Or threat with open arms the royal head, Or other daring method, and unjust, That may confirm him in the people's trust. But, failing thus to ensnare him, not secure How long his foiled ambition may endure, Plots next to lay him by as past his date, And try some new pretender's luckier fate; Whose hopes with equal toil he would pursue, Nor cares what claimer's crowned, except the true. Wake, Absalom, approaching ruin shun, And see, O see, for whom thou art undone! How are thy honours and thy fame betrayed, The property of desperate villains made! Lost power and conscious fears their crimes create, And guilt in them was little less than fate; But why shouldst thou, from every grievance free, Forsake thy vineyards for their stormy sea? For thee did Canaan's milk and honey flow, Love dressed thy bowers, and laurels sought thy brow; Preferment, wealth, and power, thy vassals were, And of a monarch all things but the care. Oh, should our crimes again that curse draw down, And rebel arms once more attempt the crown, Sure ruin waits unhappy Absalon, Alike by conquest or defeat undone. Who could relentless see such youth, and charms, Expire, with wretched fate, in impious arms? A prince so formed, with earth's and heaven's applause, To triumph o'er crowned heads in David's cause. Or, grant him victor, still his hopes must fail, Who, conquering, would not for himself prevail; The faction, whom he trusts for future sway, Him and the public would alike betray; Amongst themselves divide the captive state, And found their hydra-empire in his fate. Thus having beat the clouds with painful flight, The pitied youth, with sceptres in his sight, (So have their cruel politics decreed,) Must by that crew, that made him guilty, bleed! For, could their pride brook any prince's sway, Whom, but mild David, would they chose to obey? Who once at such a gentle reign repine, The fall of monarchy itself design; From hate to that their reformations spring, And David not their grievance, but the king. Seized now with panic fear the faction lies, Lest this clear truth strike Absalom's charmed eyes; Lest he perceive, from long enchantment free, What all, beside the flattered youth, must see. But whate'er doubts his troubled bosom swell, Fair carriage still became Achitophel; Who now an envious festival installs, And to survey their strength the faction calls, Which fraud, religious worship too, must gild; But oh how weakly does sedition build! For, lo! the royal mandate issues forth, Dashing at once their treason, zeal, and mirth.[394]-- So have I seen disastrous chance invade, Where careful emmets had their forage laid; Whether fierce Vulcan's rage the furzy plain Had seized, engendered by some careless swain;