His fiery cannon did their passage guide, And following smoke obscured them from the foe: Thus Israel, safe from the Egyptians' pride. By flaming pillars, and by clouds did go. 93. Elsewhere the Belgian force we did defeat, But here our courages did theirs subdue; So Xenophon once led that famed retreat, Which first the Asian empire overthrew. 94. The foe approached; and one for his bold sin Was sunk, as he that touched the ark was slain:[141] The wild waves mastered him, and sucked him in, And smiling eddies dimpled on the main. 95. This seen, the rest at awful distance stood; As if they had been there as servants set, To stay, or to go on, as he thought good, And not pursue, but wait on his retreat. 96. So Libyan huntsmen, on some sandy plain, From shady coverts roused, the lion chace; The kingly beast roars out with loud disdain, And slowly moves, unknowing to give place.[142] 97. But if some one approach to dare his force, He swings his tail, and swiftly turns him round: With one paw seizes on his trembling horse, And with the other tears him to the ground. 98. Amidst these toils succeeds the balmy night; Now hissing waters the quenched guns restore; And weary waves, withdrawing from the fight, Lie lulled and panting on the silent shore.[143] 99. The moon shone clear on the becalmed flood, Where, while her beams like glittering silver play, Upon the deck our careful general stood, And deeply mused on the succeeding day.[144] 100. "That happy sun," said he, "will rise again, Who twice victorious did our navy see; And I alone must view him rise in vain, Without one ray of all his star for me. 101. "Yet, like an English general will I die, And all the ocean make my spacious grave: Women and cowards on the land may lie; The sea's a tomb that's proper for the brave." 102. Restless he passed the remnant of the night, Till the fresh air proclaimed the morning nigh; And burning ships, the martyrs of the fight, With paler fires beheld the eastern sky. 103. But now his stores of ammunition spent, His naked valour is his only guard; Rare thunders are from his dumb cannon sent, And solitary guns are scarcely heard. 104. Thus far had fortune power, here forced to stay, No longer durst with fortune be at strife; This as a ransom Albemarle did pay, For all the glories of so great a life. 105. For now brave Rupert from afar appears, Whose waving streamers the glad general knows; With full-spread sails his eager navy steers, And every ship in swift proportion grows.[145] 106.