Right, quoth the voice, and as I scorn
To be ungrateful, in return
Of all those kind good offices,
I’ll free you out of this distress, 1550
And set you down in safety, where
It is no time to tell you here. 
The cock crows, and the morn grows on,
When ’tis decreed I must be gone;
And if I leave you here till day, 1555
You’ll find it hard to get away.

With that the Spirit grop’d about,
To find th’ inchanted hero out,
And try’d with haste to lift him up;
But found his forlorn hope, his crup, 1560
Unserviceable with kicks and blows,
Receiv’d from harden’d-hearted foes. 
He thought to drag him by the heels,
Like Gresham carts, with legs for wheels;
But fear, that soonest cures those sores 1565
In danger of relapse to worse,
Came in t’ assist him with it’s aid
And up his sinking vessel weigh’d. 
No sooner was he fit to trudge,
But both made ready to dislodge. 1570
The Spirit hors’d him like a sack
Upon the vehicle his back;
And bore him headlong into th’ hall,
With some few rubs against the wall
Where finding out the postern lock’d, 1575
And th’ avenues as strongly block’d,
H’ attack’d the window, storm’d the glass,
And in a moment gain’d the pass;
Thro’ which he dragg’d the worsted souldier’s
Fore-quarters out by the head and shoulders; 1580
And cautiously began to scout,
To find their fellow-cattle out. 
Nor was it half a minute’s quest,
E’re he retriev’d the champion’s beast,
Ty’d to a pale, instead of rack; 1585
But ne’er a saddle on his back,
Nor pistols at the saddle-bow,
Convey’d away the Lord knows how,
He thought it was no time to stay,
And let the night too steal away; 1590
But in a trice advanc’d the Knight
Upon the bare ridge, bolt upright: 
And groping out for RALPHO’s jade,
He found the saddle too was stray’d,
And in the place a lump of soap, 1595
On which he speedily leap’d up;
And turning to the gate the rein,
He kick’d and cudgell’d on amain. 
While Hudibras, with equal haste,
On both sides laid about as fast, 1600
And spurr’d as jockies use to break,
Or padders to secure, a neck
Where let us leave ’em for a time,
And to their Churches turn our rhyme;
To hold forth their declining state, 1605
Which now come near an even rate.

NOTES TO PART III.  CANTO 1.

15 a And more, &c.] Caligula was one of the Emperors of Rome, son of Germanicus and Agrippina.  He would needs pass for a god, and had the heads of the ancient statues of the gods taken off; and his own placed on in their stead; and used to stand between the statues of Castor and Pollux to be worshipped; and often bragged of lying with the Moon.