Are mine by military law,

Of which I will not bate one straw;

The rest, thy life and limbs, once more,

Though doubly forfeit, I restore.

Quoth Hudibras, It is too late
For me to treat or ftipulate;
What thou command'st I must obey;
Yet those whom I expung'd to-day,
Of thine own party, I let go,
And gave them life and freedom too,
Both Dogs and Bear, upon their parole,
Whom I took prifoners in this quarrel.
Quoth Trulla, Whether thou or they
Let one another run away,

Concerns not me; but was 't not thou
That gave Crowdero quarter too?
Crowdero whom, in irons bound,
Thou bafely threw'ft into Lob's pound,
Where still he lies, and with regret

His generous

bowels rage and fret:

But now thy carcafe fhall redeem,
And serve to be exchang'd for him.

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900

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This

Ver. 913, 914.] This was but an equitable retaliation, though very difgraceful to one of the Knight's ftation. Is not the Poet to be blamed for bringing his hero to fuch a direful condition, and for representing him as ftript and degraded by a trull? No, certainly. It was her right, by the law of arms (which the Poet must observe), to ufe her captive at her pleasure. Trulla

K 3

acted

Then threw it o'er his sturdy back.
And as the French, we conquer'd once,
Now give us laws for pantaloons,

The length of breeches, and the gathers,
Port-cannons, perriwigs, and feathers;
Juft fo the proud infulting lafs
Array'd and dighted Hudibras.

Meanwhile the other champions, yerft

In Lurry of the fight difperft,
Arriv'd, when Trulla won the day,
To fhare i' th' honour and the prey,
And out of Hudibras's hide
With vengeance to be fatisfy'd;
Which now they were about to pour

Upon him in a wooden fhower,
But Trulla thruft herself between,
And ftriding o'er his back again,

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935

She

acted more honourably by him than he expected, and generously screened him from a threatening ftorm, ready to be poured on him by her comrades. With what pomp and folemnity does this famous heroine lead the captive in triumph to the ftocks, to the eternal honour of her fix!

She brandish'd o'er her head his fword,

And vow'd they should not break her word ;
She 'ad giv'n him quarter, and her blood,
Or theirs, fhould make that quarter good;
For fhe was bound, by law of arms,
To fee him fafe from further harms.
In dungeon deep Crowdero, caft

By Hudibras, as yet lay fast,

Where, to the hard and ruthless stones,
His great heart made perpetual moans;
Him the refolv'd that Hudibras
Should ransom, and supply his place.

This ftopp'd their fury, and the bafting

Which towards Hudibras was hafting;

They thought it was but juft and right
That what she had atchiev'd in fight
She fhould difpofe of how fhe pleas'd;
Crowdero ought to be releas'd:
Nor could that any way be done
So well as this fhé pitch'd upon :

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955

And Talgol that which Ralpho preft;
Whom trout Magnano, valiant Cerdon,
And Colon, waited as a guard on ;
K 4

All

The Knight and Squire they firft unhorse,
And bending 'gainst the fort their force,
They all advanc'd, and round about
Begirt the magical redoubt.
Magnan' led up in this adventure,
And made way for the reft to enter:
For he was fkilful in Black Art,
No less than he that built the fort,

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990

And with an iron mace laid flat

A breach, which straight all enter'd at,

And in the wooden dungeon found

Crowdero laid upon the ground:
Him they release from durance base,
Reftor'd t' his Fiddle and his cafe,
And liberty, his thirsty rage

With luscious vengeance to affuage ;

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For

For he no fooner was at large,

But Trulla ftraight brought on the charge,
And in the self-fame limbo put

The Knight and Squire where he was fhut;
Where leaving them in Hockley-i'-th'-hole,
Their bangs and durance to condole,
Confin'd and conjur'd into narrow
Enchanted manfion to know sorrow,

Which they advanc'd, they march'd away:

In the fame order and array

But Hudibras, who scorn'd to stoop

To Fortune, or be faid to droop,

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Cheer'd up himself with ends of verse,

And sayings of philosophers.

Quoth he, Th' one half of man, his mind,

'Tis not restraint, or liberty,
That makes men prifoners or free;
But perturbations that poffefs

The mind, or equanimities.

The whole world was not half fo wide

To Alexander, when he cry'd,
Because he had but one to fubdue,

As was a paltry narrow tub to

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Diogenes;

Ver. 1003.] Where leaving them in Hockley-i'th'bole. Altered, 1674, to, I' the wretched hole. Ref tored, 1704.