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And you Arion! who with these the laft
Of all our crew furvive the fhipwreck paft-
Ah! ceafe to mourn those friendly tears reftrain!
Nor give my dying moments keener pain!
Since heaven may foon thy wandering fteps reftore,
When parted hence, to England's diftant thore:
Should thou, th unwilling meffenger of fate,
To him the tragic flory firft relate,

Oh! Friendship's generous ardor then fupprefs!
Nor hint the fatal caufe of iny diftrefs:
Nor let each horrid incident fuffain.
The lengthen'd tale to aggravate his pain.
Ah! then remember well my laft request
For her who reigns for ever in my breast;
Yet let him prove a father and a friend,
The helpless maid to fuccour and defend.
Say, I this fuit implor'd with parting breath,
So Heaven befriend him at his hour of death!
But oh! to lovely Anna fhould'st thou tell
What dire untimely end thy friend befel,
Draw o'er the difmal fcene foft pity's veil,
And lightly touch the lamentably tale,
Say that my love, inviolably true,
No change, no diminution ever knew;
Lo! her bright image, pendent on my neck,
Is all Palemon refcu'd from the wreck;
Take it and fay, when panting in the wave,
I ftruggled, life and this alone to fave!

My foul that fluttering haflens to be free,
Would yet a train of thoughts impart to thee,
But ftrive in vain the chilling ice of death.
Congeals my blood, and choaks the fiream of breath a
Refign'd the quits her comfortless abode,

To courfe that long, unknowr, eternal road.-
O facred Source of everliving light l
Conduct the weary wanderer in her flight!
Direct her on ward to that peaceful fhore,
Where peril, pain and death are felt no more!
I 2

"When

u When thou fome hapless love fha't hear
That fleals from pity's eye the melting tea
Of two challe hearts, by mutual paflion join'd
To abfence, forrow and defpair confign'd,

ond

Oh! then, to fwell the tides of facial woe zidi ordi A
That heal th' afflicted breaft they o'erflow,

While memory dictates, this fad Shipwreck tell,
And what diftrefs thy wretched friend befeld wo
Then, white in ftreams of foft compaffion drown'd o
The fwains lament, and maidens weep around
While lifping children, touc'h with infant fear,
With wonder gaze, and drop th' unconfcious tear
Oh! then this moral bid their fouls retain,
"All thought of happiness on earth are vain

The la faint accents trembled on his tongue A
That now inactive to the palate clung;
His bofom heaves a mortal groan-he dies!
And fhades eternal fink upon his eyes!

As thus defac'd in death Palemon lay:
Arion gaz'd uopn the lifelefs clay;
Transfix'd he food, with awful terror fill'd,
While down his cheek the filent drops diftill❜d.
Oh, ill-ftar'd votry of unfpotted truth!
Untimely perifh'd in the bloom of youth,
Should e'er thy friend arrive on Albion's land,
He will obey, tho' painful, thy demand:
His tongue the dreadful flory thall difplay,
And all the hororrs of this difmal day!
Difaftrous day! what ruin haft thou bred!
What anguifh to the living and the dead!
How haft thou left the widow all forlorn,
And ever doom'd the orphan child to mourn ;

-fed fciliet ultima femper

Expectanda dies homini; decique beatus
Ante obitum nemo fupremaque funera debet."

Thro

Ovid. Metam. lib. 3.

T

Thro' life's fad journey hopeless to complain;
Can facred juftice thofe events ordain ?
But, O my foul! avoid that wondrous maze,
Where reafon, loft in endlefs error, ftrays!
As thro' this thorny vale of life he run,'

Great Caufe of all Effects, Thy will be done!”

Now

To aid the the Grecians on the beach arriv'd,

helplefs few who yet furviv'd:

While palling they beheld the waves o'erfpread
With thatter'd rafts and corfes of the dead,
Three fill alive, benumb and faint they find,
In mournful filence on a rock reclin'd.
The generous natives, mov'd with focial pain,
The feeble ftrangers in their arms fuflain ;-
With pitying fighs their hapless lot deplore,
And lead them trembling from the fatal fhore.

CRUELTY AND LUST,

: jnew Mitini vilstolbusdiud v1 AN EPISTOLARY ESSAY

WHERE can the wretched'it of all creatures Bye!

To tell the ftory of her mifery?

Where, but to faithful Celia, in whose mindymai A
A manly brav'ry's with foft pity join'd.

I fear thefe lines will scarce be understood,
Blurr'd with inceffant tears, and writ in blood;
But if you can the mournful pages read,
The fad relation fhews you fuch a deed
As all the annals of th' infernal reign
Shall frive to equal, or exceed, in vain.

NERONIOR'S fame, no doubt has reach'd your ears,
Whole cruelty has caus'd a fea of tears;
Fill'd each lamenting town with fun'ral fighs,
Deploring widows fhrieks, and orphans cries.
Atev'ry health the horrid monfter quaff'd,
The wretches dy'd, and, as they dy'd, he laugh'd
Till, tir'd with afting devil, he was led,
Drunk with excefs of blood and wine, to bed.
Oh curfed place!-I can no more command
My pen, thame and confufion fhake
my hand:
But I muft on, and let my Celia know,
How barb'rous are my wrongs, how vaft my woe.

Among

* This piece was occafioned by the barbarity of Kirke, a commander in the western rebellion, 1685, who debauched young lady, with a promife to fave her husband's life, but hanged him the next morning.

Among the crouds of western youths, who ran To meet the brave, betray'd, unhappy man*, My husband, fatally uniting, went

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Unus'd to arms, and thoughtlefs of th' event,
But when the battle was by treach'ry won,
The chief and all, but his falfe friend, undone ;
Tho' in the tumult of that defp'rate night
He 'fcap'd the dreadful flaughter of the fight,
Yet the fagacions blood-hounds, fkill'd too well
In all the murd'ring qualities of hell,
Each fecret place fo regularly beat,
They foon difcover'd his unfafe retreat.
As hungry wolves, triumphing o'er their prey,
To fure deftruction hurry them away:
So the purveyors of fierce Moloc's fon
With Charion to the common butch'ry run,'
Where proud Neronior by his gibbet flood
To glut himself with fresh fupplies of blood.
Our friends, by pow'rful interceffion, gain'd
A fhort reprieve, but for three days obtain'd,
To try all ways might to compaffion move
The favage general; but in vain they ftrove..
When I perceiv'd that all addreffes fail'd.
And nothing o'er his ftubborn foul prevail'd,
Diftracted almoft, to his tent I flew,

To make the laft efforts what tears could do..
Low on my knees. I fell, then thus began:
Great genius of fuccefs, thou more than man!
Whofe arms to ev'ry clime have terror hurl'd,
And carry'd conquest round the trembling world,
Still may the brightest glories fame can leud,
Your fword, your conduct, and your caufe attend.
Here now the arbiter of fate you fit,

While fuppliant flaves their rebel heads fubmit ;
Oh pity the unfortunate! and give

But this one thing! Oh let but Charion live,
And take the little all that we poffefs:
I'll bear the meager anguish of diftrefs:

The Duke of Monmouth.

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