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Scarse had the Haruest mā with hooke in hand,
Dispoilde the fruite and let the stuble stand:
Scarse had the hungrie Gleaner put in bind,
The scattred graine, the Sherer left behind:
And scarse the flapping flaile began to thresh
VVhen vnto Iacob, newes was brought a fresh.
That Holophern, his frontiers did inuade,
And past all Riuers, straites, and murders made
So vile, that none he left that drew the breath:
But olde and young, he put to sodaine death:

3

The sucking babes vpon their mothers knee:
His cruell cutthroates made them all to dee.
Then like a flocke of sheepe that doth beholde,
A wolfe come from the wood vpon their fold,
Shapes no defence, but runnes athwart the landes,
And shortly makes of one, a hundreth bands,
So Isacks sonnes, in dreading for to feele

The Hebreus.


This tyrant, who pursued them at the heele,
Dissundring fled, and sought their liues to saue:
In hils, and dales, and euerie desert caue.