He dreamt the third: but now his friend appear'd Pale, naked, pierc'd with wounds, with blood befmear'd:

Thrice warn'd, awake, faid he ; relief is late,
The deed is done; but thou revenge my fate :
Tardy of aid, unfeal thy heavy eyes,

Awake, and with the dawning day arise :
Take to the western gate thy ready way,
For by that paffage they my corps convey:
My corps is in a tumbril laid, among

The filth, and ordure, and inclos'd with dung,
That cart arreft, and raise a common cry;
For facred hunger of my gold, I die:
Then shew'd his griefly wound: and last he drew
A piteous figh; and took a long adieu.

The frighted friend arose by break of day,
And found the stall where late his fellow lay.
Then of his impious hoft inquiring more,
Was answer'd that his gueft was gone before:
Mutt'ring he went, faid he, by morning-light,
And much complain'd of his ill rest by night.
This rais'd fufpicion in the pilgrim's mind;
Because all hofts are of an evil kind,

And oft to share the spoils with robbers join'd.

7

}

His dream confirm'd his thought: with troubled
look

Straight to the western gate his way he took;
There, as his dream foretold, a cart he found,
That carry'd compofs forth to dung the ground.
This when the pilgrim faw, he ftretch'd his throat,
And cry'd out murder with a yelling note.
My murder'd fellow in this cart lies dead,
Vengeance and juftice on the villain's head,
You, magiftrates, who facred laws difpenfe,
On you
I call to punish this offence.

The word thus giv'n, within a little space, The mob came roaring out, and throng'd the place. All in a trice they caft the cart to ground,

;

And in the dung the murder'd body found
Tho breathless, warm, and reeking from the
wound.

Good heav'n, whofe darling attribute we find
Is boundless grace, and mercy to mankind,
Abhors the cruel; and the deeds of night
By wondrous ways reveals in open light :
Murder may pass unpunish'd for a time,
But tardy juftice will o'ertake the crime.
And oft a fpeedier pain the guilty feels.
The hue and cry of heav'n pursues him at the heels

Fresh from the fact; as in the present case,
The criminals are feiz'd upon the place:
Carter and hoft confronted face to face.
Stiff in denial, as the law appoints,

On engines they diftend their tortur'd joints :
So was confeffion forc'd, th' offence was known,
And public justice on th' offenders done.

Here may you fee that vifions are to dread;
And in the page that follows this, I read
Of two young merchants, whom the hope of gain
Induc'd in partnership to cross the main :
Waiting till willing winds their fails supply'd,
Within a trading-town they long abide,
Full fairly fituate on a haven's fide.

One ev❜ning it befel, that looking out,

The wind they long had wish'd was come about: Well pleas'd they went to reft; and if the gale Till morn continu'd, both refolv'd to fail.

But as together in a bed they lay,

The younger

had a dream at break of day.

A man he thought ftood frowning at his fide:

Who warn'd him for his fafety to provide,
Nor put to fea, but fafe on fhore abide.
I come, thy genius, to command thy ftay;
Truft not the winds, for fatal is the day,
And death unhop'd attends the watry way.

The vifion faid and vanish'd from his fight: The dreamer waken'd in a mortal fright : Then pull'd his drowsy neighbor, and declar'd What in his flumber he had seen and heard.

His friend fmil'd fcornful, and with proud contempt

Rejects as idle what his fellow dreamt.
Stay, who will stay: for me no fears restrain,
Who follow Mercury the god of gain;
Let each man do as to his fancy feems,
I wait, not I, till you have better dreams.
Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes
When monarch reafon fleeps, this mimic,wakes,
Compounds a medley of disjointed things,
A mob of coblers, and a court of kings:
Light fumes are merry, groffer fumes are fad:
Both are the reasonable foul run mad:

And

many monstrous forms in fleep we see, That neither were, nor are, nor e'er can be. Sometimes forgotten things long caft behind Rufh forward in the brain, and come to mind. The nurfe's legends are for truths receiv'd, And the man dreams but what the boy believ'd. Sometimes we but rehearse a former play, The night restores our actions done by day; As hounds in fleep will for their prey.

open

In short the farce of dreams is of a piece,
Chimeras all; and more abfurd, or lefs:
You, who believe in tales, abide alone;
Whate'er I get this voyage is my own.

Thus while he spoke, he heard the shouting crew
That call'd aboard, and took his last adieu.
The veffel went before a merry gale,

And for quick paffage put on ev'ry fail :

But when leaft fear'd, and ev'n in

open day, The mischief overtook her in the way:

Whether she sprung a leak, I cannot find,

Or whether she was overfet with wind, Or that fome rock below her bottom rent; But down at once with all her crew fhe went: Her fellow-fhips from far her lofs descry'd; But only she was funk, and all were fafe befide. By this example you are taught again, That dreams and vifions are not always vain: But if, dear Partlet, you are ftill in doubt, Another tale fhall make the former out. Kenelin the fon of Kenulph, Mercia's king, Whose holy life the legends loudly fing, Warn'd in a dream, his murder did foretel From point to point as after it befel: All circumftances to his nurfe he told,

(A wonder from a child of fev'n years old :)