IV.
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he joyful short-lived news soon spread around,[48]Took the same train, the same impetuous bound:The drooping town in smiles again was drest,Gladness in every face exprest,Their eyes before their tongues confest.Men met each other with erected look,The steps were higher that they took;Friends to congratulate their friends made haste,And long inveterate foes saluted as they past.Above the rest heroic James appeared,Exalted more, because he more had feared.His manly heart, whose noble prideWas still aboveDissembled hate, or varnished love,Its more than common transport could not hide;But like an eagre[49] rode in triumph o'er the tide.Thus, in alternate course,The tyrant passions, hope and fear,Did in extremes appear,And flashed upon the soul with equal force.Thus, at half ebb, a rolling seaReturns, and wins upon the shore;The watery herd, affrighted at the roar,Rest on their fins awhile, and stay,Then backward take their wondering way:The prophet wonders more than they,At prodigies but rarely seen before,And cries,--a king must fall, or kingdoms change their sway.Such were our counter-tides at land, and soPresaging of the fatal blow,In their prodigious ebb and flow.The royal soul, that, like the labouring moon,By charms of art was hurried down,Forced with regret to leave her native sphere,Came but a while on liking[50] here:Soon weary of the painful strife,And made but faint essays of life:An evening lightSoon shut in night;A strong distemper, and a weak relief,Short intervals of joy, and long returns of grief.
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