THE C CAMPAIGN,

A POE M,

то

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH,

1705.

-Rheni pacator et Iftri.

"Omnis in hoc uno variis difcordia ceffit
"Ordinibus; lætatur eques, plauditque fenator,
"Votaque patricio certant plebeia favori."

CLAUD. de Laud. Stilic.

"Effe aliquam in terris gentem quæ suâ impensâ, sus "labore ac periculo, bella gerat pro libertate aliorum. "Nec hoc finitimis, aut propinquæ vicinitatis ho"minibus, aut terris continenti junctis præftet. "Maria trajiciat: ne quod toto orbe terrarum in"juftum imperium fit, et ubique jus, fas, lex, po"tentiffima fint." Liv. Hift. lib. 33.

WH

HILE crowds of princes your deferts proclaim, Proud in their number to enrol your name; While emperors to you commit their cause, And Anna's praises crown the vast applause; Accept, great leader, what the Mufe recites, That in ambitious verfe attempts your fights. Fir'd and transported with a theme fo new, Ten thousand wonders opening to my view

Shine forth at once; fieges and storms appear,

And wars and conquefts fill th' important year:
Rivers of blood I fee, and hills of flain,

An Iliad rising out of one campaign.

The haughty Gaul beheld, with towering pride, His ancient bounds enlarg'd on every

fide;

Pyrene's lofty barriers were fubdued,
And in the midft of his wide empire stood;
Aufonia's ftates, the victor to restrain,
Oppos'd their Alps and Apennines in vain,

Nor found themfelves, with ftrength of rocks immur'd,
Behind their everlasting hills fecur`d;

The rifing Danube its long race began,

And half its courfe through the new conquefts ran;
Amaz'd and anxious for her fovereign's fates,
Germania trembled through a hundred states ;
Great Leopold himself was feiz'd with fear;
He gaz'd around, but faw no fuccour near;
He gaz'd, and half-abandon'd to defpair
His hopes on heaven, and confidence in prayer.
To Britain's queen the nations turn their eyes,
On her refolves the western world relies,
Confiding ftill, amidst its dire alarms,

In Anna's conncils, and in Churchill's arms.
Thrice happy Britain, from the kingdoms rent,
To fit the guardian of the continent !
That fees her braveft fon advanc'd fo high,
And flourishing fo near her prince's eye;
Thy favourites grow not up by fortune's fport,
Or from the crimes or follies of a court;

On

On the firm bafis of defert they rife,

From long-try'd faith, and friendship's holy tyes:
Their fovereign's well-diftinguish'd fmiles they share,
Her ornaments in peace, her ftrength in war;
The nation thanks them with a public voice,
By fhowers of bleffings heaven approves their choice;
Envy itself is dumb, in wonder loft,

And factions ftrive who fhall applaud them moft,
Soon as foft vernal breezes warm the fky,
Britannia's colours in the zephyrs fly;
Her chief already has his march begun,
Croffing the provinces himself had won,
Till the Mofelle, appearing from afar,
Retards the progrefs of the moving war.
Delightful fream, had nature bid her fall
In diftant climes far from the perjur'd Gaul;
But now a purchase to the fword the lies,
Her harvefts for uncertain owners rife,
Each vineyard doubtful of its mafter grows,
And to the victor's bowl each vintage flows.
The difcontented fhades of flaughter'd hofts,
That wander'd on her banks, her heroes ghofts
Hop'd, when they faw Britannia's arms appear,
The vengeance due to their great deaths was near.
Our godlike leader, ere the ftream he past,
The mighty fcheme of all his labours caft,
Forming the wondrous year within his thought;
His bofom glow'd with battles yet unfought.
The long laborious march he first furveys,
And joins the diftant Danube to the Maefe,.

Between whofe floods fuch pathlefs forefts grow,
Such mountains rife, fo many rivers flow:
The toil looks lovely in the hero's eyes,
And danger ferves but to enhance the prize.
Big with the fate of Europe, he renews
His dreadful course, and the proud foe pursues
Infected by the burning Scorpion's heat,
The fultry gales round his chaf'd temples beat,
Till on the borders of the Maine he finds
Defenfive fhadows, and refreshing winds.
Our British youth, with in-born freedom bold,
Unnumber'd scenes of fervitude behold,
Nations of flaves, with tyranny debas'd,
(Their maker's image more than half defac'd)
Hourly inftructed, as they urge their toil,
To prize their queen, and love their native foil.
Still to the rifing fun they take their way
Through clouds of duft, and gain upon the day.
When now the Neckar on its friendly coast
With cooling ftreams revives the fainting hoft,
That chearfully his labours paft forgets,
The mid-night watches, and the noon-day heats.
O'er proftrate towns and palaces they pass
(Now cover'd o'er with woods, and hid in grass),
Breathing revenge; whilft anger and difdain
Fire every breast, and boil in every vein:
Here fhatter'd walls, like broken rocks, from far
Rife up in hideous views, the guilt of war,
Whilft here the vine o'er hills of ruin climbs,
Industrious to conceal great Bourbon's crimes.

At

At length the fame of England's hero drew
Eugenio to the glorious interview.
Great fouls by instinct to each other turn,
Demand alliance, and in friendship burn;

A fudden friendship, while with stretch'd-out rays
They meet each other, mingling blaze with blaze.
Polish'd in courts, and harden'd in the field,
Renown'd for conqueft, and in council skill'd,
Their courage dwells not in a troubled flood
Of mounting fpirits, and fermenting blood;
Lodg'd in the foul, with virtue over-rul'd,
Inflam'd by reafon, and by reafon cool'd,.
In hours of peace content to be unknown,
And only in the field of battle shown:
To fouls like thefe, in mutual friendship join'd,
Heaven dares intruft the cause of human-kind.
Britannia's graceful fons appear in arms,
Her harrafs'd troops the hero's prefence warms,
Whilft the high hills and rivers all around
With thundering peals of Britifh fhouts refound:
Doubling their speed, they march with fresh delight,
Eager for glory, and require the fight.

So the ftanch hound the trembling deer pursues,
And fmells his footsteps in the tainted dews,
The tedious track unraveling by degrees:

But when the fcent comes warm in every breeze,
Fir'd at the near approach he fhoots away
On his full ftretch, and bears upon his prey.

The march concludes, the various realms are past;· Th' immortal Schellenberg appears at last: