But borne down headlong by the rout,
Were trampled sorely under foot:
Yet nothing proved so formidable
As the' horrid cookery of the rabble ;
And fear, that keeps all feeling out,
(As lesser pains are by the gout)
Relieved them with a fresh supply
Of rallied force, enough to fly,
And beat a Tuscan running-horse,
Whose jockey-rider is all spurs.

PART III. CANTO III'.

The Argument.

The Knight and Squire's prodigious flight

To quit the' enchanted bower by night.

He plods to turn his amorous suit,

To' a plea in law, and prosecute :
Repairs to counsel, to advise
'Bout managing the enterprise;
But first resolves to try by letter,

And one more fair address, to get her.

WHO would believe what strange bugbears
Mankind creates itself, of fears,
That spring like fern, that insect-weed,
Equivocally, without seed,

And have no possible foundation,

But merely in the' imagination?
And yet can do more dreadful feats
Than hags, with all their imps and teats;
Make more bewitch and haunt themselves,
Than all their nurseries of elves.

1 Our Poet now resumes his principal subject: and the reason why he is so full in the recapitulation of the last adventure of our Knight and Squire is,-because he had lost sight of our heroes for the space of the longest Canto in the whole Poem: this respite might probably occasion forgetfulness in some readers, whose attention had been so long suspended it was therefore necessary that a repetition should be made of the dark adventure, and that it should be made clear and intelligible to the reader; who is now arrived at the third day, since the opening of the poem.

:

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For fear does things so like a witch,
'Tis hard to' unriddle which is which;
Sets
up communities of senses,

To chop and change intelligences;
As Rosicrucian virtuosos

Can see with ears, and hear with noses;
And, when they neither see nor hear,
Have more than both supplied by fear,
That makes them in the dark see visions,
And hag themselves with apparitions,
And, when their eyes discover least,
Discern the subtlest objects best;
Do things not contrary, alone,

To the' course of Nature, but its own,
The courage of the bravest daunt,
And turn poltroons as valiant:
For men as resolute appear

With too much, as too little fear;

And, when they're out of hopes of flying,
Will run away from death by dying;
Or turn again to stand it out,
And those they fled, like lions rout.
This Hudibras had proved too true,
Who, by the Furies, left perdue,
And haunted with detachments, sent
From Marshal Legion's regiment 2,
Was by a fiend, as counterfeit,
Relieved and rescued with a cheat,
When nothing but himself, and fear,
Was both the imps and conjurer;

2 Alluding to Stephen Marshal's bellowing out treason from the pulpit, in order to recruit the army of the Rebels. He was called the Geneva Bull.