Gustavus Vasa | Page 8

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Gustavus Vasa.
ARGUMENT.
_State of Sweden at the commencement of the Poem--A?Council--Trollio--Bernheim--Ernestus--Christiern proposes the reduction of Dalecarlia--Ernestus opposes him, is committed to prison--Christiern takes his measures to oppose a rebellion just arisen in Denmark._
Gustavus Vasa,
A POEM.
BOOK I.
The Swede I sing, by Heaven ordain'd to save?His country's glories from a Danish grave,?Restore her laws, her Papal rites efface,?And fix her freedom on a lasting base.
Celestial Liberty! by whom impell'd?From early youth fair honour's path he held;?By whose strong aid his patient courage rose?Superior to the rushing tide of woes,?And at whose feet, when Heaven his toils repaid,?His brightest wreaths the grateful hero laid:?Me too assist; with thy inspiring beam?Aid my weak powers, and bless my rising theme!
Stockholm to Christiern bow'd her captive head; }?By Treachery's axe her slaughter'd senate bled, }?And her brave chief was numbered with the dead. }?Piled with her breathless sons, th' uncultured land?With daily ravage fed a wasteful band;?And ruthless Christiern, wheresoe'er be flew,?Around his steps a track of crimson drew.?Already, by Heaven's dark protection led,?To Dalecarlia Sweden's hero fled;?There, with a pious friend retired, unknown,?He mourn'd his country's sorrows, and his own.?Those mountain peasants, negatively free,?The sole surviving friends of Liberty,?Unbought by bribes, still trample Christiern's power,?And wait in silence the decisive hour.
'Twas morn when Christiern bade a herald call?His secret council to the regal hall--?Those whom his skill, selecting, had combined?To share the deep recesses of his mind:?In these the prince unshaken trust reposed,?To these his intricate designs disclosed;?Their counsel, teeming with maturest thought,?His ripening plans to full perfection brought,?Each enterprise with proper means supplied,?And stemm'd strong difficulty's threatening tide:?The summons heard, th' obedient train attend,?Collect, and hastening toward the palace bend.
First of their order, as in rank and fame?Superior, Upsal's haughty prelate came;?Erect in priestly pride, he stalk'd along,?And tower'd supreme o'er all the princely throng.?A soul congenial, and a mind replete?With ready artifice and bold deceit,?To suit a tyrant's ends, however base,?In Christiern's friendship had secured his place.?His were the senator's and courtier's parts,?And all the statesman's magazine of arts;?His, each expedient, each all-powerful wile,?To thwart a foe, or win a monarch's smile:?The nicely-plann'd and well-pursued intrigue;?The smooth evasion of the hollow league;?The specious argument, that subtly strays?Thro' winding sophistry's protracted maze:?The complicated, deep, immense design,?That works in darkness like a labouring mine,?Unknown to all, 'till, bursting into birth,?Its wide explosion shakes th' astonish'd earth.?His was the prompt invention, fruitful still?In means subservient to the varying will:?The flexible expertness, smooth and mean,?That glides thro' obstacles, and wins unseen:?The quick discernment, that with eagle eyes?Sees distant storms in ether darkly rise,?And active vigour, that arrests their course,?Or to a different aim diverts their force.?He, in a happier land, by freedom bless'd,?Had hallow'd virtue dawn'd upon his