Page:Batrachomyomachia, or, the wonderfull and bloudy Battell betweene Frogs and Mice.djvu/43

^[1]And first, for legs, these never daunted Mice,
Warlike habiliments in haste provide,
Garded with huskes of pease (O rare device!)
As though with boots or start-ups they would ride:
"Whose policy if this our age would trie,
"So many maymed souldiers should not die:
"For they which lose their legs, do lack their might
"Nor can they fly, nor stoutly stand to fight.

Next with a corslet they defend the heart,
Not made of steele, but of an old straw-hat,
With which before they did award that part,
Against the forces of the greedy Cat:
A piece of leather on their backe they don,
Which serves in stead of an habergion:
The bottome of a candlesticke doth stand
For target or a buckler in their hand.

^[2]Small brazen pinnes they brandish like a speare,
And tosse their needles like strong pikes about;
A walnut shell for helmet they doe beare,
After that they had eate the kernell out.
And thus they march to fight that bloudy fray,
Vaunting in armour and their proud array:
"For weapons unto force fresh courage bring,
"A Mouce in armes doth thinke himselfe a king.

1. The armes and weapons of the Mice.
2. Gerimus quæ possumus arma.

But