392
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
And bless the devil to let them farms
Of forfeit souls, on no worse terms.
This said, a near and louder shout 1665
Put all th' assembly to the rout,[1]
Who now began t' out-run their fear,
As horses do, from those they bear;
But crowded on with so much haste,
Until they'd block'd the passage fast, 1670
And barricado'd it with haunches
Of outward men, and bulks and paunches,
That with their shoulders strove to squeeze,
And rather save a crippled piece
Of all their crush'd and broken members, 1675
Than have them grillied on the embers;
Still pressing on with heavy packs
Of one another on their backs,
The van-guard could no longer bear
The charges of the forlorn rear, 1680
But, borne down headlong by the rout,
Were trampled sorely under foot;
Yet nothing prov'd so formidable,
As th' horrid cook'ry of the rabble:[2]
And fear, that keeps all feeling out, 1685
As lesser pains are by the gout,
Of forfeit souls, on no worse terms.
This said, a near and louder shout 1665
Put all th' assembly to the rout,[1]
Who now began t' out-run their fear,
As horses do, from those they bear;
But crowded on with so much haste,
Until they'd block'd the passage fast, 1670
And barricado'd it with haunches
Of outward men, and bulks and paunches,
That with their shoulders strove to squeeze,
And rather save a crippled piece
Of all their crush'd and broken members, 1675
Than have them grillied on the embers;
Still pressing on with heavy packs
Of one another on their backs,
The van-guard could no longer bear
The charges of the forlorn rear, 1680
But, borne down headlong by the rout,
Were trampled sorely under foot;
Yet nothing prov'd so formidable,
As th' horrid cook'ry of the rabble:[2]
And fear, that keeps all feeling out, 1685
As lesser pains are by the gout,
- ↑ When Sir Martin came to the Cabal, he left the rabble at Temple-bar, but by the time he had concluded his discourse, they had reached Whitehall. This alarmed our Caballers and they made a precipitate retreat, apprehensive lest they should be hanged in reality, as they had been in effigy.
- ↑ The following very graphic account of this popular burning and roasting of the Rumps is given by Pepys, who happened to be going through the streets at the time. "In Cheapside there were a great many bonfires, and Bow-bells, and all the bells in all the churches, as we went home were aringing. Hence we went homewards, it being about ten at night. But the common joy that was everywhere to be seen! The number of bonfires, there being fourteen between St Dunstan's and Temple-bar, and at Strand Bridge [a bridge which spanned the Strand close to the east end of Catherine-street, where a small stream ran down from the fields into the Thames near Somerset House] I could tell at one time thirty-one fires; in King-street seven or eight; and all along, burning, and roasting, and drinking of Rumps; there being rumps tied upon sticks, and carried up and down. The butchers at the maypoles in the Strand rang a peal with their knives when they were going to sacrifice their rump. On Ludgate-hill there was one turning of the spit that had a rump tied to it, and another basting of it. Indeed, it was past imagination, both the greatness and the suddenness of it. At one end
