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 Calamity; but his Deſcription is capable of very different Senſes with almoſt equal Probability.

Red Serpents, ſays he (Rubri Colubri are the Latin Words, which the poetical Tranſlator has rendered ſcarlet Reptiles, uſing a general Term for a particular, in my Opinion too licentiouſly.) Red Serpents ſhall wander o’er her Meadows, and pillage and pollute, &c. The particular Mention of the Colour of this deſtructive Viper may be ſome Guide to us in this Labyrinth, through which, I muſt acknowledge, I cannot yet have any certain Path. I confeſs, that when a few Days after my Peruſal of this Paſſage I heard of the Multitude of Lady-birds ſeen in Kent, I began to imagine that there were the fatal Inſects by which this Iſland was to be laid waſte, and therefore looked over all Accounts of them with uncommon Concern. But when my firſt Terrors began to ſubſide, I ſoon recollected that theſe Creatures, having both Wings and Feet, would ſcarcely have been called Serpents;