Yet he observed how still his iron balls

Recoiled in vain against our oaken walls;

How the hard pellets fell away as dead,

By our inchanted timber fillipped.

Leave then, said he, the invulnerable keel;

We'll find their feeble, like Achilles' heel.

He, quickly taught, pours in continual clouds

Of charmed dilemmas through our sinewed shrouds;

Forests of masts fall with their rude embrace,

Our stiff sails mashed and netted into lace,