THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT.
175
And they too gap'd, and they too hiss'd,
And they their threatening tails did twist;
But straight on both the Hebrew-serpent flew,
Broke both their active backs, and both it slew,
And both almost at once devour'd;
So much was over-power'd,
By God's miraculous creation,
His servant's, Nature's, slightly-wrought and feeble generation!
And they their threatening tails did twist;
But straight on both the Hebrew-serpent flew,
Broke both their active backs, and both it slew,
And both almost at once devour'd;
So much was over-power'd,
By God's miraculous creation,
His servant's, Nature's, slightly-wrought and feeble generation!
On the fam'd bank the prophets stood,
Touch'd with their rod, and wounded, all the flood;
Flood now no more, but a long vein of putrid blood.
The helpless fish were found
In their strange current drown'd:
The herbs and trees wash'd by the mortal tide
About it blush'd and dy'd:
Th' amazed crocodiles made haste to ground;
From their vast trunks the dropping gore they spied,
Thought it their own, and dreadfully aloud they cried.
Nor all thy priests, nor thou,
Oh king! couldst ever show
From whence thy wandering Nile begins his course—
Of this new Nile thou seest the sacred source;
And, as thy land that does o'erflow,
Take heed lest this do so!
What plague more just could on thy waters fall?
The Hebrew infants' murder stains them all:
Touch'd with their rod, and wounded, all the flood;
Flood now no more, but a long vein of putrid blood.
The helpless fish were found
In their strange current drown'd:
The herbs and trees wash'd by the mortal tide
About it blush'd and dy'd:
Th' amazed crocodiles made haste to ground;
From their vast trunks the dropping gore they spied,
Thought it their own, and dreadfully aloud they cried.
Nor all thy priests, nor thou,
Oh king! couldst ever show
From whence thy wandering Nile begins his course—
Of this new Nile thou seest the sacred source;
And, as thy land that does o'erflow,
Take heed lest this do so!
What plague more just could on thy waters fall?
The Hebrew infants' murder stains them all:
