Collonel Sidneys Overthrow;
OR,
An account of his Execution upon Tower-Hill, on Friday the 7th. of December, 1683. who was Condemned for
High Treason against His Sacred Majesty, for endeavouring the Subversion of the Government, etc.
To the Tune of, Now, now the Fights done.
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GOod People adieu, and fair England farewel,
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And you that Survive me pray never Rebell;
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Be true to your Prince; whos a Monarch indeed,
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And doth not desire that a Subject should bleed:
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Be Loyal and true that your lives you may save,
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And bring not gray hairs with shame to the Grave.
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Take warning by me that am now on the brink
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Of Death, and my Spirits are ready to sink;
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But that which most troubles me now I must dye,
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Is, that I was guilty of Disloyalty:
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To your Prince then be Loyal, your lives seek to save,
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And bring not gray hairs with shame to the Grave.
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Poor I that have flourishd in credit and fame,
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Now finish my days with dishonour and shame;
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The name of a Sidney long famous hath been,
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But is somewhat Eclipsd by my weakness agen:
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Then you that desire to live splendid and brave,
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bring not your gray hairs with grief to the Grave.
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Could I but redeem what is past and is gone,
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I would find other thoughts to be thinking upon;
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Yea, and strive to reverse what will now prove my doom
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My happiness blast, and my Glory consume:
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Then you that desire your lives for to save,
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Bring not your gray hairs with grief to the Grave.
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But in vain I lament, and my Sentence is past,
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And now I am ready to breath out my last:
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Be kind blessed Saviour, let me happy be,
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That I may live with thee to Eternity:
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O that I could now be so happy to save
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Poor Sidneys gray hairs with shame from the Grave.
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Twas the Pollick Pates that once pleaded for States,
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That brought me to this, and my Glory abates;
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But now I do find it is all but in vain,
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My case to lament, or of sorrow complain:
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All you that desire your lives for to save,
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Be true, and with Glory youl go to the Grave.
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Thers some that before me already are gone,
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That many had mighty opinions on;
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But yet when they looked pale death in the face,
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Methoughts I was moved to pitty their case
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Yet now the same fate I must certainly have,
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And bring, etc.
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God prosper and keep our most Soveraign King,
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And all that from his Royal Loins ever spring
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O let him in Glory still sit in his Throne,
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Whose mercys admired by every one:
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but you that endeavour your lives for to save,
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be true to your King; never matter the Grave.
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Now out of the World I am ready to go,
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To bliss or to pain, there is no man doth know;
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But I hope that my peace I have now made so well,
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That with my Creator I ever may dwell:
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but you that desire your lives for to save,
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be true, etc.
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Thrice happys the man that is Loyal and true,
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He freely when death comes bids all things adieu,
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He goes to the Grave with such quiet and rest,
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Because he believes he shall ever be blest,
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That he will not endeavour his life for to save,
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Since Loyalty ever will bloom in the Grave.
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