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OMNIANA.
159

No passage, for the wall was very high,
But there no door to me itself did shew;
Looking about at length I did espy
A lively youth to whom I presently gan cry.

More willing he's to come than I to call;
Simon he hight, who also's call'd a Rock.
Simon is that obedientiall
Nature, who boisterous seas and winds doth mock;
No tempest can him move with fiercest shock,
The house that's thereon built doth surely stand;
Nor blustering: storm, nor rapid torrents stroke
Can make it fall; it easily doth withstand
The gates of Death and Hell, and all the stygian band.

When I gan call, forthwith in seemly sort
He me approach'd in decent russet clad.
More fit for labour than the flaunting Court.
When he came near, in chearfull wise he bad
Tell what I would; then I unto the lad
Gan thus reply; alas! too long astray
Here have I trampled foul Behiron's pad;
Out of this land I thought this the next way.
But I no gate can find, so vain is mine assay.

Then the wise youth, Good Sir, you look too high;
The wall aloft is rais'd, but that same door
Where you must pass, in deep descent doth lie.
But he bad follow, he would go before.
Hard by there was a place all covered o're