The Dragon With Many Heads, And The Dragon With Many Tails.[1]

An envoy of the Porte Sublime,      As history says, once on a time,      Before th' imperial German court[2]      Did rather boastfully report,      The troops commanded by his master's firman,      As being a stronger army than the German:      To which replied a Dutch attendant,      'Our prince has more than one dependant      Who keeps an army at his own expense.'      The Turk, a man of sense,      Rejoin'd, 'I am aware      What power your emperor's servants share.      It brings to mind a tale both strange and true,      A thing which once, myself, I chanced to view.      I saw come darting through a hedge,      Which fortified a rocky ledge,      A hydra's hundred heads; and in a trice      My blood was turning into ice.      But less the harm than terror, -      The body came no nearer;      Nor could, unless it had been sunder'd,      To parts at least a hundred.      While musing deeply on this sight,      Another dragon came to light,      Whose single head avails      To lead a hundred tails:      And, seized with juster fright,      I saw him pass the hedge, -      Head, body, tails, - a wedge      Of living and resistless powers. -      The other was your emperor's force; this ours.'