49 The prince long time had courted fortune's love, But once possess'd, did absolutely reign: Thus with their Amazons the heroes strove, And conquer'd first those beauties they would gain. 50 The Duke beheld, like Scipio, with disdain, That Carthage, which he ruin'd, rise once more; And shook aloft the fasces of the main, To fright those slaves with what they felt before. 51 Together to the watery camp they haste, Whom matrons passing to their children show: Infants' first vows for them to heaven are cast, And future people bless them as they go. 52 With them no riotous pomp, nor Asian train, To infect a navy with their gaudy fears; To make slow fights, and victories but vain: But war severely like itself appears. 53 Diffusive of themselves, where'er they pass, They make that warmth in others they expect; Their valour works like bodies on a glass, And does its image on their men project. 54 Our fleet divides, and straight the Dutch appear, In number, and a famed commander, bold: The narrow seas can scarce their navy bear, Or crowded vessels can their soldiers hold. 55 The Duke, less numerous, but in courage more, On wings of all the winds to combat flies: His murdering guns a loud defiance roar, And bloody crosses on his flag-staffs rise. 56 Both furl their sails, and strip them for the fight; Their folded sheets dismiss the useless air: The Elean plains could boast no nobler sight, When struggling champions did their bodies bare. 57 Borne each by other in a distant line, The sea-built forts in dreadful order move: So vast the noise, as if not fleets did join, But lands unfix'd, and floating nations strove. 58 Now pass'd, on either side they nimbly tack; Both strive to intercept and guide the wind: And, in its eye, more closely they come back, To finish all the deaths they left behind. 59 On high-raised decks the haughty Belgians ride, Beneath whose shade our humble frigates go: Such port the elephant bears, and so defied By the rhinoceros, her unequal foe. 60 And as the build, so different is the fight; Their mounting shot is on our sails design'd: Deep in their hulls our deadly bullets light, And through the yielding planks a passage find. 61 Our dreaded admiral from far they threat, Whose batter'd rigging their whole war receives: All bare, like some old oak which tempests beat, He stands, and sees below his scatter'd leaves. 62 Heroes of old, when wounded, shelter sought; But he who meets all danger with disdain, Even in their face his ship to anchor brought, And steeple-high stood propt upon the main.