Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Jacobite relics of Scotland > [First series]

220 NOTES.
Two inkhorn tops you Whigs did fill
With gunpowder and lead ;
Which, with two serpents made of quill,
You in a bandbox laid ;
A tinderbox there was beside,
Which had a trigger to't,
To which the very string was tied
That was designed to do't.
As traitors spare nor care nor cost,
These crackers dire were sent
To th' treasurer, per penny-post ;
And safely so they went :
And if my lord had pull'd the thread,
Then up had blown the train.
And th' inkhorns must have shot him dead,
Or else have burst in twain.
But fortune spar'd that precious life,
And so sav'd church and queen ;
Good Swift was by, and had a knife,
For corn or pen made keen.
" Stand off, my lord," he cried, " this thread
To cut I will not doubt."
He cut, then oped the bandbox lid,
And so the plot came out.
Now God preserve our gracious queen;
And, for this glorious deed,
May she the doctor make a dean,
With all convenient speed.
What though the tub hath hinder'd him.
As common story tells ?
Yet surely now the bandbox whim
Will help him down to Wells.