Than this, not plagues are sooner caught,
Nor with more dreadful evils fraught,
The other, meek, in secret pines,
And friends he could not keep resigns;
Resigns, tho’ late, with yearning heart,
And mourns persuasion’s useless art.
Retiring now he leaves the fray,
The Fox still mark’d his pensive way,
The Lion found and seiz’d his prize,
And, like the first, the second dies.