Thinking he'd done enough to purchase 15
Thanksgiving-day among the churches,[1]
Wherein his metal and brave worth
Might be explain'd by holder-forth,
And register'd by fame eternal,
In deathless pages of diurnal;[2]20
Found in few minutes, to his cost,
He did but count without his host:[3]
And that a turn-stile is more certain
Than, in events of war, Dame Fortune.
For now the late faint-hearted rout.25
O'erthrown and scatter'd round about,
Chas'd by the horror of their fear,
From bloody fray of Knight and Bear,
All but the dogs, who, in pursuit
Of the Knight's victory, stood to 't30
And most ignobly sought[4] to get
The honour of his blood and sweat,[5]
Seeing the coast was free and clear
O' the conquer'd and the conqueror,
Took heart of grace,[6] and fac'd about,35
As if they meant to stand it out:
For now the half defeated bear,[7]
Attack'd by th' enemy i' th' rear.
Finding their number grew too great
For him to make a safe retreat,40
Like a bold chieftain fac'd about;
But wisely doubting to hold out,
Grave way to fortune, and with haste
Fac'd the proud foe, and fled, and fac'd,
- ↑ The parliament was accustomed to order a day of public Thanksgiving, on occasion of every advantage gained over the Royalists, however trifling. And at these seasons the valour and worthiness of the leader, who had gained the victory, were lauded and enlarged upon.
- ↑ The gazettes or newspapers, on the side of the parliament, were published daily, and called Diurnals.
- ↑ Handbook of Proverbs, p. 542.
- ↑ Var. Fought.
- ↑ An allusion to the complaint of the Presbyterian commanders against the Independents, when the Self-denying Ordinance had excluded them.
- ↑ Altered in subsequent editions to "took heart again."
- ↑ The first editions read: For by this time the routed bear.
