At last he yielded, from his purpose sway'd, And answer'ring thus in milder accents, said: No favour, sure, you merit; and the cause, Of right infring'd and hospitable laws, Would justify revenge; but as you claim, With Hercules, your native soil the same; I now shall pardon for the hero's sake, Nor, though the gods approve it, vengeance take: But straight avoid my presence, and unbind, With speed, your flying canvass to the wind. For if again to meet these eyes you come, No pray'rs shall change, or mitigate your doom.' "With frowning aspect thus the hero said. His threats I fear'd, and willingly obey'd. Straight in his purple robe the dead I bound, Then to my shoulders rais'd him from the ground: And from the bills descending to the bay, Where anchor'd near the beach our galley lay, The rest conven'd, with sorrow to relate This anger of the gods and Cleon's fate: The hero's fate his bold companions mourn'd, And ev'ry breast with keen resentment burn'd. They in their beady transports straight decreed, His fall with vengeance to requite or bleed. I fear'd the angry gods; and gave command, With sail and oar, to fly the fatal strand; Enrag'd and sad, the mariners obey'd, Unfurl'd the canvass, and the anchor weigh'd. Our course, behind, the western breezes sped, And from the coast with heavy hearts we fled. All day they favour'd, but with ev'ning ceas'd; And straight a tempest, from the stormy east, In opposition full, began to blow, And rear in ridges high the deep below. Against its boist'rous sway in vain we strove; Obliquely to the Thracian coast we drove : Where Pelion lifts his head aloft in air, With pointed cliffs and precipices bare; Thither our course we steer'd, and on the strand Descending, fix'd our cable to the land. There twenty days we stay'd, and wish'd, in vain, A favourable breeze, to cross the main; For with unceasing rage the tempest rav'd, And o'er the rocky beach the occan heav'd. At last with care the hero's limbs we burn'd, And, water'd with our tears, his bones inurn'd. There, where a promontory's height divides, Extended in the deep, the parted tides, His tomb is seen, which, from its airy stand, Marks to the mariner the distant land.

[will

"This, princes! is the truth; and though the
Of Heav'n, the sov'reign cause of good and ill,
Has dash'd our hopes, and, for the good in view,
With griefs afflicts us and disasters new ;
Yet, innocent of all, I justly claim

To stand exempt from punishment, or blame.
That zeal for Thebes 'gainst hospitable laws
Prevail'd, and ardour in my country's cause,
but sure, if
I freely have confess'd;
wrong
Was e'er permitted to inducement strong,
This claims to be excus'd our country's need,
With all who hear it, will for favour plead."
He ended thus. Unable to subdue
His grief, the monarch from the throne withdrew:
In silent wonder fix'd, the rest remain'd;
Till Clytophon the gen'ral sense explain'd:
"Your just defence, we mean not to refuse;
Your prudence censure, or your zeal accuse:
To Heav'n we owe the valiant Cleon's fate,
With each disaster which afflicts the state.

Soon as the Sun forsakes the eastern main,

At ev'ry altar let a bull be slain;

And Thebes assembled move the pow'rs to spare,
With vows of sacrifice and humble pray'r:
But now the night invites to soft repose,
The momentary cure of human woes;
The stars descend; and soon the morning ray
Shall rouse us to the labours of the day."
The hero thus. In silence all approv'd,
And rising, various, from th' assembly mov'd.

THE

EPIGONIAD.

BOOK VIII.

BEHIND the palace, where a stream descends,
Its lonely walks a shady grove extends;
Once sacred, now for common use ordain'd,
By war's wide licence and the ax profan'd:
Thither the monarch, from th' assembly, went
A'one, his fury and despair to vent,
And thus to Heav'n: "Dread pow'r! whose
sov'reign sway

The fates of men and mortal things obey!
From me expect not such applause to hear,
As fawning vot'ries to thine altars bear;
But truth severe. Although the forked brand,
Which for destruction arms thy mighty hand,
Were level'd at my head; a mind I hold,
By present ills, or future, uncontrol'd.
Beneath thy sway, the race of mortals groan;
Felicity sincere is felt by none:

Delusive hope th' unpractis'd mind assails,

And, by ten thousand treach'rous arts, prevails:
Through all the Earth the fair deceiver strays,
And wretched man to misery betrays.

Our crimes you punish, never teach to shun,
When, blind from folly, on our fate we run:
Hence sighs and groans thy tyrant reign confess,
With ev'ry rueful symptom of distress.
Here war unchain'd exerts bis wasteful pow'r ;
Here famine pines; diseases there devour,
And lead a train of all the ills that know
To shorten life, or lengthen it in woe.
All men are curst; but I, above the rest,
With tenfold vengeance, for my crimes, opprest:
With hostile pow'rs beset my tott'ring reign,
The people wasted, and my children slain;
In swift approach, I see destruction come,
But, with a mind unmov'd, I'll meet my doom;
For know, stern pow'r! whose vengeance has
decreed

That Creon, after all his sons, should bleed;
As from the summit of some desert rock,
The sport of tempests, falls the leafless oak,
Of all its honours stript, thou ne'er shalt find,
Weakly submiss, or stupidly resign'd
This dauntless heart; but purpos'd to debate
Thy stern decrees, and burst the chains of fate."

He said; and turning where the herals dstand
All night by turns, and wait their lord's command;
Menestheus there and Hegesarder found,
And Phæmius sage, for valour once renown'd;
He charg'd them thus: "Beyond the eastern

tow'rs,

Summon to meet in arms our martial pow'rs.
In silence let them move; let signs command,
And mute obedience reign through ev'ry band;
For when the east with early twilight glows,
We rush, from cover'd ambush, on our foes

Secure and unprepar'd: the truce we swore,
Our plighted faith, the seal of wine, and gore,
No ties I hold; all piety disclaim:
Adverse to me the gods, and I to them."
The angry monarch thus his will declar'd;
His rage the heralds fear'd, and straight repair'd
To rouse the warriors. Now the morning light
Begins to mingle with the shades of night:
In every street a glitt'ring stream appears,
Of polish'd helmets mix'd with shining spears:
Towards the eastern gate they drive along,
Nations and tribes, an undistinguish'd throng:
Creon himself superior, in his car,

Receiv'd them coming, and dispos'd the war.
And now the Argives from their tents proceed,
With rites sepulchral to intomb the dead.
The king of men, amid the fun'ral fires,
The chiefs assembles, and the work inspires.
And thus the Pylian sage, in counsel wise:
"Princes! I view, with wonder and surprise,
Yon field abandon'd, where the foe pursu'd
Their fun'ral rites before, with toil renew'd:
Not half their dead interr'd, they now abstain,
And silence reigns through all the smoky plain:
Thence jealousy and fear possess my mind
Of faith infring'd, and treachery design'd:
Behind those woody heights, behind those tow'rs,
I dread, in ambush laid, the Theban pow'rs;
With purpose to assault us, when they know
That we, confiding, least expect a foe:
Let half the warriors arm, and stand prepar'd,
From sudden violence, the host to guard;
While, in the mournful rites, the rest proceed,
Due to the honour'd reliques of the dead."

Thus as he spoke; approaching from afar,
The hostile pow'rs, embattled for the war,
Appear'd; and streaming from their polish'd shields
A blaze of splendour brighten'd all the fields.
And thus the king of men, with lifted eyes,
And both his hands extended to the skies:
"Ye pow'rs supreme! whose unresisted sway
The fate of men and mortal things obey!
Let all the plagues, which perjury attend,
At once, and sudden, on our foes descend:
Let not the sacred seal of wine and gore,
The hands we plighted, and the oaths we swore,
Be now in vain; but, from your bright abodes,
Confound the bold despisers of the gods."

He pray'd; and nearer came the hostile train, With swift approach advancing on the plain; Embattled thick; as when, at fall of night, A shepherd, from some promontory's he ght, Approaching from the deep, a fog descries, Which hov'ring lightly o'er the billows flies; By breezes borne, the solid soon it gains, Climbs the steep hills, and darkens all the plains: Silent and swift the Theban pow'rs drew near; The chariots led, a phalanx clos'd the rear. Confusion straight through all the host arose, Stirr'd like the ocean when a tempest blows. Some arm for fight; the rest to terrour yield, Inactive stand, or trembling quit the field. On ev'ry side, assaults the deafen'd ear The discord loud of tumult, rage, and fear. Superior in his car, with ardent eyes, The king of men through all the army flies; The rash restrains, the cold with courage fires, And all with hope and confidence inspires; As when the deep, in liquid mountains hurl'd, Assaults the rocky limits of theworld ;

When tempests with unlicens'd fury rave,
And sweep from shore to shore the flyingwave:
If he to whom each pow'r of ocean bends,
To quell such uproar, from the deep ascends,
Serene, amidst the wat'ry war, he rides,
And fixes, with his voice, the moving tides:
Such seem'd the monarch. From th' Olympian
The martial maid precipitates her flight; [height,
To aid her fav'rite host the goddess came,
Mentor she seem'd, her radiant arms the same;
Who with Ulysses brought a chosen band
Of warriors from the Cephalenian strand;
Already arm'd the valiant youth she found,
And arming for the fight his warriors round.
And thus began: "Brave prince! our foes appear
For battle order'd, and the fight is near.
Dauntless they come superior and elate,
While fear unmans us, and resigns to fate.
Would some immortal from th' Olympian height
Descend, and for a moment stop the fight;
From sad dejection rous'd, and cold despair,
We yet might arm us, and for war prepare;
But if on buman aid we must depend,
Nor hope to see the fav'ring gods descend,
Great were the hero's praise, who now could boast
From ruin imminent to save the host!
The danger near some prompt expedient claims,
And prudence triumphs oft in worst extremes."

Thus, in a form assum'd, the martial maid;
The generous warrior, thus replying, said:
"In youth, I cannot hope to win the praise,
With which experience crowns a length of dayst
Weak are the hopes that on my counsels stand,
To combats new, nor practis'd in command:
But as the gods, to save a sinking state,
Or snatch an army from the jaws of fate,
When prudence stands confounded, oft suggest
A prompt expedient to some vulgar breast;
To your discerning ear I shall expose
What now my mind excites me to disclose.
Sav'd from th' unfinish'd honours of the slain,
The mingled spoils of forests load the plain;
In heaps contiguous, round the camp they lie,
A fence too weak to stop the enemy:
But if we mix them with the seeds of fire,
Which unextinguish'd glow in ev'ry pyre,
Against the foe a sudden wall shall rise,
Of flame and smoke acending to the skies:
The steed dismay'd shall backward hurl the car;
Mix with the phalanx, and confound the war.”

He said. The goddess, in her conscious breast, A mother's triumph for a son possess'd, Who emulates his sire in glorious deeds, And, with his virtue, to his faine succeeds: Graceful the goddess turn'd, and with a voice, Bold and superior to the vulgar noise, O'er all the field commands the woods to fire; Straight to obey a thousand hands conspire. On ev'ry side the spreading flame extends, And, roll'd in cloudy wreaths, the smoke ascends.

Creon beheld; enrag'd to be withstood; Like some fierce lion when he meets a flood Ortrench defensive, which his rage restrains For flocks unguarded, left by careless swains; O'er all the field he sends his eyes afar, To mark fit entrance for a pointed war: Near on the right a narrow space he found, Where fun'ral ashes smok'd upon the ground: Thither the warriors of the Theban host, Whose martial skill he priz'd and valour most,

The monarch sent, Chalcidamus the strong,
Who from fair Thespia led his martial throng,
Where Helicon erects his verdant head,
And crowns the champaign with a lofty shade:
Oechalia's chief was added to the band,
For valour fam'd and skilful in command;
Erithæus, with him, his brother, came,
Of worth unequal, and unequal fame.
Rhesus, with these, the Thracian leader, went,
To merit fame, by high achievements, bent;
Of stature tall, he scorns the pointed spear,
And crushes with his mace the ranks of war:
With him twelve leaders of his native train,
In combats, taught the bounding steed to rein,
By none surpass'd who boast superior skill
To send the winged arrow swift to kill,
Mov'd to the fight. The rest of vulgar name,
Though brave in combat, were unknown to fame.
Their bold invasion dauntless to oppose,
Full in the midst, the bulk of Ajax rose;
Unarm'd be stood; but, in his mighty hand,
Brandish'd, with gesture fierce, a burning brand,
Snatch'd from the ashes of a fun'ral fire;
An olive's trunk, five cubit lengths entire.
Arm'd for the fight, the Cretan monarch stood;
And Merion, thirsting still for hostile blood;
The prince of Ithaca, with him who led
The youth, in Sycion, and Pellene, bred.
But ere they clos'd, the Thracian leader prest,
With eager courage, far before the rest;
Him Ajax met, inflam'd with equal rage:
Between the wond'ring hosts the chiefs engage;
Their weighty weapons round their heads they
throw,

And swift, and heavy falls each thund'ring blow;
As when in Etna's caves the giant brood,
The one-ey'd servants of the Lemniau god,
In order round the burning anvil stand,
And forge, with weighty strokes,the forked brand:
The shaking hills their fervid toil confess,
And echoes rattling through each dark recess:
So rag'd the fight; their mighty limbs they strain;
And oft their pond'rous maces fall in vain:
For neither chief was destin'd yet to bleed;
But fate at last the victory decreed.
The Salaminian hero aim'd a stroke,
Which thund'ring on the Thracian helmet broke;
Stunn'd by the boist'rous shock, the warrior reel'd
With giddy poise, then sunk upon the field.
Their leader to defend, his native train
With speed advance, and guard him on the plain.
Against his fee, their threat'ning lances rise,
And aim'd at once, a storm of arrows flies;
Around the chief on ev'ry side they sing ;
One in his shoulder fix'd its barbed sting.
Amaz'd he stood, nor could the fight renew;
But slow and sullen from the foe withdrew.
Straight to the charge Idomeneus proceeds,
With hardy Merion, try'd in martial deeds,
Laertes' valiant son, and he who led
The youth in Sycion, and Pellene, bred;
With force united, these the foe sustain,
And wasteful havoc loads the purple plain :
In doubtful poise the scales of combat sway'd,
And various fates alternately obey'd.

But now the flames, which barr'd th' invading Sunk to the wasted wood, in ashes glow; [foe, Thebes rushes to the fight; their polish'd shields Gleain through the smoke, and brighten all the fields;

Thick By the embers, where the coursers tread,
And cloudy volumes all the welkin shade.
The king of men, to meet the tempest, fires
His wav'ring bands, and valour thus inspires.
"Gods! shall one fatal hour deface the praise
Of all our sleepless nights, and bloody days?
Shall no just meed for all our toils remain ?
Our labours, blood, and victories in vain ?
Shall Creon triumph, and his impious brow
Claim the fair wreath, to truth and valour due?
No, warriors! by the heav'nly pow'rs, is weigh'd
Justice with wrong, in equal balance laid:
From Jove's high roof depend th' eternal scales,
Wrong mounts defeated still, and right prevails.
Fear then no odds; on Heav'n itself depend,
Which falsehood will confound,and truth defend."

He said; and sudden in the shock they close,
Their shields and helmets ring with mutual blows.
Disorder dire the mingling ranks confounds,
And shouts of triumph mix with dying sounds;
As fire, with wasteful conflagration, spreads,
And kindles, in its course, the woodland shades,
When, shooting sudden from the clouds above,
On some thick forest fall the flames of Jove;
The lofty oaks, the pines and cedars burn,
Their verdant honours all to ashes turn;
Loud roars the tempest; and the trembling swains
See the wide havoc of the wasted plains:
Such seem'd the conflict; such the dire alarms,
From shouts of battle mix'd with din of arms.
Phericles, first, Lycaon's valiant son,

The sage whose counsels propp'd the Theban throne,

Rose in the fight, superior to the rest,
And brave Democleon's fall his might confest,
The chief and leader of a valiant band,
From fair Erone and th' Asinian strand.
Next Asius, Iphitus, and Crates fell;
Terynthian Podius trede the path to Hell:
And Schedius, from Mazeta's fruitful plain,
Met there his fate, and perish'd with the slain.
Aw'd by their fall, the Argive bands give way;
As yields some rampart to the ocean's sway,
Wherous'd to rage, it scorns opposing mounds,
And sweeps victorious through forbidden grounds.
But Pallas, anxious for her fav'rite host,
Their best already wounded, many lost,
Ulysses sought: she found him, in the rear,
Wounded and faint, and leaning on his spear.
And thus in Mentor's form; "Brave prince! 1
dread

Our hopes defeated, and our fall decreed:
For conqu'ring on the right the foe prevails,
And all defence against their fury fails;

While here, in doubtful poise, the battle sways,
And various fates alternately obeys;
If great Tydides, who beholds from far
Our danger imminent, yet shuns the war,
Held by resentment, or some cause unknown,
Regardless of our safety and his own,
Would rise to aid us; yet we might respire,
And Creon, frustrated, again retire.
Great were his praise, who could the chief per
In peril so extreme, the host to aid.
[suade,
The fittest you, who boast the happy skill,
With pleasing words, to move the fixed will:
Though Nestor justly merits equal fame,
A friend the soonest will a friend reclaim."
And thus Ulysses to the martial maid:
"I cannot hope the hero to persuade: