As that which Diomed did maul
Æneas on the bum withal;[1]
Yet big enough, if rightly hurl'd,495
T' have sent him to another world,
Whether above ground, or below,
Which saints, twice dipt, are destin'd to.[2]
The danger startled the bold Squire,
And made him some few steps retire; 500
But lludibras advanc'd to's aid,
And rous'd his spirits half dismay'd.
He n'isely doubting lest the shot
O' th' enemy, now growing hot,
Might at a distance gall, press'd close505
To come, pell-mell, to handy-blows,
And that he might their aim decline,
Advanc'd still in an oblique line;
But prudently forbore to fire,
Till breast to breast he had got nigher;[3] 510
As expert warriors use to do,
When hand to hand they charge their foe.
This order the advent'rous Knight,
Most soldier-like, observ'd in fight,
When Fortune, as she's wont, turn'd fickle,515
And for the foe began to stickle.
The more shame for her Goodyship
To give so near a friend the slip.
For Colon, choosing out a stone,
Levell'd so right, it thump'd upon520
His manly paunch, with such a force,
As almost beat him oft' his horse,
He loos'd his whinyard,[4] and the rein.
But laying fast hold on the mane,
Preserv'd his seat: and, as a goose 525
In death contracts his taloua close,
- ↑ See Iliad v. 304. Virgil. Æn. I. 101. Juvenal. Sat. xv. 65.
- ↑ Meaning the Anabaptists, who thought they obtained a higher degree sanctification by being re-baptized.
- ↑ Alluding to Cromwell's prudent conduct in this respect, who seldom suffered his soldiers to fire till they were near enough to the enemy to be sure of doing execution.
- ↑ Var. He lost his whinyard.
