The Belgic Hero Unmask’d;
IN A
DIALOGUE
B E T W E E N
Sir Walter Rawleigh and Aaron Smith.
SIR Walter. HOLD thy impertinent tongue, I say, thou everlasting babbler, or——
Smith. Come, come, we lawyers are not so easily silenc’d as you think. Liberty of speech is one of the eldest branches of magna charta; therefore I will once more maintain it, before all the world, that the reign of my late Batavian master, was in every respect equal to that of the famous Elizabeth.
Sir Walter. Not that is’t worth my while to enter the list with such a petty-fogging dog as thou art, or the cause in debate admits any manner of parallel: but since thou hast the impudence to defend so monstrous a paradox before all this company, inform us what noble things this hero has perform’d, to deserve all that nauseous idle flattery, which hardly none but Sectarists, Deists, Republicans, and particularly the rascals of thy kidney, when he was alive, conspir’d to give him.
Smith. Why, in the first place, he deliver’d England, then just upon the brink of being devour’d by arbitrary power and popery. He won the noble battle of the Boyne, reduc’d Ireland, appeas’d the disorders of Scotland, reap’d a new harvest of glory every campaign in Flanders, and at last, after an obstinate expensive war, forc’d a haughty tyrant, who had insulted and bully’d the whole christian world for almost forty years, to clap up a peace with him upon his own terms at Ryswick, by which he was oblig’d to vomit up numberless provinces and towns, which he had dishonourably stollen from their true proprietors.
Sir Walter. And as for his personal qualities, what have you to say of them?
Smith. Whether you behold him at home or abroad, in the cabinet or the field; in fine, whether you consider him as a king, a general, a statesman, a husband, or a master, you’ll find his character uniformly bright in all these relative stations: affectionate to his queen, merciful to his subjects, liberal to his servants, careful of his soldiers, and providing, by his great wisdom, against all future contingencies that might hereafter disturb the tranquillity of Europe. But as for his munificence to his servants and favourities, I may venture to say, that few princes in history ever went so far as he.
Sir Walter. This last clause is not so great a commendation to him as you imagine.—Well, and is this all, for I wou’d not willingly interrupt you, ’till you have gone the full length of your panegyrick?