Page:The Chace - Somervile (1735).djvu/95

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Book III.
THE CHACE.
75
The foodful Teat; himself, alas! design'd
Another's Meal. For now the greedy Brute
Winds him from far; and leaping o'er the Mound 250
To seize his trembling Prey, headlong is plung'd
Into the deep Abyss. Prostrate he lies
Astunn'd and impotent. Ah! what avail
Thine Eye-balls flashing Fire, thy Length of Tail,
That lashes thy broad Sides, thy Jaws besmear'd 255
With Blood and Offals crude, thy shaggy Main
The Terror of the Woods, thy stately Port,
And Bulk enormous, since by Stratagem
Thy Strength is foil'd? Unequal is the Strife,
When sov'reign Reason combats brutal Rage. 260

On distant Ethiopia's Sun-burnt Coasts,
The black Inhabitants a Pitfall frame,
But of a diff'rent Kind, and diff'rent Use.
With slender Poles the wide capacious Mouth,

And