Well read their fears, that interposed delays
To rob him of his meed for toil and blood.
A few brief years of such uneasy strife,
While foreign shores and ocean own his sway;
Then fades the lonely Conqueror away,
Amid success, weary betimes of life.
So passing, kingly in his soul, uncrown’d,
With dark forebodings of th’ approaching storm,
He leaves the spoil at mercy of the swarm
Of beasts unclean and vultures gathering round.