Nor was this all; in ports and roads remote, Destructive fires among whole fleets we send; Triumphant flames upon the water float, And out-bound ships at home their voyage end.[178] 205. Those various squadrons, variously designed, Each vessel freighted with a several load, Each squadron waiting for a several wind, All find but one,--to burn them in the road. 206. Some bound for Guinea, golden sand to find, Bore all the gauds the simple natives wear; Some for the pride of Turkish courts designed, For folded turbans finest Holland bear. 207. Some English wool vexed in a Belgian loom, And into cloth of spongy softness made, Did into France, or colder Denmark, doom, To ruin with worse ware our staple trade. 208. Our greedy seamen rummage every hold, Smile on the booty of each wealthier chest; And, as the priests who with their gods make bold, Take what they like, and sacrifice the rest. 209. But ah! how insincere are all our joys! Which sent from heaven, like lightning, make no stay; Their palling taste the journey's length destroys, Or grief, sent post, o'ertakes them on the way. 210. Swelled with our late successes on the foe, Which France and Holland wanted power to cross, We urge an unseen fate to lay us low, And feed their envious eyes with English loss. 211. Each element his dread command obeys, Who makes or ruins with a smile or frown; Who, as by one he did our nation raise, So now he with another pulls us down. 212. Yet London, empress of the northern clime, By an high fate thou greatly didst expire; Great as the world's, which, at the death of time, Must fall, and rise a nobler frame by fire.[179] 213. As when some dire usurper heaven provides, To scourge his country with a lawless sway; His birth, perhaps, some petty village hides, And sets his cradle out of fortune's way: 214. Till fully ripe his swelling fate breaks out, And hurries him to mighty mischiefs on; His prince, surprised at first, no ill could doubt, And wants the power to meet it when 'tis known: 215. Such was the rise of this prodigious fire, Which in mean buildings first obscurely bred, From thence did soon to open streets aspire, And straight to palaces and temples spread. 216. The diligence of trades and noiseful gain, And luxury more late, asleep were laid; All was the night's; and, in her silent reign, No sound the rest of nature did invade. 217. In this deep quiet, from what source unknown, Those seeds of fire their fatal birth disclose; And, first, few scattering sparks about were blown, Big with the flames that to our ruin rose. 218.