Dragged from a thousand jails her victim trains, Jews, Moors and Christians, clank alike their chains, Read their known sentence in her fiery eyes, And breathe to heaven their unavailing cries; Lash'd on the pile their writhing bodies turn, And, veil'd in doubling smoke, begin to burn. Where the flames open, lo! their limbs in vain Reach out for help, distorted by the pain; Till folded in the fires they disappear, And not a sound invades the startled ear. See Philip, throned in insolence and pride, Enjoy their wailings and their pangs deride; While o'er the same dread scenes, on Albion's isles, His well-taught spouse, the cruel Mary, smiles. What clouds of smoke hang heavy round the shore! What altars hecatomb'd with Christian gore! Her sire's best friends, the wise, the brave, the good, Roll in the flames or fly the land of blood. To Gallia's plains the maddening phrensy turns. Religion raves and civil discord burns; Leaguers and Huguenots their vengeance pour, They swell Bartholemy's wide feast of gore, Alternate victors bid their gibbets rise, And the foul stench of victims chokes the skies. Now cease the factions with the Valois line, And Bourbon's virtues every voice combine. Quell'd by his fame, the furious sects accord, Europe respires beneath his guardian sword; Batavia's states to independence soar, And curb the cohorts of Iberian power. From Albion's ports her infant navies heave, Stretch forth and thunder on the Flandrian wave; Her Howard there first foils the force of Spain, And there begins her mastery of the main. The Seraph spoke; when full beneath their eye A new-form'd squadron rose along the sky. High on the tallest deck majestic shone Sage Raleigh, pointing to the western sun; His eye, bent forward, ardent and sublime, Seem'd piercing nature and evolving time; Beside him stood a globe, whose figures traced A future empire in each present waste; All former works of men behind him shone Graved by his hand in ever-during stone; On his calm brow a various crown displays The hero's laurel and the scholar's bays; His graceful limbs in steely mail were drest, The bright star burning on his lofty breast; His sword, high waving, flash'd the solar ray. Illumed the shrouds and rainbow'd far the spray; The smiling crew rose resolute and brave, And the glad sails hung bounding o'er the wave.