Book III.
THE CHACE.
71
With which the vain Profusion of the Great
Covers the Lawn, and shakes the trembling Copse.
Pompous Incumbrance! A Magnificence
Useless, vexatious! For the wily Fox,
Safe in th' increasing Number of his Foes,
Kens well the great Advantage: Slinks behind
And slyly creeps thro' the same beaten Track, 185
And hunts them Step by Step; then views escap'd
With inward Extasy, the panting Throng
In their own Footsteps puzzled, soil'd, and lost.
So when proud Eastern Kings, summon to Arms
Their gaudy Legions, from far distant Climes 190
They flock in Crouds, unpeopling half a World:
But when the Day of Battle calls them forth
To charge the well-train'd Foe, a Band compact.
Of chosen Vet'ranes; they press blindly on,
In Heaps confus'd, by their own Weapons fall, 195
A smoking Carnage scatter'd o'er the Plain.
Covers the Lawn, and shakes the trembling Copse.
Pompous Incumbrance! A Magnificence
Useless, vexatious! For the wily Fox,
Safe in th' increasing Number of his Foes,
Kens well the great Advantage: Slinks behind
And slyly creeps thro' the same beaten Track, 185
And hunts them Step by Step; then views escap'd
With inward Extasy, the panting Throng
In their own Footsteps puzzled, soil'd, and lost.
So when proud Eastern Kings, summon to Arms
Their gaudy Legions, from far distant Climes 190
They flock in Crouds, unpeopling half a World:
But when the Day of Battle calls them forth
To charge the well-train'd Foe, a Band compact.
Of chosen Vet'ranes; they press blindly on,
In Heaps confus'd, by their own Weapons fall, 195
A smoking Carnage scatter'd o'er the Plain.
Nor
