Monstrum horrendum

‘Monstrum horrendum

Upon ye engine tearmed a sow made by ye rebells Dempsies alias deuills in ye vicars house within the church yard of Geshell for ye [?]undermineing of ye Castle

 

Ryse hellish monster from that sacred den;

For thy foule carcass could noe other pen,

Or roome be found to make thy filthy bed,

But in a place so sacred, hallowed?

Soe neere God’s temple where his prayse was sung,

Must there be hard thy nasty grunting tonng?

Aryse aryse I say; letts vew thy snowt,

Thy limbs, thy joints, thy body round about,

Thy swelling bulk, thou bar’st, that we may see

Made to cast downe our walls, if thou wast shee.

Shee, shee thou wast; O earth how could’st hold out

From swallowing up both her and that foule rowt

Of hellish braynes that were together mett

’Bout an invention strangest us to gett

How durst you tyrants venture to defyle

God’s only chosen seat, his sacred Isle

To work your mischeifs in? must these needs be

The places only t’act you[r] villany?

I tremble at your deeds. Is there noe Hell

To punish sinners that with mischeif swell?

That nothing els doe mynde, doe nothing plott

But Gods deare sayntes, as morsells for the pott,

To cutt in peices, and to roote out all

His flock, that on his sacred name doe call?

Is there no Judg [at] all? noe God on hye,

That will auanged be of cruellty?

Come lett us parle awhile: How have you sped

In all your plotts agaynst us mustered?

At first layd seige, when you had hemb’d us round,

And close had shutt us up as in a pound,

Your selves assuring that you had us fast

Within your safest clutches, who at last

To save themselves did post and runne away?

’Twas you, ’twas you, and none but you I say.

And though you fled, besyds what we did find,

Both men and musketts some you left behind.

And for your sow, which you thought sure would bee

The ruinne of our Castle, what did shee?

Where first she had her being, there she left

Her body for ye fyre, in sunder cleft.

[MS damaged] beseiging, when that man of might

Did hither come, and [MS damaged] us [MS damaged] to fright

With him, his thundering Gunne, ye worlds great wonder

Which at one blast he thought would dash [?in] sunder,

And batter downe our Castle: pray what act

Was then performed? shamefully it exact;

And when it should have given us a wound

It splitt at first and fell into a s[w]ound,

And dyed strayt; before it did us hurt

It fell aside, and tumbled in the durt.

The gunner quite amazd, starting asyde

Was shott, at once soe g[u]nn and gunner dy’d

Thus have you sped. And will you still run on

In farther mischeifs headlong? where upon

Soe much depend you? upon your owne strength.

Know, know, proud tyrants, ther’s a God at length

That will you tumble down the dust to lick,

That proudly now agaynst him spurne and kick.

And without doubte your doome is neare at hand

When wasted and destroy’ed shall be your land; [Isaiah]

When Clinmaleera shall no more the name

Of Dempsies bear. [?Soe MS damaged] Lord as ?sinner lett shame

Fall on the pates of all that wilfully

Thy Name contemme and dreadful maiestie.

Dixi F.M.’