Let the fired city to your plot give light;[1]
You razed it half before,[2] now raze it quite.
Do 't more effectually; I'd see it glow
In flames unquenchable as those below;
I'd see the miscreants with their houses burn,
And all together into ashes turn.
Bend next your fury to the cursed divan;
That damned committee, whom the fates ordain
Of all our well-laid plots to be the bane.
Unkennel those state foxes where they lie
Working your speedy fate and destiny.[3]
Lug by the ears the doting prelates thence,
Dash heresy together with their brains
Out of their shattered heads. Lop off the lords
And commons at one stroke, and let your swords
Adjourn them all to the other world.
Would I were blest with flesh and blood again,
But to be actor in that happy scene!
Yet thus I will be by, and glut my view,
Revenge shall take its fill, in state I'll go
With captive ghosts to attend me down below.
Let these the handsels of your vengeance be,
But stop not here, nor flag in cruelty.
- ↑ Having enumerated some of the past deeds of papal persecution, the heads of the plot, as communicated by Oates, are next disclosed. London was to be fired, the Council, Bishops, and Ministers of State, were to be assassinated, and Lords and Commons to be destroyed, or, as Oldham has it, to be adjourned to the other world.
- ↑ The great fire of London took place in 1666, 'begun,' says the inscription on the monument, ’and carried on by the treachery and malice of the Popish faction;' which inscription, says Ned Ward, ’is at ignorant of the matter as myself, for the monument was neither built then nor I born; so I believe we are equally as able to tell the truth of the story,' &c.—London Spy.
- ↑ The proceedings of Parliament against the Roman Catholics, during the excitement that ensued upon the murder of Godfrey, were of the most stringent character. The Roman Catholic lords were for the first time excluded from the Upper House; the Duke of York driven from the Privy Council; strong resolutions were adopted against the Queen; and, adds Macaulay, they even attempted to wrest the command of the militia out of the King's hands.
