Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 8.djvu/145

Rh When up a dangerous faction starts , With wrath and vengeance in their hearts; By solemn league and covenant bound, To ruin, slaughter, and confound; To turn religion to a fable, And make the government a Babel; Pervert the laws, disgrace the gown, Corrupt the senate, rob the crown; To sacrifice Old England's glory, And make her infamous in story: When such a tempest shook the land, How could unguarded Virtue stand! With horrour, grief, despair, the dean Beheld the dire destructive scene: His friends in exile, or the Tower, Himself within the frown of power; Pursu'd by base envenom'd pens, Far to the land of saints and fens; A servile race in folly nurs'd, Who truckle most, when treated worst. "By innocence and resolution, He bore continual persecution; While numbers to preferment rose, Whose merits were, to be his foes; Rh