31 Nor wholly lost[38] we so deserved a prey;
       For storms repenting part of it restored: 
     Which, as a tribute from the Baltic sea,
       The British ocean sent her mighty lord.

  32 Go, mortals, now; and vex yourselves in vain
       For wealth, which so uncertainly must come: 
     When what was brought so far, and with such pain,
       Was only kept to lose it nearer home.

  33 The son, who twice three months on th’ ocean tost,
       Prepared to tell what he had pass’d before,
     Now sees in English ships the Holland coast,
       And parents’ arms in vain stretch’d from the shore.

  34 This careful husband had been long away,
       Whom his chaste wife and little children mourn;
     Who on their fingers learn’d to tell the day
       On which their father promised to return.

  35 Such are the proud designs of human kind,
       And so we suffer shipwreck every where! 
     Alas, what port can such a pilot find,
       Who in the night of fate must blindly steer!

  36 The undistinguish’d seeds of good and ill,
       Heaven, in his bosom, from our knowledge hides: 
     And draws them in contempt of human skill,
       Which oft for friends mistaken foes provides.

  37 Let Munster’s prelate[39] ever be accurst,
       In whom we seek the German faith in vain: 
     Alas, that he should teach the English first,
       That fraud and avarice in the Church could reign!

  38 Happy, who never trust a stranger’s will,
       Whose friendship’s in his interest understood! 
     Since money given but tempts him to be ill,
       When power is too remote to make him good.

  39 Till now, alone the mighty nations strove;
       The rest, at gaze, without the lists did stand: 
     And threatening France, placed like a painted Jove,
       Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand.

  40 That eunuch guardian of rich Holland’s trade,
       Who envies us what he wants power to enjoy;
     Whose noiseful valour does no foe invade,
       And weak assistance will his friends destroy.

  41 Offended that we fought without his leave,
       He takes this time his secret hate to show: 
     Which Charles does with a mind so calm receive,
       As one that neither seeks nor shuns his foe.

  42 With France, to aid the Dutch, the Danes unite: 
       France as their tyrant, Denmark as their slave,
     But when with one three nations join to fight,
       They silently confess that one more brave.

  43 Lewis had chased the English from his shore;
       But Charles the French as subjects does invite: 
     Would Heaven for each some Solomon restore,
       Who, by their mercy, may decide their right!

  44 Were subjects so but only by their choice,
       And not from birth did forced dominion take,
     Our prince alone would have the public voice;
       And all his neighbours’ realms would deserts make.