Vowing to make Crowdero pay
For all the rest that ran away.1030
But Ralpho now, in colder blood,
His fury mildly thus withstood:
Great Sir, quoth he, your mighty spirit
Is rais'd too high; this slave does merit
To be the hangman's bus'ness, sooner1035
Than from your hand to have the honour
Of his destruction; I that am
A nothingness[1] in deed and name,
Did scorn to hurt his forfeit carcase,
Or ill entreat his fiddle or case:1040
Will you, great Sir, that glory blot
In cold blood, which you gain'd in hot?
Will you employ your conqu'ring sword
To break a fiddle, and your word?
For tho' I fought and overcame,1045
And quarter gave, 'twas in your name:[2]
For great commanders always own
What's prosp'rous by the soldier done.
To save, where you have pow'r to kill,
Argues your pow'r above your will;1050
And that your will and pow'r have less
Than both might have of selfishness.
This pow'r which, now alive, with dread
He trembles at, if he were dead.
Would no more keep the slave in awe,1055
Than if you were a knight of straw;
For death would then be his conqueror,
Not you, and free him from that terror.
If danger from his life accrue,
Or honour from his death to you,1060
'Twere policy, and honour too,
To do as you resolv'd to do:
- ↑ One of the cant terms of the times.
- ↑ Obviously a satire upon the parliament, who made no scruple at infringing articles of capitulation granted by their generals, if they found them too advantageous to the enemy.
founded in grace, and therefore if a man wanted grace, and was not a saintlike or godly man, he had no right to any lands, goods, or chattels; and that the Saints had a right to all, and might take it wherever they had power to do so.
