And cudgell'd me to underwrite.
What made thee, when they all were gone,
And none but thou and I alone, 150
To act the devil, and forbear
To rid me of my hellish fear?
Quoth he, I knew your constant rate,
And frame of sp'rit too obstinate,
To be by me prevail'd upon, 155
With any motives of my own:
And therefore strove to counterfeit
The devil awhile, to nick your wit;
The devil, that is your constant crony,
That only can prevail upon ye; 160
Else we might still have been disputing,
And they with weighty drubs confuting.
The Knight, who now began to find
They 'd left the enemy behind,
And saw no further harm remain, 165
But feeble weariness and pain,
Perceiv'd, by losing of their way,
They'd gain'd th' advantage of the day,
And, by declining of the road,
They had, by chance, their rear made good; 170
He ventur'd to dismiss his fear,
That parting's wont to rant and tear,
And give the desp'ratest attack
To danger still behind its back:
of a leek and red herring;" Graham, Bishop of Orkney, who renounced his Bishoprick to join the Scotch covenanters; Adair, Bishop of Kilala, who was deprived of his Bishoprick for speaking in favour of the covenanters; and Herbert Croft, the excellent Bishop of Hereford; all of whom had seemed more or less to side with the Dissenters. But Nash points out a coincidence which fixes it on the last-named prelate. It appears that in 1675, three years before the publication of this part of the poem, a pamphlet came out, generally attributed to the Bishop of Hereford, called. The naked Truth, or State of the Primitive Church, a title which gives a striking air of probability to the supposition. In this piece the distinction of the three orders of the Church is flatly denied, and endeavoured to be disproved: the surplice, bowing towards the altar, kneeling at the sacrament, and other ceremonies of the Church, are condemned; while most of the pleas for nonconformists are speciously and zealously supported. This pamphlet made a great noise at the time.
