Last Night, when Sleep my heavy Eyes had clos’d,
To all her Rage methought I ftood expos'd;
Wild were her Looks, a poison'd Cup she brought,
And proudly offer'd me the fatal Draught;
The destin'd Bowl I took, with trembling Hands, ,
Compellid to execute her fierce Commands.
This dismal Omen aggravates my Fears,
Before me still the furious Queen appears.

Lady Jane GRAY to Lord GUILFORD

Dudley, who were separated from each other by Imprisonment.

WITH

Anguish that no Force of Words

can tell, In these fad Lines I take

my

last farewel.
Could I with less Reluctance part from thee,
Approaching Death had no Surprize for me ;
That folemn Prospect should my Thoughts employ,
And banish every tender Scene of Joy :
But thou doft till return upon my Soul,
What Force the soft Temptation can controul ?
I meet thee ftill refiftless in thy Charms,
Sigh on thy Breast, and languish in thy Arms,
o Guilford, 'tis no wretched Love of Life,
That fills my Thoughts with this uneasy Strife ;
The flattering Blandishments of youthful Years,
A promis'd Kingdom, nor my country's Tears;
For thee alone I'd live, for thee alone
I took the fatal Proffer of a Crown.
No fond Ambition stain'd my guiltless Mind,
Inspir'd with Passions of a gentler kind:
With thee I would have chose fome calm Retreat,
Far from the dull Formalities of State ;

How

How careless, how serene my fleeting Hours"
Had paft in Shady Walks, and fragrant Bowers,
Pleas'd with the Murmurs of a smooth Cascade,
Or near some Chrystal Fountain, while it play'd,
Upon its flow'ry Verge, with thee seclin'd,
My Voice I to the melting Lute had join'd, .
And sooth'd thy Soul with gentle Strains of Love, ,
Answer'd by all the Musick of the Grove.
To Men, to Angels, be my Soul unveild,
Nor any Part of Heavenly Truth conceald;
The glorious Cause that animates my Breaft,
My Lips with holy Triumph fhall atteft ;
Aftest it with my laft expiring Breath,
And smile on all the folemn.Pomp of Death. :
O Guilford keep thy facred Truth unftain'd,
And half my lmmortality is gain'd.
Ye Virgin Saints, that in your early Bloom
From cruel Tyrants met a fatal Doom,
That dy'd the Honour of the Chriftian Faith,
And boldly trod. the same illustrious Path,
To animate the youthful Sufferer's Breast,
Appear in all your Heavenly Glorięs drest;
Shew him your sparkling Crowns, the bright Re-

ward
For such distinguish'd Constancy prepar’d;
Open your rosy Bowers, your blissful Seats,
Your Gardens of Delight, your soft Retreats,
Where Gentle Gales ambrofial Odours blow,
And Springs of Joy in endless Currents flow;
With smiling Visions recreate his Soul,
And ev'ry doubting anxious Thought controul.

!

Lord

Lord GUILFORD Dudley, to Lady

JANE GRAY.

me?

AY every watchful Angel guard thy Life,

, . For thee I importune the Skies with Prayers, And waste the tedious Hours in gloomy Cares. Were I from all the World but thee confin'd, I'd call my Stars propitious ftill, and kind ; Those Prison Walls should prove a safe Retreat, From all the restless Factions of the Great.. Sink, curft Ambition, to thy Native Hell; And with thy kindred Fiends for ever dwell. Were I, my Fair, again poffeft. of thee, What Toys were Kingdoms and their Crowns to Inglorious in some blisful Shades I'd prove, The filent Joys of unmolested Love. Why was ihy B'rth deriv'd from ancient Kings ? Our Mis’ry from this fatal Greatness springs : Indulgent Love a gentler Lot defign’d, Nor form’d for publick Cares thy guiltless Minds Thy Thoughts were all employ'd on softer Themes, Tender and innocent, as Infants Dreams ;: And yet---but Heaven the Title disallows, A Crown, methought, look'd glorious on thy

Brows; In every Look, in every graceful Mien, Tke brightelt Rays of Majelty were seen. Jmperial Beauty sparkled in thy Eyes, I gaz'd with Extasy and new Surprise ; A thousand Times I press'd thy lovely Hand, And cry'd 'twas form’d a Scepire to command. But these gay Scenes for ever take their flight, Like some fantastick Vision of the Night.

O could

O could my Death the angry Queen appease,
Could that alone a raging Faction please,
Unterrify'd I'd meet the publick Storm,
And challenge Death in every dreadful Form.
But O, what Horrors rise!-thy tender Life!
What would I speak ? my lov'd, my beauteous

Wife :
What Counsel can thy wretched Husband give ?
On any Terms I fain would have thee live.
O Death, where is thy boasted Conqueit now?
Where are the Frowns and Terrors of thy brow?
Thou hast an Angel's heavenly Form and Air,
Pleasures and Graces in thy Train appear ;
Ten Thousand kind transporting Scenes arise,
O come, my Fair, they call us to the Skies:
Beauties, like thee, in Nature's early Pride,
Undaunted for their sacred Faith have dy'd :
With theirs, with all th' illustrious Names of old,
The British Glory, thine fhall be enroll'd.

Q. Who was the first Martyr in Queen Mary's Reign.

A. Mr. John Rodgers; he was Minister of St. Sepulcbras Church in London, and was burnt in Smithfield, February 14th, 1554. His Wite with nine small Children, and one at her Breaft, followed him to the Stake, with which sorrowful Sight he was not in the leait daunted, but with wonderful Patience and Refignation dy'd courageously for the Gospel of Jefus Cbrifl.

Q. Which were the ten general Perfecutions fo famously known in the Primitive Church?

A. The first was under Nero, (that bloody Perfecutor and Enemy to Mankind, who ript up his Mother's Belly to see the Place of his Conception) in the 67th Year of Christ. The second was under Domitian, in the Year 96. The third under Trajan i. ico. T'he fourth under Marcus Antonius, in 167.

The

The fifth under Severus, in 195. The fixth under Maximinianus, in 237. The seventh under Decius, in 250. The eighth under Valerianus, in 259. The ninth under Aurelianus in 278. The joth under Dioclefian, in 293. Yet notwithstanding these cruel Persecutions, wherein, as one of the Fathers writeth, there were murdered five thousand every Day in the Year, excepting only the first Day of January; Yet were they like Chamomile, the more they were trod on, the thicker they grew, and the Blood of the Martyrs proved to be the Seed of the Church.

Q. What Paffion is the most prevailing over the Nature of Men ?

A. Fear; of which we read that it hath in one Night turned the very Hairs of the Head from black to white. But most memorable is that Example of one, who being pretended to let Blood to Death, and being blinded, and his Arms tied fast, fome about him saying, bow bravely be bleeds on this Arm! how gallantly on that! though they did nothing to him, yet unbinding him, they found him quite dead with a panick Fear. Two Schoolboys daily passed by a Cobler, who used to cry out, which of yeu has been whipt To-day. They to be even with him agreed, one to fire a Pistol, and the other with a Squirt to squirt Blood the same Instant at him, which they did fo dextrously and took to their Heels, that, with the Noise of the Pistol, and Blood on his Breast, he dropt down dead in his Stall; the Neighbours drew him out and Aript him, but could find no Wound.

Q. What Day was that, that the like never was before, nor never shall be hereafter ?

A. When Joshua prayed in the midft of the Battle, so that the Sun haltened not towards his Weltern Period so long, that, as Justin Martyr writeth, it made the Day thirty-fix Hours long. And some