the helpless he will lend To good and vertuous Men a fixed friend In Counsel grave deliberate and wise In action heedful to his word precise The obstinate rough-hewn untutor'd crew Have tasted first or last what he can do For his great spirit and undaunted Heart Can brook no threatnings if they be too tart He 's vers'd in policy and warlike strife As well as how to lead a vertuous Life Bellona's Banners in the purple field Affright him not nor make his spirit yield His Travels both in Body and in Mind Can't very easily a fellow find He 's well acquainted with all Warlike feats As with the Drums diversity of beats He bears about him honourable Scars Which he received nobly in the Wars Not in those private and ignoble quarrels Which cannot claim so much as faded Laurels Much used by some Gallants of the time Which think themselves of all the rest the prime And through whose Veins such hot distempers run As never yet were known since time begun Taverns are haunted with these fiery spirits Who think to make all sly is for their credits These vap'ring Hectors when the Wine is in Can take from Hercules his Lions Skin Yea by a storm of Words and Oathes to boot One of them can lay Typhon at his foot Nay at a pitched Monomachy quell Diâ—e Polyphemus and the Dog of Hell. If their skill courage strength and worth be such I wonder why they did not beat the Dutch The Glance A Little higher let my genius soar And pierce the breast of greatness warily Titles of Honour by some wights are wore Which unto good have no proclivity Whos 's sequels are black infamy and shame Which unto many Ages shall indure Corroding and extinguishing their Name Which never can be capable of cure They that would not into such evils run Nor turn their glory to a waning State Let them and theirs the same occasions shun Which courted others into scorn and hate And bravely in all vertuous ways persist Which will bewray the greatness of their mind Yea Fame to make them greater will assist And from the Heavens shall Protection find Who lives in Vertue shall with Honour die And be Recorded to posterity Quis honorem quis gloriam quis laudem quis ullum decus tam unquam expetit quà m ignominiam infamiam contumelias dedecus fugiat Cicero Now to my matter I return again And give you what doth yet behind remain I have digrest more than I did intend And unto such to whom I am no friend But for our Hero I 'll write all I can At which black envy will look pale and wan I pretermit his bringing up and Birth My aim is only to display his worth None should be chose a General for his Riches No though he were the Husband of a Dutches But for his great Experience Gravity His Wisdom Valour and Fidelity Our Hero hath all these besides his love To that Religion which is from above He knows which way his Foe to circumvent And how an Ambuscado to prevent And if his adversary from him fly He will not follow them too hastily ' Cause that 's the way to make them desperate And turn again as 't were in ' spite of fate For desperation will make Cowards fight And put their Hot-spurr'd followers to slight Many by sad experience do know Too close pursuits wrought their own overthrow Whereof I could give many instances But our Commander loves no such excess For if the adverse Army will be gone From 's Territories he will help them on By leaving them an open way whereby They may with ease and safety from him fly Nay more if in their slight they seem but cold He 'll quickly make for them a Bridge of Gold. The wary Valour is the best of all For hot-spurs shall into confusion fall Hosti fugienti pons aureus faciendus He will be here and there and ev'ry where Filling his Enemies with care and fear Loose Wings on either hand he sendeth out And nimble Lads upon the private scout When Phoebus sets if he be Five Leagues from them Yet by the Morning he 'll be in among them And lets them hardly take a full Nights sleep He so torments them or plays at Bo-peep Putting them into horrible confusion And yet desireth not their bloods effusion No no if he sees his Souldiers are For slaughter he 'll restrain them and take care Both for his well and wounded enemy That he receive no farther injury He seeks to know the mode and disposition True temper inclination and condition Of him that is the adverse General And of some others of the principal He hath a busie brain a steady foot A watchful eye an heart most resolute To 's Souldiers he 's a Father for he will Provide what 's necessary for them still His Discipline is so severe and strict That heavy punishments he will inflict On such as do the Country spoil and wrong Which is his constant practice all along For Souldiers where good Order bears no sway Will to their Foes soon make themselves a prey He scorns to plunder either friend or Foe As many other dirty Captains do No but will treat his Captive Enemy With all Humanity and Courtesy According to their Rank and Quality And for the sick and wounded taketh care Yea leaves himself to furnish them but bare His Muster-Rolls with Faggots are not pil'd He will not injure Man Woman nor Child He 's none of those that ramble in the dark Nor of that Crew that visit Whetstone's Park c. He can't be justly charg'd with any Vice To which none easily can him entice He loves to exercise his Souldiers oft Of whom they learn the Military craft To whom he shews familiarity And will discourse with them facetiously But yet retains convenient gravity He strikes them not for every fault as some Proud fools whose places nothing them become Such are made Officers before they Souldiers were But our Commander was a Souldier Before he was an Officer therefore Of these new Milk-sops worth a hundred score Such have I known and some are yet alive That knew not whether they should lead or drive Their Souldiers when they have been Captains made They were so simple yet a vap'ring blade Was each of them which in a Tavern could Do many wonders yea with Juno scold But our Commander scorns such Catamites As can do nought but in their drunken fits For he 'll be first and last in danger while Those young fops leap o'er every Gate and Stile And panting cry God bless us from a Gun Starting at their own Shadows yea would run Into a Mouse-hole if they could and there Be ready to besh themselves for fear Any should with a Cushion shoot them through The Nose you see then what these Sparks can do Others whose Oaths thicker than Bullets fly Yet they in bloodless Battles love to die They are for fine rich Silver Swords not for Steel Swords '
though with some For fear of offending Hesitation To your renowned self wherein you may Read your own self as I may truly say For 't is a noble subject fit for none But Martial Spirits and for them alone Whereof your kind acceptance Sir will be A favour and encouragement to me May Heaven protect and always on You smile And make you ev'n a Moses to this Isle As it hath already hath begun to do Who â—onours God God will him honour too May all your Foes before you fall and fly And Romish rags be bury'd totally May God direct and guide you Night and day For which no doubt good Protestants shall pray And so shall I my self among the rest In which and all things else I 'll do my best To serve and honour Your Majesty according to my power Tho. Plunket April the 10 th 1689. AN Advertisement TO THE READER I Think it necessary in this place to give the World a short Account of some things relating to my self to avoid surmises and sinister Constructions having now and not till now found a fit opportunity after my Forty five years Obscurity to satisfie Enquirers by giving them the reasons of my so long and voluntary Exile wherein I shall be as brief as possible The Name and Family of the Plunkets are not Irish Originally but descended from the Romans but have been in Ireland almost a thousand years My Father was of the House of Dunsaney in East-Meath and brought up in the Romish Religion until towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign when about the age of fourteen years he came off from Popery and became a zealous Protestant and so continued till death and because he was the first of our Name that turn'd Protestant he was therefore extreamly hated by many great Papists and all their Clergy so that they waited an opportunity to do him some mischief one way or other and at last they found one for a little before the Rebellion in 1641 he fell sick and in that his sickness a Popish Physician poison'd him fearing as being a man of a great spirit he might as he would have done by his repute and interest in the Country obstruct their designs thereabouts And the said Physitian confess'd upon his Death-bed that he poison'd him for no other cause but his being a Protestant and that he was put upon it by others And at the beginning of the Rebellion the Papists Plunder'd and burnt our House whereby nine Orphans of us were expos'd to great hardships and miseries as well as many thousands more My Grandfather had an Estate left him by the Lord Dunsaney whose second Son he was but betwixt him and my Father partly by Gaming but mostly by engaging for others all the Estate was gone As soon as I heard being then at Dublin what bloody work the Papists made in the Country by murthering the Protestants I resolved to oppose and fight against them to the utmost of my power and presently Listed my self in Sir Charles Coot's Regiment then sixteen years of Age and continued in the Wars until the Cessation made with the Rebels by the King's Order whereupon about 8000. that fought successfully against the Rebels were sent for by the King to fight for him in England after which they never had success but were always worsted After my Father's death I found I was not only very much slighted and neglected by my Protestant Kindred but hated and threatned by my Popish Kindred for fighting against them c. as I was by other young Rebels therefore to be no longer vext and griev'd with the unkindness of the one and to avoid the danger of the other whose malice I had but too much cause to fear I resolved upon a voluntary Banishment for at least twenty years if I lived so long and away came I with the Army in Colonel Gibson's Regiment in November 1643. Which Army at the Siege of Nantwich were routed by Fairfax the January following where Colonel Monk since Duke of Albemarle with many others were taken and sent up to the Parliament And while I was in those parts a Report being spread abroad which was too true that the King had many thousands of Papists in his Armies and that in one of them were 6000. This as it very much offended me so it begat some thoughts in me of going to the Parliaments side being also informed that they allow'd no Papists in their Army which was true But while I was musing what to do some other Regiments came out of Ireland for the King among which were many of my former Threatners this rais'd in me a firm resolution to List my self in the Parliaments Army which I did soon after and to escape the bloody intentions of those Threatners above said and other such in time to come as also to perplex my most unkind Kindred with a twenty or thirty years silence in which time I vow'd they should neither see me nor hear from me I changed my own name and went by the name of Clark and have hitherto and was in many Fights and Skirmishes in the North of England and at the great Battel on Marston-Moor in July 1644. And when Sir T. Fairfax aforesaid was made General of that Victorious Army call'd the New Model 1645. I Listed my self in his own Regiment of Foot wherein I continued fifteen years during which time divers Officers because they knew not who I was concluded me to be of some base obscure beggarly Parentage for which I have been scorned and traduced by them and others all along and when I saw what great Changes and Alterations were in hand in the beginning of the Year 1660. in reference to things and persons tending to a total subversion of that Interest and Cause which I had so zealously owned and engaged in from first to last I could not in judgment and conscience recede from them or any my former principles by complying either to keep or get a place as many Officers did whereby I should have bespattered my Reputation more dear to me than my life and incurr'd that to me odious name of a Time-server whereupon I threw up my Commission and broke my Sword losing all my Arreers and much Money lent my Company and so retired from all publick matters ever since For it shall never be said That a Plunket was false or guilty of any base unworthy treacherous Action for me from which I have by the Grace of God kept my self clear at all times especially these 29. years last past wherein I have suffered many hard things for my integrity being forced through the malice of Neighbours Mayors Informers c. to change my Dwellings fifteen times in twenty years And as I lost all in Ireland for being a Protestant so I lost all again in England for being a Dissenter But I am still semper idem and resolve to be whilest I live come what will of it And though many hundreds dead and alive know what
them as 't were a Spiritual Pest and Pox And all the evils of Pandora's Box. Then who would not help Brandenbourg come come And drive these Monsters out of Christendom Indeed true Jesuits are Christians but Rome's Jesuits seek Christians Throats to cut Because themselves are none for if they were â—…gs would not of them stand so much in fear Nor London felt so sad a conflagration Nor Wars so feared in each Christian Nation The censures of the Sorbonne faculty Of their damn'd errors and impiety Shew what they are O WILLIAM give the word And let those Gockatrices feel thy Sword Do thou appear to many a defence For of thy Name that is the very sence And with the bloody Frenchmen make such work As glorious Scanderberg did with the Turk Or as renowned Zisca who did rout Great Sigismundus that before did flout And jear at him Here why should I omit Thy Ancestors who with their Swords did slit The Nose of that great Whore of Babylon By whom and others she was half undone For ever since her Pristine Glory Could not assume O that brave Soul by thee She might be quite undone conjoin'd with those That dare her host'ring Nimrods now oppose While mercy is in Heaven and a good cause On Earth who think Rome and her bloody Laws Cannot be crush'd ne'er rightly did believe In God but pin their Faith on anothers sleeve But this our Hero better things doth know As his brave Letter manfully doth show Which ought to be reserv'd in golden Pages To be transmitted unto after Ages That they may read the Magnanimity Of that brave Prince and keep in memory How early and how zealously he did Appear even in the Front and bravely bid Defiance to the Foes of Jesus Christ Viz. The plotting Jesuits and their High-Priest Whilst others seem'd to play at least in sight Curse ye such Merez as shall fear to fight When Sisera is ready to invade Judea which he threatens shall be made The scorn the laughing-stock of all the World And Sion be into confusion hurl'd Come Valiant Brandenbourg thou and thy Son Must help to crush the Brats of Babylon And other Worthies of this Nation too Are born I 'm confident great things to do Ten thousand with Gods help have wonders done Five have I known make Thirty thousand run And kill Four thousand of them on the place And take Ten thousand more upon the chase After both sides appealed solemnly To God And that he would grant victory To them that had the justest cause and so It did fall out accordingly although The routed still were obstinate But God Would not be mock'd for they have felt his Rod Since that and more are like to feel Pray then Despair not for the Papists are but Men Not Gods nor Angels Saints nor Christians good Because they thirst to shed true Christian blood Killing is Murther and no Murther but I 'm sure 't is Murder good Mens Throats to cut Papists by their Religion are bound All Protestants to torture kill and wound Surely their Principles were hatcht in Hell Sith all their Combinations of it smell Doth not this gallant Prince of whom I write To noble Resolutions us excite In which I hope we of the British Nation Will think him worthy of our imitation I say should we not follow his example Rather than Papists should upon us trample And murder us our Wives and Children too Which I am sure they would not spare to do If they had power A brave resolution Will much contribute towards their confusion Better die manfully with sword in hand And fight as long as ever we can stand Than be hang'd up like dogs Our Wives and Daughters First ravished then kill'd With horrid slaughters Of Protestants in Fields Streets Lanes and Houses These things if well considered soon would rouze us But be sure let the Papists first begin For us to do so were no venial sin The very sight of a great Army will Some terrifie yea them with horrour fill Yet many a multitude have very few Good Soldiers in it either old or new It is such not an huge throng that win the field But God alone the victory doth yield Who with the best though fewest taketh part Unless their sin make him a while depart They that fear numbers Leaders specially Much more wil fear to fight them no they 'l fly Which will daunt and discourage all the rest 'T were better be without such I protest A few good Soldiers well conducted will Do more than thrice as many without skill Hot-spurs against a wary enemy Will do no good but hasten misery When he that keeps the mean will safely ride If he can't stemm yet he will cross the tide Brave Brandenbourg to none is second in The feats of War and Warlike Discipline Else he had not been pitcht upon to lead Th' Imperial Army as you plainly read In his stout Letter where he tells you that His own destruction was levell'd at By Jesuited Cabals and how they had Infatuated divers to which add Their bribing Princes Councils friend and foe The whole Protestant cause to overthrow Which mischief as the worst of miseries He will prevent as much as in him lies Hold on Brave Prince in what thou hast begun And Heaven protect thee 'till thy race is run I know not how some will these lines resent 'Bove all such as to Rome now stand half bent Nay others of a better frame are prone To blame all writings which are not their own For self-opinion hath made them wise So that the finest wits they will despise But I am none of them therefore I need Not fear such as on envy love to feed Who like the Ass in Trappings terrifie Such Mules as can but dare not versifie Fearing the strokes of their deep drolleries Or to be known for the Popes enemies If this be all my Muse shall still endite Nor shall my Pen for this fear truth to write No I am born for nobler ends than to Comply and equivocate as many do Transcendant Brandenbourg I come again To blaze thy worth which envy cannot stain Rome thou hast startled much already by Thy Letter full of Magnanimity O the Vindictive rage and malice that Now lies in wait you know what she 'd be at Viz. Destruction Devastation quenchless flames Blood rapin ruin are her end and aims Malice in her hath found its proper nest Envy 's enthroned in her bloody breast Would ever any generous spirit be A Papist if he knew what others see Great Soul thou understandest from thy youth What are their Tenents and how far from truth Stand to thy Letter and God will stand by thee 'T is he alone that gives the victory Why frowns not Mars and Minos upon those That would have Earth and Hell at their dispose But the tremenduos Tetragrammaton Will not not always be a looker on The mighty He in power does surmount Yea they shall know He is Lord
heart 'Pray take them all for spare them well can we Leave us the Wheat and take the Tares to thee A good riddance truly for three or four True Hearts are of such Rake-hells worth a score O restless Bawd thou sittest now as Queen Venting upon the Saints thy Gall and Spleen By how much thou thy self hast magnify'd By so much shall this Woe be multiply'd We see thy Agents can false Servants hire Their Masters Houses to consume with fire Nay Masters too they can so work upon All to promote a conflagration By firing their own Houses O ye Swine Fell Fiends Miscreants thus to combine With Hell their innocent Neighbours without cause To ruine and expose them to the Paws Of Tygres Bears and Bandogs who could think That English-men such poison down would drink Nay others ' stead of helping at a fire Rob poor distracted people so retire These are or such as soon would Papists be From which Religion Lord deliver me For well I know 't is founded upon blood Therefore a Papist never can be good The Pope they honour more than Christ yea more Old Shooes Boots Cloaks and Bread Gods they adore And other Relicks once belonging to Some silly Dotard which they never knew This and much more the Jesuits and all Their Clergy do impose on great and small Whose Pupils poison and contaminate Each City County Kingdom People State. Who kills a Christian Heaven say they shall merit Who Murder most high place in Heaven inherit These are but tastes of those damn'd drugs with which The Romanists so many fools bewitch And 't is but fruitless with them to dispute For when by sacred writ they are struck mute Backt with strong arguments assiduously And that while Conscience in their faces fly And secret wispers racking every part Of their convinc'd and self-condemned Heart That swell through spite and shame as in their faces May be discern'd as marks of their disgraces Yet for all this in words they will not yield Though Conscience tells them they have lost the field But desp'rately oppose themselves still Against the Truth through anger and self-will Forcing their stopped Mouths to rave and rend In railing Rhetorick with which they 'll end If Papists Truth and Reason would obey To real good they soon might find the way Till then no doubt Heaven will upon them frown And by its stroak be shamefully cast down Then 't will be vain for Turn-coats to retrive What erst they might have had nor can they strive Against the stream wherein their sentiments Are all prejudg'd and in such exigents Who fix their hopes upon contingencies Cannot be judged to be very wise But they 'll not retrospect to any thing Of Truth when meekly urg'd but huff and ding Yea so fastidiously aspect on those Which their flagitious practices oppose And whose vindictive Souls perboil'd in hate Damn such as own not the Trans-Alpin State Under whose Umbrages they think they 're blest And the bi-fronted Eagle builds her Nest While the poor Phoenix knows not where to rest Be'ng daily threatned by the Birds of prey Viz. The Romish Kites and Vultures also they That lurk in London spawning plots a-pace And yet abjure them with a brazen face Look back ye blood-hounds to blest Edward's time When Truth our Horizon began to climb And tell me what advantage have ye got By all your plottings Truly not a jot Nay ye have lost whole Kingdoms chiefly by Massacring and inhumane cruelty Sweden Great Britain Ireland Denmark and Great part of Germany France Switzerland Hungaria Transilvania Belgia too And many more have all forsaken you Besides vast Russia never own'd the Pope Nor the Greek Church Nor never will I hope Because your Tenents are so black and bloody And ye your selves nothing but mischief study Your whole Religion I may well compare To th'Strangury because so like they are Viz. Froth on the top blood at the bottom and Sometimes a tearing burning torturing sand More blood cries Rome because Sirs the word More Is th'Anagram of Rome where sits the Whore In Latin Amor is her Anagram Because she loves the Sons of Ge-hen-nam The Anagram of Sion Sino is Permitting Men the Son of God to kiss To suffer patiently and give them leave To Love Fear Worship God and to him cleave But Jesu'ts threaten such though ne'er so good And to send French Dragoons to let us blood Boasting that now they have us in a Net And that our Gospel Sun-shine now must set That they 'll invade us with a Foreign crew Which many fear indeed will prove too true Let them come if they dare we fear them not For home-bred Brats for all they are so hot For still I hope though still they are so high Their Cat-like Cause that lusty Puss is nigh To hanging notwithstanding that she is So Catarumpant now And more than this John the Divine hath read her destiny Which many others worthies testify Besides I know and by experience Her Hectors through an evil Conscience To be but cowardly especially If but impugned somewhat strenuously For credit me true valour they have none And loth to fight except they 're Two to One. Their desp'rateness is far from fortitude For their chief Captains have amazed stood Yea utterly confounded as I 've seen When but a little they have worsted been Fear not their threatning brags nor yet their Swords Being not so valiant in their Hearts as Words Whose Manhood lies in stabbing armless people In Murthering the naked weak and feeble In plotting any mischief great or small And Protestants by any means enthrall Their mighty brags now a-la-mode de France Are but the copies of their countenance Not of their courage for they dare not stand Scarce half an hour and fight us hand to hand Hold out but the first shock and you shall see The stoutest of them all begin to flee Whom they can't or dare not harm openly They 'll do it sneakingly and covertly Or get in with their Servant-Maid or Man Nurse Midwife Surgeon or Physician Apothecary or some one or other As Sister Cousin Uncle Friend or Brother For Gold to poison them but if these fail Then with their Tongues and Libels them assail Yea in a restless rage they will devise How to bespatter them with horrid lies Hiring false witnesses at any rate To plague destroy or make them out of date Nay peradventure fall to conjuring Thereby if possible some hurt to being On them or theirs Who half their tricks can tell For all their Plots are laid as deep as Hell. But 't is a comfort God is still on high Who trust in him shall find security He laughs at all their Machinations and Will break their arm with his All-conquering hand But e'er that time I fear for sin he will Permit them many Protestants to kill c. If so no doubt they 'll rave and rage amain Where they can but the least advantage gain Being basely cruel where they