"Qui pretium poseit quod non meruisse videtur,
Atque super fragilem ponit sua brachia cannam
Illius in dorso Cancrorum semita stabit;
Devolet inque suum rictum satis assa Columba."
It appears, then, to me, that the design of the medallist was to hold up
to the exceration of the English people the machinations of Father
Petre, who (together with Sunderland) guided the councils of the king at
the juncture. The Jesuits, like the crustaceous fish above-mentioned,
were alleged to accomplish their dark and crooked designs by creeping
and sedulously working their way straight forward through the mud, until
some real danger presented itself, and then _reculing_ with equal
adroitness.
At this time, too, the bigoted and superstitious adherents of James had
been offering their vows at every shrine, and even making pilgrimages,
to induce Heaven to grant a male heir to the throne, and thus exclude
the Protestant daughters of the king. The premature and unexpected
event, therefore, of the birth of a son, was pronounced by James's
friends to have been predestined by the special grace of the Most High.
All this, I apprehend, was intended to be typified by the figure of the
_Jesuit Petre riding upon a Lobster_.