Like frighted fawns, from hill to hill purfued,
A prey to every favage of the wood:
Shall thefe, fo late who trembled at your name,
Invade your camps, involve your fhips in flame?
A change fo fhameful, fay, what caufe has wrought?
The foldier's bafeness, or the general's fault?
Fools! will ye perish for your leader's vice;
The purchase infamy, and life the price?
'Tis not your caufe, Achilles' injur'd fame:.
Another's is the crime, but yours the shame.
Grant that our chief offend through rage or luft,
Muft you be cowards if your king 's unjust ?
Prevent this evil, and your country
Small thought retrieves the spirits of the brave.
Think, and fubdue! on daftards dead to fame
I waste no anger, for they feel no shame :
But you, the pride, the flower of all our host,
My heart weeps blood to see your glory loft!
Nor deem this day, this battle, all you lofe;
A day more black, a fate more vile, enfues.
Let each reflect, who prizes fame or breath,
On endless infamy, on instant death,
For lo! the fated time, th' appointed shore;
Hark! the gates burst, the brazen barriers roar!
Impetuous Hector thunders at the wall;
The hour, the spot, to conquer, or to fall.
These words the Grecians' fainting hearts infpire,
And liftening armies catch the god-like fire.
Fix'd at his poft was each bold Ajax found,
With well-rang'd fquadrons ftrongly circled round a
So close their order, fo difpos'd their fight,
As Pallas' felf might view with fix'd delight;
The fourth Battle continued, in which Neptune affifts the Greeks: the acts of Idomeneus.
NEPTUNE, concerned for the lofs of the Grecians, upon feeing the fortification forced by Hector (who had entered the gate near the ftation of the Ajaxes) affumes the fhape of Calchas, and infpires thofe heroes to oppofe him: then, in the form of one of the generals, encourages the other Greeks, who had retired to their veffels. The Ajaxes form their troops in a close phalanx, and put a stop to Hector and the Trojans. Several deeds of valour are performed; Meriones, losing his spear in the encounter, repairs to feek another at the tent of Idomeneus: this occafions a conversation between those two warriours, who return together to the battle. Idomeneus fignalizes his courage above the reft; he kills Othryoneus, Afius, and Alcathous: Deïphobus and Æneas march against him, and at length Idomeneus retires. Menelaus wounds Helenus, and kills Pifander. The Trojans are repulfed in the left wing; Hector ftill keeps his ground against the Ajaxes, till, being galled by the Locrian flingers and archers, Polydamas advises to call a council of war: Hector approves his advice, but goes firft to rally the Trojans; upbraids Paris, rejoins Polydamas, meets Ajax again, and renews the attack.
The eight and twentieth day still continues. The fcene is between the Grecian wall and the fea-fhore.
HEN now the Thunderer on the fea-beat coaft
Had fix'd great Hector and his conquering hoft;
He left them to the Fates, in bloody fray
To toil and ftruggle through the well-fought day;
Then turn'd to Thracia from the field of fight
Thofe eyes that shed insufferable light
To where the Myfians prove their martial force,
And hardy Thracians tame the favage horse;
And where the far-fam'd Hippemolgian strays,
Renown'd for juftice and for length of days;
Thrice happy race! that, innocent of blood,
From milk, innoxious, seek their fimple food:
Jove fees delighted; and avoids the scene
Of guilty Troy, of arms, and dying men :
No aid, he deems, to either hoft is given,
While his high law fufpends the powers of Heaven.
Mean-time the * Monarch of the watery main
Obferv'd the Thunderer, nor observ'd in vain.
In Samothracia, on a mountain's brow,
Whofe waving woods o'erhung the deeps below,
He fate; and round him caft his azure eyes,
Where Ida's mifty tops confus'dly rise;
Below, fair Ilion's glittering spires were seen,
The crouded ships, and fable feas between.
There, from the crystal chambers of the main
Emerg'd, he fate; and mourn'd his Argives sain.
At Jove incens'd, with grief and fury stung,
Prone down the rocky steep he rush'd along;
Fierce as he paft, the lofty mountains nod,
The forest shakes! earth trembled as he trod,
And felt the footsteps of th' immortal God.
From realm to realm three ample ftrides he took,
And, at the fourth, the diftant Ægæ shook.
Far in the bay his shining palace stands,
Eternal frame! not rais'd by mortal hands :
This having reach'd, his brafs-hoof'd steeds he reins,
Flect as the winds, and deck'd with golden manes.
Refulgent arms his mighty limbs infold,
Immortal arms of adamant and gold.
He mounts the car, the golden fcourge applies,
He fits fuperior, and the chariot flies:
His whirling wheels the glaffy furface sweep;
Th' enormous monfters, rolling o'er the deep,
Gambol around him on the watery way;
And heavy whales in aukward measures play :
The fea fubfiding fpreads a level plain,
Exults, and owns the monarch of the main ;
The parting waves before his courfers fly :
The wondering waters leave his axle dry.
Deep in the liquid regions lies a cave; etween where Tenedos the furges lave, And rocky Imbrus breaks the rolling wave:
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