The rats by night such mischief did,   Betty was ev'ry morning chid.
  They undermin'd whole sides of bacon,
  Her cheese was sapp'd, her tarts were taken.
  Her pasties, fenc'd with thickest paste,
  Were all demolish'd, and laid waste.
  She curs'd the cat for want of duty,
  Who left her foes a constant booty.
  An Engineer, of noted skill,
  Engag'd to stop the growing ill.
  From room to room he now surveys
  Their haunts, their works, their secret ways;
  Finds where they 'scape an ambuscade.
  And whence the nightly sally's made.
  An envious Cat from place to place,
  Unseen, attends his silent pace.
  She saw, that if his trade went on,
  The purring race must be undone;
  So, secretly removes his baits,
  And ev'ry stratagem defeats.
    Again he sets the poisoned toils,
  And Puss again the labour foils.
    "What foe, to frustrate my designs,
  My schemes thus nightly countermines?"
  Incens'd, he cries: "This very hour
  This wretch shall bleed beneath my power."
    So said, a ponderous trap he brought,
  And in the fact poor Puss w............