Believ'd it now the fittest moment
To fhun the danger that might come on't,
While Hudibras was all alone,
And he and Whachum, two to one:
This being resolv'd, he spy'd by chance,
Behind the door, an iron lance,
That many a sturdy limb had gor'd,
And legs, and loins, and shoulders bor❜d;
He snatch'd it up, and made a pass,
To make his way thro' Hudibras.
Whachum had got a fire-fork,
With which he vow'd to do his work;
But Hudibras was well prepar'd,
And stoutly stood upon his guard:
He put by Sidrophello's thrust,
And in right manfully he rusht,
The weapon from his gripe he wrung,
And laid him on the earth along.
Whachum his fea-coal prong threw by,
And bafely turn'd his back to fly;
But Hudibras gave him a twitch,
As quick as lightning, in the breech,
Just in the place where honour's lodg'd,
As wife philofophers have judg'd';
Because a kick in that part more
Hurts honour, than deep wounds before. 1070
Quoth Hudibras, the stars determine
You are my prisoners, base vermine.
Could they not tell you fo, as well
As what I came to know, foretel?
By this, what cheats you are, we find,
That in your own concerns are blind.
Your lives are now at my dispose,
To be redeem'd by fine or blows:
But who his honour would defile,
To take, or fell, two lives fo vile?
I'll give you quarter; but your pillage,
The conqu❜ring warrior's crop and tillage,
Which with his fword he reaps and plows,
That's mine, the law of arms allows.
This faid in hafte, in hafte he fell
To rummaging of Sidrophel.
First, he expounded both his pockets,
And found a watch with rings and lockets,
Which had been left with him t' erect
A figure for, and so detect.
Engrav'd in planetary hours,
That over mortals had strange powers
To make them thrive in law or trade,
And ftab or poison to evade ;
In wit or wisdom to improve,
And be victorious in love.
Whachum had neither cross nor pile,
His plunder was not worth the while ;
All which the conqu'ror did discompt,
To pay for curing of his rump.
But Sidrophel, as full of tricks
As rota-men of politics,
Straight cast about to over-reach
Th' unwary conqu'ror with a fetch,
And make him glad at least to quit
His victory, and fly the pit,
Before the secular prince of darkness
Arriv'd to feize upon his carcass :
And, as a fox with hot purfuit,
Chac'd through a warren, cast about
To fave his credit, and among
Dead vermine on a gallows hung,
And while the dogs ran underneath,
Escap'd, by counterfeiting death,
Not out of cunning, but a train
Of atoms justling in his brain,
As learn'd philofophers give out;
So Sidrophello cast about,
And fell to 's wonted trade again,
To feign himself in earnest slain :
First stretch'd out one leg, then another,
And, seeming in his breast to smother
A broken figh, quoth he, where am I—
Alive, or dead? or which way came I
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