THE DUTCH GAZETTE OR The Sheet of Wildfire that Fired the DUTCH FLEET I 'll tell ye not of Aetna's Flames nor Troy's That long ago has filled the World with noise Nor of Romances nor of Histories Done Ages long before whose Obsequies Were sung by Laureate Pens that which I tell The Stories of the World can't parallel Rupert I sing Duke Albemarle and Homes And of the rest that sent those to their homes Whose Pride and Envy Hell itself 't was such Can't match would you know who I mean the Dutch. Who had a Hundred sixty Ships and more Of Merchantmen lay sleeping on their Shore And never dreamt of danger till we came And took them napping Ask but Amsterdam Who stood Spectators there and saw their Sails Transformed to Sheets of Wildfire and those Gales That use to swell and spread abroad their ' tire Serve now as Bellows to set all on fire For Guinnae some others for Russia bound Scarce one worth less than Fifteen thousand Pound Did you ne'er see the Winged Troop that flies From Flower to Flower until their laden thighs Force a retreat Did you ne'er see them strive Which should go richest laden to his Hive Just so each Soldier in a pl●nteous measure Has made his Cabb'n a Cabinet of Treasure Silks Hollands Silver-spoons Plate Cloth of Gold All had their choice to take what e'er they would These are the Dutch that did but th' other day Make Bonfires o'er their Land for Victory But never thought of seeing This by Sea Where Helm and Rudder Top Top-sayl and all Within few hours to Dust and Ashes fall Had but Will Lilly seen this Blazing Comet I 'll lay my life it had portended Somewhat Of strange event as he 'd have made appear In his Prognostication for next Year They 'll block the Seas up why then so they shall No fitter Heads than theirs to do 't withal Where they may lay'um together and counsel take How many Bonfires they had best to make Now will I lose the Pinion of my Quill And dictate to my Muse a Word at will That Fame itself that Herald and not I Shall show the Blazon of our Victory At which the World distracted stands with fear And won't believe but that the Gods were there Great MONK so thundered that 't was hard to say Whether 't was He or Fate that got the Day Smith sent such Thunderbolts as ne'er were madey By Vulcan since he first wrought of his Trade Who gazed but durst not come within a Shot For fear his other Leg had gone to Pott 'T was Smith whose Sword so often quenched in Blood Returned so hard as not to be withstood Steel to the Hilt this Proverb has he got He ne'er strikes stroke until the Iron 's hot Had Goffe. Ben. Johnson or had Shakespeare been Spectators there such Acts they should have seen As they ne'er acted in an English Scene These fought with Blows they only clashed in Words They fought with foils but these with naked Swords Here should  've seen an angry Sea their Stage Covered with rolling Billows Foam and Rage Now sunk to Hell anon with Pride so high As if it gave defiance to the Sky There should  've seen retiring Rooms of War Such Rooms as far excels Rome's Theatre A Ghastful Scene not Thebes but Thetis Womb Wherein the Actors did themselves entomb Here dives a Corpse there struggles one half dead Here sinks a Trunk cut shorter by the Head Here one 'twixt hope and fear thinks 't is a dream And there another strives against the stream Here dive a hundred Dutch into their Graves There die as many 'mbracing of the Waves Here one turmoils and there another strives Yet scarce two in a hundred save their lives Such Music as they had had but Troy known 'T would quickly have made the Grecians fled their Town Had poor Ulysses heard but one broadside 'T had made him quake and been afraid to ride The Grecian Horse his wooden Bucephalus Had been transformed into a Pegasus Had Monk but Thundered at proud Babel's Wall Babel's proud Battlements had got a fall Had th' Great Colossus stood where he discharges He 'd veiled his Bonnet to our Boanarges Th' Egyptian Pyramid whose massy Tower The Jaws of Time could never yet devour When he discharges its proud Marbles must Lay down their palsy Heads within the Dust Great Conquerors could I your Worth indite The World unworthy were of what I 'd wtite Your steely Soldiers too I dare but name For fear I over-charge the Trump of Fame That caused the World proverbially to say THEY fought like Englishmen and won the Day Return Great Conquerors live Men of Mirror England's chief Glory but the Duchess Terror Who have a Tromp too but the VVorld's to blame If e'er they take Him for the Trump of Fame Finis Licenced Aug. 20. Roger L'Estrange LONDON Printed by T. Leach in Shooe-Lane 1666.