Read the excerpt from Annus Mirabilis by John Dryden and complete the sentence that follows. O God, said he, thou patron of my days, Guide of my youth in exile and distress! Who me, unfriended, brought'st by wondrous ways, The kingdom of my fathers to possess: Be thou my judge, with what unwearied care Since have labour'd for my people's good; To bind the bruises of a civil war, And stop the issues of their wasting blood. Thou who hast taught me to forgive the ill, And recompense, as friends, the good misled; If mercy be a precept of thy will, Return that mercy on thy servant's head. Or if my heedless youth has stepp'd astray, Too soon forgetful of thy gracious hand; On me alone thy just displeasure lay, But take thy judgments from this mourning land. In the above lines, the is praying to God to bring an end to the .