Possess'd great talents, and abused them too; 600 Whate'er was light, impertinent, and vain, Whate'er was loose, indecent, and profane, (So ripe was Folly, Folly to acquit) Stood all absolved in that poor bauble, Wit. In gratitude, alas! but little read, He let his father's servants beg their bread-- His father's faithful servants, and his own, To place the foes of both around his throne. Bad counsels he embraced through indolence, Through love of ease, and not through want of sense; 610 He saw them wrong, but rather let them go As right, than take the pains to make them so. Women ruled all, and ministers of state Were for commands at toilets forced to wait: Women, who have, as monarchs, graced the land, But never govern'd well at second-hand. To make all other errors slight appear, In memory fix'd, stand Dunkirk[167] and Tangier;[168] In memory fix'd so deep, that Time in vain Shall strive to wipe those records from the brain, 620 Amboyna[169] stands--Gods! that a king could hold In such high estimate vile paltry gold, And of his duty be so careless found, That when the blood of subjects from the ground For vengeance call'd, he should reject their cry, And, bribed from honour, lay his thunders by, Give Holland peace, whilst English victims groan'd, And butcher'd subjects wander'd unatoned! Oh, dear, deep injury to England's fame, To them, to us, to all! to him deep shame! 630 Of all the passions which from frailty spring, Avarice is that which least becomes a king. To crown the whole, scorning the public good, Which through his reign he little understood, Or little heeded, with too narrow aim He reassumed a bigot brother's claim, And having made time-serving senates bow, Suddenly died--that brother best knew how. No matter how--he slept amongst the dead, And James his brother reigned in his stead: 640 But such a reign--so glaring an offence In every step 'gainst freedom, law, and sense, 'Gainst all the rights of Nature's general plan, 'Gainst all which constitutes an Englishman, That the relation would mere fiction seem, The mock creation of a poet's dream; And the poor bards would, in this sceptic age, Appear as false as _their_ historian's page. Ambitious Folly seized the seat of Wit, Christians were forced by bigots to submit; 650 Pride without sense, without religion Zeal, Made daring inroads on the Commonweal; Stern Persecution raised her iron rod, And call'd the pride of kings, the power of God; Conscience and Fame were sacrificed to Rome, And England wept at Freedom's sacred tomb. Her laws despised, her constitution wrench'd From its due natural frame, her rights retrench'd Beyond a coward's sufferance, conscience forced, And healing Justice from the Crown divorced, 660 Each moment pregnant with vile acts of power, Her patriot Bishops sentenced to the Tower,