of Spring;Now change your Note, and let your Lute rehearse
The dismal Tale in melancholy Verse.
MEL.
Prepare then, lovely Swain; prepare to hear,
The worst Report that ever reach'd your Ear.
My Bower you know, hard by yon shady Grove,
A fit Recess for Damon's pensive Love: 20
As there dissolv'd I in sweet Slumbers lay,
Tir'd with the Toils of the precedent Day,
The blust'ring Winds disturb my kind Repose,
Till frightned with the threatning Blasts, I rose.
But O, what havock did the Day disclose!
Those charming Willows which on Cherwel's banks
Flourish'd, and thriv'd, and grew in evener ranks
Than those which follow'd the Divine Command
Of Orpheus Lyre, or sweet Amphion's Hand,
By hundreds fall, while hardly twenty stand. 30
The stately Oaks which reach'd the azure Sky,
And kiss'd the very Clouds, now prostrate lie.
Long a huge Pine did with the Winds contend;
This way, and that, his reeling Trunk they bend,
Till forc'd at last to yield, with hideous Sound
He falls, and all the Country feels the Wound.
Nor was the God of Winds content with these;
Such humble Victims can't his Wrath appease:
The Rivers swell, not like the happy Nile,
To fatten, dew, and fructifie our Isle:40
But like the Deluge, by great Jove design'd
To drown the Universe, and scourge Mankind.
In vain the frighted Cattel climb so high,
In vain for Refuge to the Hills they fly;
The Waters know no Limits but the Sky.
So now the bleating Flock exchange in vain,
For barren Clifts, their dewy fertil Plain:
In vain, their fatal Destiny to shun,
From Severn's Banks to higher Grounds they run.
Nor has the Navy better Quarter found; 50
There we've receiv'd our worst, our deepest Wound.
The Billows swell, and haughty Neptune raves,
The Winds insulting o're th' impetuous Waves.
Thetis incens'd, rises with angry Frown,
And once more threatens all the World to drown,
And owns no Power, but England's and her own.
Yet the Æolian God dares vent his Rage;
And ev'n the Sovereign of the Seas engage.
What tho' the mighty Charles of Spain's on board,
The Winds obey none but their blust'ring Lord.60
Some Ships were stranded, some by Surges rent,
Down with their Cargo to the bottom went.
Th' absorbent Ocean could desire no more;
So well regal'd he never was before.
The hungry Fish could hardly wait the day,
When the Sun's beams should chase the Storm away,
But quickly seize with greedy Jaws their Prey.
DAM.
So the great Trojan, by the Hand of Fate,
And haughty Power of angry Juno's Hate,
While with like aim he cross'd the Seas, was tost,70
From Shore to Shore, from foreign Coast to Coast:
Yet safe at last his mighty Point he gain'd;
In charming promis'd Peace and Splendor reign'd.
MEL.
So may Great Charles, whom equal Glories move,
Like the great Dardan Prince successful prove:
Like him, with Honour may he mount the Throne,
And long enjoy a brighter destin'd Crown.
CHAPTER IV
Of the Extent of this Storm, and from what Parts it was suppos'd to come; with some Circumstances as to the Time of it
As all our Histories are full of the Relations of Tempests and Storms which have happened in various Parts of the World, I hope it may not be improper that some of them have been thus observ'd with their remarkable Effects.
But as I have all along insisted, that no Storm since the Universal Deluge was like this, either in its Violence or its Duration, so I must also confirm it as to the particular of its prodigious Extent.
All the Storms and Tempests we have heard of in the World, have been Gusts or Squauls of Wind that have been carried on in their proper Channels, and have spent their Force in a shorter space.
We feel nothing here of the Hurricanes of Barbadoes, the North-Wests of New England and Virginia, the terrible Gusts of the Levant, or the frequent Tempests of the North Cape. When Sir Francis Wheeler's Squadron perish'd at Gibralter, when the City of Straelsond was almost ruin'd by a Storm, England felt it not, nor was the Air here disturb'd with the Motion. Even at home we have had Storms of violent Wind in one part of England which have not been felt in another. And if what I have been told has any truth in it, in St. George's Channel there has frequently blown a Storm at Sea right up and down the Channel, which has been felt on neither Coast, tho it is not above 20 Leagues from the English to the Irish Shore.
Sir William Temple gives us the Particulars of two terrible Storms in Holland while he was there; in one of which the great Cathedral Church at Utrecht was utterly destroy'd: and after that there was a Storm so violent in Holland, that 46 Vessels were cast away at the Texel, and almost all the Men drowned: and yet we felt none of these Storms here.
And for this very reason I have reserv'd an Abridgment of these former Cases to this place; which as they are recited by Sir William Temple, I shall put them down in his own Words, being not capable to mend them, and not vain enough to pretend to it.
'I stay'd only a Night at Antwerp, which pass'd with so great Thunders and Lightnings, that I promis'd my self a very fair Day after it, to go back to Rotterdam in the States Yacht, that still attended me. The Morning prov'd so; but towards Evening the Sky grew foul, and the Sea men presag'd ill Weather, and so resolved to lie at Anchor before Bergen ap Zoom, the Wind being cross and little. When the Night was fallen as black as ever I saw, it soon began to clear up, with the most violent Flashes of Lightning as well as Cracks of Thunder, that I believe have ever been heard in our Age and Climate. This continued all Night; and we felt such a fierce Heat from every great Flash of Lightning, that the Captain apprehended it would fire his Ship. But about 8 the next Morning the Wind changed, and came up with so strong a Gale, that we came to Rotterdam
