Page:The Chace - Somervile (1735).djvu/91

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Book III.
THE CHACE.
71
With which the vain Profusion of the GreatCovers the Lawn, and shakes the trembling Copse.Pompous Incumbrance! A MagnificenceUseless, vexatious! For the wily Fox,Safe in th' increasing Number of his Foes,Kens well the great Advantage: Slinks behindAnd slyly creeps thro' the same beaten Track, 185And hunts them Step by Step; then views escap'dWith inward Extasy, the panting ThrongIn their own Footsteps puzzled, soil'd, and lost.So when proud Eastern Kings, summon to ArmsTheir gaudy Legions, from far distant Climes 190They flock in Crouds, unpeopling half a World:But when the Day of Battle calls them forthTo charge the well-train'd Foe, a Band compact.Of chosen Vet'ranes; they press blindly on,In Heaps confus'd, by their own Weapons fall, 195A smoking Carnage scatter'd o'er the Plain.

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