These are strong signs!-yet wherefore sigh, And wipe, effeminate, thine eye?

Thine shall she be, if thou attend

The counsels of thy sire and friend.

XXXI.

of light

"Scarce wert thou gone, when peep
Brought genuine news of Marston's fight.
Brave Cromwell turn'd the doubtful tide,
And conquest bless'd the rightful side;
Three thousand cavaliers lie dead,
Rupert and that bold Marquis fled;
Nobles and knights, so proud of late,
Must fine for freedom and estate.
Of these, committed to my charge,
Is Rokeby, prisoner at large;
Redmond, his page, arrived to say
He reaches Barnard's towers to-day.
Right heavy shall his ransom be,
Unless that maid compound with thee!

[MS." This Redmond brought at peep of light
The news of Marston's happy fight."]

2

1

2 After the battle of Marston Moor, the Earl of Newcastle retired beyond sea in disgust, and many of his followers laid down their arms, and made the best composition they could with the Committees of Parliament. Fines were imposed upon them in proportion to their estates and degrees of delinquency, and these fines were often bestowed upon such persons as had deserved well of the Commons. In some circumstances it happened, that the oppressed cavaliers were fain to form family alliances with some powerful person

Go to her now-be bold of cheer,

While her soul floats 'twixt hope and fear;

It is the very change of tide,

When best the female heart is tried

Pride, prejudice, and modesty,

Are in the current swept to sea; 1

And the bold swain, who plies his oar,
May lightly row his bark to shore."

among the triumphant party. The whole of Sir Robert Howard's excellent comedy of The Committee turns upon the plot of Mr. and Mrs. Day to enrich their family, by compelling Arabella, whose estate was under sequestration, to marry their son Abel, as the price by which she was to compound with Parliament for delinquency; that is, for attachment to the royal cause.

1 [MS. "In the warm ebb are swept to sea."]

:

ROKEBY.

CANTO THIRD.

ROKEBY.

CANTO THIRD.

I.

THE hunting tribes of air and earth
Respect the brethren of their birth; 3
Nature, who loves the claim of kind,
Less cruel chase to each assign'd.
The falcon, poised on soaring wing,
Watches the wild-duck by the spring;
The slow-hound wakes the fox's lair;
The greyhound presses on the hare;
The eagle pounces on the lamb;
The wolf devours the fleecy dam:
Even tiger fell, and sullen bear,
Their likeness and their lineage spare,
Man, only, mars kind Nature's plan,
And turns the fierce pursuit on man;

lower

1 [MS.-"The {meaner

tribes of earth and air,

In the wild chase their kindred spare."

The second couplet interpolated.]