A high-Dutch trooper, sent abroad to fight, Whose trade was blood, and in his arm his right: A supernumerary Holsteineer, * For want of room at home, sent out to war; A mere Swiss** mercenary, who for bread, Was born on purpose to be knock'd in head; A Saxon soldier was his high descent, Murder his business, plunder his intent; The poor unvalued, despicable thing, A thief by nation, and by fate a king! * The Saxons that came over were from Jutland, Holstein, &c. The poor countries the Saxons lived in, being unable to support the vast numbers of the people they produced, they sought subsistence and habitations in fruitful and plentiful lands. ** A Swiss, alludes to their being mercenaries. To-day the monarch glories in his crown, A soldier thief to-morrow knocks him down, And calls the fancied right divine his own! In the next age that 'rightful' Lord's forgot, And rampant treason triumphs on the spot: Success gives title, makes possession just, For if the fates obey, the subjects must. We should be last of all that should pretend, The long descent of princes to defend; Since, if hereditary right's the claim, The English line has forty times been lame; Of all the nations in the world, there's none Have less of true succession in their crown. {181} Britannia now, with men of blood opprest, And all her race of tyrants lately ceased; Ill fate prevailing, seeks at foreign shores, And for worse monsters, ignorantly implores. The right divine was so despised a thing, The crown went out a begging for a king Of foreign breed, of unrelated race, Whore in his scutcheon, tyrant in his face j Of spurious birth, and intermingled blood, Who nor our laws nor language understood. William the early summons soon obeys, Ambition fills his sails, his fleets the seas; By cruel hopes, and fatal valour sped, The foreign legions Britain's shores o'erspread: The sword decides the claim, the land's the prey, Fated the conquering tyrant to obey. Harold by usurpation gain'd the crown, * And ditto usurpation pull'd him down. Nothing but patience then could Britain claim; Oppress'd by suff'ring, suff'ring made her tame: She saw the tyrant William quit the throne, And hoped for better usage from his son; But change of tyrants gave her small relief, She lost the lion, and receiv'd the thief. * Harold seized upon the crown by force. He had no claim to it, by blood or inheritance, being the son of Earl Goodwin. Rufus, his father's ill got treasure seized, The greedy sons of mother-church appeased; Bought up rebellion with the cash he stole, Secured the Clergy, and seduced the whole.