The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 7/To the Earl of Peterborow
TO THE EARL OF PETERBOROUGH,
Who commanded the British Forces in Spain.
MORDANTO fills the trump of fame,
The Christian worlds his deeds proclaim,
And prints are crowded with his name.
In journies he outrides the post,
Sits up till midnight with his host,
Talks politicks, and gives the toast.
Knows every prince in Europe's face,
Flies like a squib from place to place,
And travels not, but runs a race.
From Paris gazette a-la-main,
This day arriv'd, without his train,
Mordanto in a week from Spain.
A messenger comes all a-reek
Mordanto at Madrid to seek;
He left the town above a week.
Next day the postboy winds his horn,
And rides through Dover in the morn:
Mordanto's landed from Leghorn.
Mordanto gallops on alone,
The roads are with his followers strown,
This breaks a girth, and that a bone;
His body active as his mind,
Returning sound in limb and wind,
Except some leather lost behind.
A skeleton in outward figure,
His meagre corpse, though full of vigour,
Would halt behind him, were it bigger.
So wonderful his expedition,
When you have not the least suspicion,
He's with you like an apparition.
Shines in all climates like a star;
In senates bold, and fierce in war;
A land commander, and a tar:
Heroick actions early bred in,
Ne'er to be match'd in modern reading,
But by his namesake Charles of Sweden.