AN ELEGY ON THE GLORIOUS DEATH OF Col. John Okey; Who Suffered at TYBURN, the 19th. of April, 1662.  

'tIs best seen at Sunset, whose the Day was.  
Though several Acts of thy Life (John) might pass  
Musters for good and brave; yet, who could tell  
That thou wouldst carry't thorough half so well?   

Thou were retreated, and (forced to rally)  
Didst outdo all thy former Chivalry.  
Thy Friends then have more cause to sing, than groan;  
For, sure, as when thou wert wont to go on,  
GOD was with thee; so, art thou now with Him,  
In being thus brought off, though Limb by Limb.   

But why are not thy Quarters perched, like theirs,  
Who proved i'th'close thy Fellow-soldiers?  
The Cabbs would seem kind; but were wise, and did  
Know they were safest, when OKEY was hid.   

Nor did 
* Sir Georg Downing.  thy Lay-Chaplain bewray poor Delf  
For the discovery of thee, but himself  
To be 
† The Hangman.  Squire Duns small factor, & the High  
And Mighty Lords o'th' Low Lands to be nigh  
The honour of making their Country free,  
By givinged up (like ours) to Monarchy.   

Next, how came thy last Harangue to disown  
The Horridness, though not the Action?  
The sense of that Gild, which once made thee fly,  
Did ill to leave thee, when thou wert to die.   

Methinks I see thee bustling up to say,  
In spite of both the Sh'riffes (where, by the way,  
When any Malefactor comes to bleed  
For Theft, or what else is a Crime indeed,  
Shall we read of an Executioner  
Capitulating with the Thief, for fear  
He should persuade the People that he died  
For that, which Reason would have justified?)   

If to have fled, be a Confession  
Of Gild, the Regicide (that now is grown  
The only right) heretofore many a time  
To Fields, Brooks, Walls, and Woods confessed a crime.   

Methinks I hear thee again say, If to be  
Condemned, make a man guilty, What was he  
Whom we condemned? Or, if be unjustly  
Did suffer, though condemned, why might not I?  
He had (I'm sure) fairer play for's Life, than  
Any of us three, being heard, and heard again:  
While all that I was tried upon, amounted  
To this, Whether the twelve picked men, accounted  
Me the same Okey, which was of that Gang,  
Such an Act meant, without hearing, to hang.   

Well, let 'em hang (John) such as are fast tied,  
And mangle such, as be first mortified:  
Let 'em presume the Roads with Garbage broiled,  
And feast the Fowls with Flesh they never foiled;  
Showing by their moderated Greatness,  
How nobly they obtained what they possess.   

Blessed (meanwhile) be those early Buds, that met  
By thousands to attend thy Body; yet  
Were fain to be mocked, lest, i'th' very Grave  
Thy Mock-attainder should true Honour have.  
England shall want Trees for Gibbets, before  
Those Trees shall want the Fruit they lately bore,  
Or, that Fruit Kernels, or those Kernels Earth  
Wherein to roar, and whence to take new birth:  
Till our Posterity arrive to th' Fame  
Of being born in an Orchyard of the same.   

From such Beginnings GOD was pleased to bring  
That Gospel, which now through the World doth ring   In Sanguine Semen.  

LONDON, Printed in the Year, 1662. 45.