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Betray’d in all his Strengths, the Wood beset,
All Instruments, all Arts of Ruine met
He calls to mind his Strength, and then his Speed,
His winged Heels, and then his Armed Head;
With these t' avoid, with that his Fate to meet,
But fear prevails, and bids him trust his Feet.
So fast he flies, that his reviewing eye
Has lost the Chasers, and his ear the Cry:
Exulting, till he finds, their Nobler Sense
Their disproportion'd Speed doth recompense.
Then curses his conspiring Feet, whose scent
Betrays that safety, which their swiftness lent.
Then tries his Friends, among the baser heard,
Where he so lately was obey'd, and fear'd,
His safety seeks: the Herd, unkindly wise,
Or chases him from thence, or from him flies.
Like a declining Statesman, left forlorn
To his Friends pity, and Pursuers scorn;
With shame remembers, while himself was one
Of the same Herd, himself the same had done.
Thence to the Coverts and the conscious Groves,
The Scenes of his past Triumphs, and his Loves;
Sedly surveying where he rang'd alone
Prince of the soil, and all tha herd his own;
And like a bold Knight Errant did proclaim
Combat to all, and bore away the Dame;
And taught the Woods to Echo to the Stream
His dreadful Challenge, and his clashing Beam:
Yet faintly now declines the fatal strife;
So much his Love was dearer then his Life.
Now every Leaf, and every moving Breath
Presents a Foe, and every Foe a Death.
Wearied, forsaken, and pursu'd, at last
All safety in despair of safety plac'd,
Courage he thence resumes, resolv'd to bear
All their Assaults, since ’tis in vain to fear.
All Instruments, all Arts of Ruine met
He calls to mind his Strength, and then his Speed,
His winged Heels, and then his Armed Head;
With these t' avoid, with that his Fate to meet,
But fear prevails, and bids him trust his Feet.
So fast he flies, that his reviewing eye
Has lost the Chasers, and his ear the Cry:
Exulting, till he finds, their Nobler Sense
Their disproportion'd Speed doth recompense.
Then curses his conspiring Feet, whose scent
Betrays that safety, which their swiftness lent.
Then tries his Friends, among the baser heard,
Where he so lately was obey'd, and fear'd,
His safety seeks: the Herd, unkindly wise,
Or chases him from thence, or from him flies.
Like a declining Statesman, left forlorn
To his Friends pity, and Pursuers scorn;
With shame remembers, while himself was one
Of the same Herd, himself the same had done.
Thence to the Coverts and the conscious Groves,
The Scenes of his past Triumphs, and his Loves;
Sedly surveying where he rang'd alone
Prince of the soil, and all tha herd his own;
And like a bold Knight Errant did proclaim
Combat to all, and bore away the Dame;
And taught the Woods to Echo to the Stream
His dreadful Challenge, and his clashing Beam:
Yet faintly now declines the fatal strife;
So much his Love was dearer then his Life.
Now every Leaf, and every moving Breath
Presents a Foe, and every Foe a Death.
Wearied, forsaken, and pursu'd, at last
All safety in despair of safety plac'd,
Courage he thence resumes, resolv'd to bear
All their Assaults, since ’tis in vain to fear.
And
