( 6 )
“ I am contented here, I ne’er have seen
" A vale more fertile, nor a hill more green,
"Nor would I leave this sweet, though humble cot,
"To share the richest monarch’s envied lot.
“ O! would to Heaven the alternative were mine,
"Abroad to thrive, or here in want to pine,
"Soon would 1 chufe : but ere to-morrow’s fun
"Has o’er my head his radiant journey run,
"I shall be robb’d, by what they JUSTICE call,
"By legal ruffians, of my little all:
"Driv’n out to Hunger, Nakedness and Grief,
"Without one pitying hand to bring relief.
"Then come, oh! sad alternative to chufe,
"Come, Banishment, I wilt no more refuse.
"Go where I may, nor billows, rocks, nor wind,
"Can add of horror to my tortur’d mind;
"On whatsoever coast I may be thrown,
"No lord can use me harder than my own;
"Even they who tear the limbs and drink the gore,
Of helpless strangers, what can they do more?
"For thee, insatiate chief; whose ruthless hand
"For ever drives me from my native land :
"For thee I leave no greater curie behind,
"Than the fell bodings of a guilty mind ;
"Or what were harder to a soul like thine,
"To find from avarice thy wealth decline.
“ For you,my friends, and neighbours,of the vale,
"Who now with kindly tears my fate bewail,
"Soon may your king, whose bread paternal glows,
