Chapter VI

Glutted with ruine of the East,
She took her wings and down to _Athens_ past:
Just Plague! which dost no parties take,
But _Greece_ as well as _Persia_ sack,
While in unnatural quarrels they
(Like Frogs and Mice) each other slay,
Thou in thy ravenous claws took’st both away.
Thither it came and did destroy the Town,
Whilest all its Ships and Souldiers lookt upon:
And now the _Asian_ Plague did more
Than all the _Asian_ Force could do before.
Without the Walls the _Spartan_ Army sate,
The _Spartan_ Army came too late;
For now there was no farther work for fate.
They saw the Citie open lay,
An easie and a bloodless prey,
They saw the rampires emptie stand,
The Fleet, the Walls, the Forts Unman’d.
No need of crueltie or slaughters now
The Plague had finisht what they came to do:
They might now unresisted enter there,
Did they not the very Air,
More than th’ _Athenians_ fear.
The Air it self to them was wall, and bullwarks too.