But hold him fast, For he can change his hue.* The Care of PROTEUS rises out of the Sea; it consists of several arches of Rock-work adorned with motherof-pearl, coral, and abundance of shells of various kinds. Through the arches is seen the Sea, and parts of Dover-pier; in the middle of the Cave is PROTEUS asleep on a rock adorned with shells, &c. like the Cave. ALBION and ACACIA seize on him; and while a symphony is playing, he sinks as they are bringing him forward, and changes himself into a Lion, a Crocodile, a Dragon, and then to his own shape again; he comes forward to the front of the stage, and sings. SYMPHONY. Pro. Albion, loved of gods and men, II. Still thou art the care of heaven, In thy age, when none could aid thee, Still thou art the care of heaven. The reader may judge, whether some distant and obscure allusion to the trimming politics of Halifax, to whom the Duke of York, our author's patron, was hostile, may not be here insinuated. During the stormy session of his two last parliaments, Charles was much guided by his temporising and camelion-like policy. Alb. To whom shall I my preservation owe? Pro. Ask ine no more; for 'tis by Neptune's foe.* PROTEUS descends. DEMOCRACY and ZELOTA return with their faction. Dem. Our seeming friends, who joined alone, To pull down one, and build another throne, Are all dispersed and gone; We brave republic souls remain. Zel. And 'tis by us that Albion must be slain; Say, whom shall we employ The tyrant to destroy? Dem. That Archer is by fate designed, With one eye clear, and t'other blind. Zel. He comes inspired to do't. Omnes. Shoot, holy Cyclop, shoot. The one-eyed Archer advances, the rest follow. A fire arises betwixt them and ALBION.* [Ritornel. Dem. Lo! heaven and earth combine To blast our bold design. * That is by fire. See next note. The allegory of the one-eyed Archer, and the fire arising betwixt him and Albion, will be made evident by the following extracts from Sprat's history of the Conspiracy. In enumerating the persons engaged in the Rye-house plot, he mentions "Richard Rumbold, maltster, an old army officer, a desperate and bloody Ravaillac." After agitating several schemes for assassinating Charles, the Rye-house was fixed upon as a spot which the king must necessarily pass in his journey from Newmarket, and which, being a solitary moated house, in the actual occupation of Rumbold, afforded the conspirators facility of previous concealment and subsequent defence. "All other propositions, as subject to far more casualties and hazards, soon gave place to that of the Rye, in Herefordshire, a house then inhabited by the foresaid Richard Rumbold, who proposed that to be the seat of the action, offering himself to command the party, that was to do the work. Him, therefore, as the most daring captain, and by reason of a blemish Nature's alarmed, And fires are armed, To guard the sacred throne. Zel. What help, when jarring elements conspire, To punish our audacious crimes? Retreat betimes, To shun the avenging fire. Chor. To shun the avenging fire. [Ritor. in one of his eyes, they were afterwards wont, in common discourse, to call Hannibal; often drinking healths to Hannibal and his boys, meaning Rumbold and his hellish crew. "Immediately upon the coaches coming within the gates and hedges about the house, the conspirators were to divide into several parties; some before, in the habit of labourers, were to overthrow a cart in the narrowest passage, so as to prevent all possibility of escape others were to fight the guards, Walcot chusing that part upon a punctilio of honour; others were to shoot at the coachman, postillion, and horses; others to aim only at his Majesty's coach, which party was to be under the particular direction of Rumbold himself; the villain declaring beforehand, that, upon that occasion, he would make use of a very good blunderbuss, which was in West's possession, and blasphemously adding, that Ferguson should first consecrate it.” ***“ But whilst they were thus wholly intent on this barbarous work, and proceeded securely in its contrivance without the least doubt of a prosperous success, behold! on a sudden, God miraculously disappointed all their hopes and designs, by the terrible conflagration unexpectedly breaking out at Newmarket. In which extraordinary event there was one remarkable passage, that is not so generally taken notice of, as, for the glory of God, and the confusion of his Majesty's enemies, it ought to be. any "For, after that the approaching fury of the flames had driven the king out of his own palace, his Majesty, at first, removed into another quarter of the town, remote from the fire, and, as yet, free from any annoyance of smoke and ashes. There his Majesty, finding he might be tolerably well accommodated, had resolved to stay, and continue his recreations as before, till the day first named for his journey back to London. But his Majesty had no sooner made that resolution, when the wind, as conducted by an invisible power from above, presently changed about, and blew the smoke and cinders directly on his new lodging, making them in a As they are going back, a fire arises from behind; they all sink together.* Alb. Let our tuneful accents upwards move, Till they reach the vaulted arch of those above; Let us adore them; Let us fall before them. moment as untenable as the other. Upon this, his Majesty being put to a new shift, and not finding the like conveniency elsewhere, immediately declared, he would speedily return to Whitehall, as he did; which happening to be several days before the assassins expected him, or their preparations for the Rye were in readiness, it may justly give occasion to all the world to acknowledge, what one of the very conspirators could not but do, that it was a providential fire."-Pages 51 et seq. The proprietor of the Rye-house (for Rumbold was but a tenant) shocked at the intended purpose, for which it was to have been used, is said to have fired it with his own hand. This is the subject of a poem, called the Loyal Incendiary, or the generous Boute-feu. The total ruin of those, who were directly involved in the Ryehouse, was little to be regretted, had it not involved the fate of those who were pursuing reform, by means more manly and constitutional, the fate of Russel, Essex, and Sidney. Rumbold," the one-eyed archer," fled to Holland, and came to Scotland with Argyle, on his ill-concerted expedition. He was singled out and pursued, after the dispersion of his companions in a skirmish. He defended himself with desperate resolution against two armed peasants, till a third, coming behind him with a pitchfork, turned off his head-piece, when he was cut down and made prisoner, exclaiming, "Cruel countryman, to use me thus, while my face was to mine enemy." He suffered the doom of a traitor at Edinburgh, and maintained on the scaffold, with inflexible firmness, the principles in which he had lived. He could never believe, he said, that the many of human kind came into the world bridled and saddled, and the few with whips and spurs to ride them. "His rooted ingrained opinion, says Fountainhall, was for a republic against monarchy, to pull down which he thought a duty, and no sin." At his death, he declared, that were every hair of his head a man, he would venture them all in the good old cause. Acac. Kings they made, and kings they love. When they protect a rightful monarch's reign, The gods in heaven, the gods on earth maintain. Both. When they protect, &c. Alb. But see, what glories gild the main! Acac. Bright Venus brings Albanius back again, With all the Loves and Graces in her train. A machine rises out of the sea; it opens, and discovers VENUS and ALBANIUS sitting in a great scallopshell, richly adorned. VENUS is attended by the Loves and Graces, ALBANIUS by Heroes; the shell is drawn by dolphins; it moves forward, while a symphony of flutes-doux, &c. is playing, till it lands them on the stage, and then it closes and sinks. VENUS sings. Albion, hail the gods present thee All the richest of their treasures, Peace and pleasures, To content thee, Dancing their eternal measures. Venus. But, above all human blessing, Take a warlike loval brother, Never prince had such another; [Graces and Loves dance an entry. All heroic worth possessing. Chor. of all. But above all, &c. Conduct, courage, truth expressing, [Here the Heroes' dance is performed. [Ritor. Whilst a Symphony is playing, a very large, and a cery glorious Machine descends; the figure of it oval, all the clouds shining with gold, abundance of Angels and Cherubins flying about them, and playing in them; in the midst of it sits APOLLO on a throne of gold; he comes from the machine to ALBION. |