So earnest with thy God! can no new care, No sense of danger, interrupt thy prayer? The sacred wrestler, till a blessing given, Quits not his hold, but halting conquers Heaven; Nor was the stream of thy devotion stopp'd, When from the body such a limb was lopp'd, As to thy present state was no less maim, Though thy wise choice has since repair'd the same. Bold Homer durst not so great virtue feign In his best pattern:[2] of Patroclus slain, 10 With such amazement as weak mothers use, And frantic gesture, he receives the news. Yet fell his darling by th'impartial chance Of war, imposed by royal Hector's lance; Thine, in full peace, and by a vulgar hand Torn from thy bosom, left his high command. The famous painter[3] could allow no place For private sorrow in a prince's face: Yet, that his piece might not exceed belief, He cast a veil upon supposed grief. 20 'Twas want of such a precedent as this Made the old heathen frame their gods amiss. Their Phoebus should not act a fonder part For the fair boy,[4] than he did for his heart; Nor blame for Hyacinthus' fate his own, That kept from him wish'd death, hadst thou been known. He that with thine shall weigh good David's deeds, Shall find his passion, nor his love, exceeds: 28 He cursed the mountains where his brave friend died, But let false Ziba with his heir divide; Where thy immortal love to thy bless'd friends, Like that of Heaven, upon their seed descends. Such huge extremes inhabit thy great mind, Godlike, unmoved, and yet, like woman, kind! Which of the ancient poets had not brought Our Charles's pedigree from Heaven, and taught How some bright dame, compress'd by mighty Jove, Produced this mix'd Divinity and Love? [1] 'Buckingham's death': Buckingham was murdered by Felton at Portsmouth, on the 23d of August 1628, while equipping a fleet for the relief of Rochelle. Lord Lindsey succeeded him. The king was at prayers when the news arrived, and had the resolution to disguise his emotion till they were over. [2] 'Pattern': Achilles. [3] 'Painter': Timanthes in his picture of Iphigenia. [4] 'Fair boy': Cyparissus. ON THE TAKING OF SALLÈ.[1] Of Jason, Theseus, and such worthies old, Light seem the tales antiquity has told; Such beasts and monsters as their force oppress'd, Some places only, and some times, infest. Sallè, that scorn'd all power and laws of men, Goods with their owners hurrying to their den, And future ages threat'ning with a rude And savage race, successively renew'd; Their king despising with rebellious pride, And foes profess'd to all the world beside; 10 This pest of mankind gives our hero fame, And through the obliged world dilates his name. The prophet once to cruel Agag said, 'As thy fierce sword has mothers childless made, So shall the sword make thine;' and with that word He hew'd the man in pieces with his sword.