream o'er Britain's midmost region flows,
Where formidable Neptune never came,
And feas and oceans are but known by fame;
Some to dark woods and fecret fhade retreat,
And fome on mountains chuse their airy feat;
There haply by the ruddy damfel seen,