Remote from guns, as sick men from the noise.
St. 91. [p. 120.]
Dryden has here inverted the order of the Duke's retreat. His disabled or shattered ships were all ordered to stretch a-head, and he himself in the rear, with sixteen of his ablest vessels, his own occupying the centre, sustained all the efforts of the Dutch pursuers. The disabled vessels were therefore the headmost ships, and not placed in the rear, where, in the circumstances, they must inevitably have been taken.
The foe approached; and one, for his bold sin,
Was sunk, as he that touched the ark was slain.
St. 94. [p. 121.]
The simile is taken, not very decently, from 1 Chronicles, Chap. XIII.
Verse 7. "And they carried the ark of God in a new cart, out of the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart.