Her sons were summon'd on a steeple's height, And, call'd in common council, vote a flight; The day was named, the next that should be fair: All to the general rendezvous repair, They try their fluttering wings, and trust themselves in air. But whether upward to the moon they go, 450 Or dream the winter out in caves below, Or hawk at flies elsewhere, concerns us not to know. Southwards, you may be sure, they bent their flight, And harbour'd in a hollow rock at night: Next morn they rose, and set up every sail; The wind was fair, but blew a mackerel gale: The sickly young sat shivering on the shore, Abhorr'd salt water never seen before, And pray'd their tender mothers to delay The passage, and expect a fairer day. 460 With these the Martin readily concurr'd, A church-begot, and church-believing bird; Of little body, but of lofty mind, Round-bellied, for a dignity design'd, And much a dunce, as Martins are by kind. Yet often quoted Canon-laws, and Code, And Fathers which he never understood; But little learning needs in noble blood. For, sooth to say, the Swallow brought him in, Her household chaplain, and her next of kin: 470 In superstition silly to excess, And casting schemes by planetary guess: In fine, short-wing'd, unfit himself to fly, His fears foretold foul weather in the sky. Besides, a Raven from a wither'd oak, Left of their lodging, was observed to croak. That omen liked him not; so his advice Was present safety, bought at any price; A seeming pious care, that cover'd cowardice. To strengthen this, he told a boding dream 480 Of rising waters, and a troubled stream, Sure signs of anguish, dangers, and distress, With something more, not lawful to express: By which he slily seem'd to intimate Some secret revelation of their fate. For he concluded, once upon a time, He found a leaf inscribed with sacred rhyme, Whose antique characters did well denote The Sibyl's hand of the Cumæan grot: The mad divineress had plainly writ, 490 A time should come (but many ages yet), In which, sinister destinies ordain, A dame should drown with all her feather'd train, And seas from thence be call'd the Chelidonian main. At this, some shook for fear, the more devout Arose, and bless'd themselves from head to foot.