His innocence and their own guilt confess. 
Their legislative frenzy they repent,
Enacting it should make no precedent. 
This fate he could have ’scaped, but would not lose
Honour for life, but rather nobly chose
Death from their fears, than safety from his own,
That his last action all the rest might crown. 30

ON MY LORD CROFT’S AND MY JOURNEY INTO POLAND,

FROM WHENCE WE BROUGHT L10,000 FOR HIS MAJESTY, BY
THE DECIMATION OF HIS SCOTTISH SUBJECTS THERE.

1 Toll, toll,
  Gentle bell, for the soul
  Of the pure ones in Pole,
  Which are damn’d in our scroll.

2 Who having felt a touch
  Of Cockram’s greedy clutch,
  Which though it was not much,
  Yet their stubbornness was such,

3 That when we did arrive,
  ’Gainst the stream we did strive;
  They would neither lead nor drive;

4 Nor lend
  An ear to a friend,
  Nor an answer would send
  To our letter so well penn’d;

5 Nor assist our affairs
  With their moneys nor their wares,
  As their answer now declares,
  But only with their prayers.

6 Thus they did persist
  Did and said what they list,
  ’Till the Diet was dismiss’d;
  But then our breech they kiss’d.

 7 For when
   It was moved there and then,
   They should pay one in ten,
   The Diet said, Amen.

 8 And because they are both
   To discover the troth,
   They must give word and oath,
   Though they will forfeit both.

 9 Thus the constitution
   Condemns them every one,
   From the father to the son.

10 But John
   (Our friend) Mollesson
   Thought us to have outgone
   With a quaint invention.

11 Like the prophets of yore,
   He complain’d long before,
   Of the mischiefs in store,
   Ay, and thrice as much more;

12 And with that wicked lie,
   A letter they came by
   From our King’s majesty.

13 But fate
   Brought the letter too late,
   ’Twas of too old a date
   To relieve their damn’d state.

14 The letter’s to be seen,
   With seal of wax so green,
   At Dantzig, where ’t has been
   Turn’d into good Latin.

15 But he that gave the hint,
   This letter for to print,
   Must also pay his stint.

16 That trick,
   Had it come in the nick,
   Had touch’d us to the quick;
   But the messenger fell sick.

17 Had it later been wrote,
   And sooner been brought,
   They had got what they sought;
   But now it serves for nought.

18 On Sandys they ran aground,
  And our return was crown’d
  With full ten thousand pound.

ON MR THOMAS KILLIGREW’S RETURN FROM VENICE, AND MR WILLIAM MURREY’S FROM SCOTLAND.