And bless the devil, to let them farms
Of forfeit soul, on no worse terms.'

This said, a near and louder shout
Put all the assembly to the rout, *
Who now begun to' outrun their fear,
As horses do, from those they bear ;
But crowded on with so much haste,
Until they ’ad block'd the passage fast,
And barricadoed it with haunches
Of outward men, and bulks and paunches,
That with their shoulders strove to squeeze,
And rather save a crippled piece
Of all their crush'd and broken members,
Than have them grillied on the embers;
Still pressing on with heavy packs
Of one another on their backs,
The vanguard could no longer bear
The charges of the forlorn rear,

from Breda, and the votes of the Parliament, &c. they did surren, der themselves, being advised that they should thereby secure their lives; and humbly claimed the benefit of the proclamation, &c.' And Harry Martyn briskly added, " That he had never obeyed any proclamation before this, and hoped he should not be hanged for taking the King's word now. A bill was brought in for their execution, which was read twice, but afterwards dropt; so they were all sent to their several prisons, and little more heard of. Ludlow, and some others, escaped by flying among the Swiss Cantons.

* When Sir Martyn came to this cabal, he left the rabble at Temple-Bar; but, by the time he had concluded his discourse, they were advanced near Whitehall and Westminster. This alarmed our caballers, and perhaps terrified them with the apprehension of being hanged or burned in reality, as some of them that very instant were in effigy. No wonder, therefore, they broke up so precipitately, and that each endeavoured to secure himself. The manner of it is described with a poetical license, only to embellish this Canto with a diverting catastrophe.

a

But borne down headlong by the rout,
Were trampled sorely under foot:
Yet nothing prov'd so formidable
As the’ horrid cookery of the rabble ;
And fear, that keeps all feeling out,
(As lesser pains are by the gout)
Reliev'd 'em with a fresh supply
Of rallied force, enough to fly,
And beat a Tuscan running-horse,
Whose jockey-rider is all spurs.

ARGUMENT.
The Knight and Squire's prodigious flight
To quit the'enchanted bow'r by night.
He plods to turn his amorous suit,
To'a plea in law, and prosecute:
Repairs to counsel, to advise
'Bout managing the enterprise ;
But first resolves to try by letter,
And one more fair address, to get her.

Who would believe what strange bugbears
Mankind creates itself, of fears
That spring, like fern, that insect-weed,
Equivocally, without seed,
And have no possible foundation,
But merely in the’ imagination ?
And yet can do more dreadful feats
Than hags, with all their imps and teats ;
Make more bewitch and haunt themselves,
Than all their nurseries of elves.

For fear does things so like a witch,
Tis hard to unriddle which is which;
Sets up communities of senses,
To chop and change intelligences;
As Rosicrucian virtuosos
Can see with ears, and hear with noses;
And, when they neither see nor hear,
Have more than both supplied by fear,
That makes 'em in the dark see visions,
And hag themselves with apparitions,
And, when their eyes discover least,
Discern the subtlest objects best;
Do things not contrary, alone,
To the course of Nature, but its own,
The courage of the bravest daunt,
And turn poltroons as valiant:
For men as resolute appear
With too much, as too little fear;
And, when they're out of hopes of flying,
Will run away from death by dying;
Or turn again to stand it out,
And those they fled, like lions rout.

This Hudibras had prov'd too true,
Who, by the Furies, left perdue,
And haunted with detachments, sent
From Marshal Legion's regiment,*
Was by a fiend, as counterfeit,
Reliev'd and rescued with a cheat,
When nothing but himself, and fear,
Was both the imps and conjurer;

As, by the rules o'th' virtuosi,
It follows in due form of poesy.

Disguis’d in all the masks of night,
We left our champion on his flight,
At blindman's buff, to grope his way,
In equal fear of night and day;
Who took his dark and desperate course,
He knew no better than his horse;
And by an unknown devil led,
(He knew as little whither) fled.
He never was in greater need,
Nor less capacity of speed;
Disabled, both in man and beast,
To fly and run away, his best;
To keep the enemy, and fear,
From equal falling on his rear :
And though with kicks and bangs he plied
The further and the nearer side;
(As seamen ride with all their force,
And tug as if they row'd the horse,
And, when the hackney sails more swift,
Believe they lag, or run a-drift)
So, though he posted e'er so fast,
His fear was greater than his haste :
For fear, though fleeter than the wind,
Believes 'tis always left behind.
But when the morn began to' appear,
And shift to another scene his fear,
He found his new officious shade,
That came so timely to his aid,
And forc'd him from the foe t escape,
Had turn'd itself to Ralpho's shape,
So like in person, garb, and pitch,
'Twas hard to’ interpret which was which.