But piety commands me to refrain; Those prayers are needless in this monarch's reign. Behold! how he protects your friends oppress'd, Receives the banish'd, succours the distress'd: Behold, for you may read an honest open breast. He stands in day-light, and disdains to hide An act, to which by honour he is tied, 880 A generous, laudable, and kingly pride. Your Test he would repeal, his peers restore; This when he says he means, he means no more. Well, said the Panther, I believe him just, And yet---- And yet, 'tis but because you must; You would be trusted, but you would not trust. The Hind thus briefly; and disdain'd to enlarge On power of kings, and their superior charge, As Heaven's trustees before the people's choice: 890 Though sure the Panther did not much rejoice To hear those echoes given of her once loyal voice. The matron woo'd her kindness to the last, But could not win; her hour of grace was past. Whom, thus persisting, when she could not bring To leave the Wolf, and to believe her king, She gave her up, and fairly wish'd her joy Of her late treaty with her new ally: Which well she hoped would more successful prove, Than was the Pigeon's and the Buzzard's love. 900 The Panther ask'd what concord there could be Betwixt two kinds whose natures disagree? The dame replied: 'Tis sung in every street, The common chat of gossips when they meet; But, since unheard by you, 'tis worth your while To take a wholesome tale, though told in homely style. A plain good man,[130] whose name is understood (So few deserve the name of plain and good), Of three fair lineal lordships stood possess'd, And lived, as reason was, upon the best. 910 Inured to hardships from his early youth, Much had he done, and suffer'd for his truth: At land and sea, in many a doubtful fight, Was never known a more adventurous knight, Who oftener drew his sword, and always for the right.