Unknown to all the synod of the sky.'

‘Arms I have none, and can I fight unarm’d?

Unknown to him who sits remote on high,

'Thou com'st in vain,' he cries, (with fury warm'd,)

Unwilling as I am, of force I stay,

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'Till Thetis bring me at the dawn of day

'Vulcanian arms: what other can I wield, Except the mighty Telamonian shield?

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That, in my friend's defence, has Ajax spread,

'While his strong lance around him heaps the dead :

"The gallant chief defends Mencetius' son,

'And does what his Achilles should have done.'

Thy want of arms' (said Iris) 'well we know ;

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But, though unarm'd, yet, clad in terrors, go! 'Let but Achilles o'er yon trench appear, 'Proud Troy shall tremble, and consent to fear; 'Greece from one glance of that tremendous eye 'Shall take new courage, and disdain to fly.'

She spoke, and past in air. The hero rose :
Her ægis Pallas o'er his shoulder throws:
Around his brows a golden cloud she spread;
A stream of glory flam'd above his head.
As when from some beleaguer'd town arise
The smokes, high curling to the shaded skies
(Seen from some island, o'er the main afar,
When men distress'd hang out the sign of war :)
Soon as the sun in ocean hides his rays,
Thick on the hills the flaming beacons blaze;
With long-projected beams the seas are bright,
And heaven's high arch reflects the ruddy light :
So from Achilles' head the splendours rise,
Reflecting blaze on blaze, against the skies.

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Forth march'd the chief, and, distant from the crowd,

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High on the rampart rais'd his voice aloud;
With her own shout Minerva swells the sound;
Troy starts astonish'd, and the shores rebound.
As the loud trumpet's brazen mouth from far
With shrilling clangour sounds th' alarm of war,
Struck from the walls, the echoes float on high,
And the round bulwarks and thick towers reply;
So high his brazen voice the hero rear'd:

Hosts drop their arms, and trembled as they heard;
And back the chariots roll, and coursers bound,
And steeds and men lie mingled on the ground.
Aghast they see the living lightnings play,
And turn their eye-balls from the flashing ray.

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B. XVIII.]

THE TROJANS CALL A COUNCIL.

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Thrice from the trench his dreadful voice he rais'd;
And thrice they fled, confounded and amaz'd.
Twelve in the tumult wedged, untimely rush'd
On their own spears, by their own chariots crush'd;
While, shielded from the darts, the Greeks obtain
The long-contended carcass of the slain.

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A lofty bier the breathless warrior bears : Around, his sad companions melt in tears. But chief Achilles, bending down his head, Pours unavailing sorrows o'er the dead,

Whom late, triumphant with his steeds and car,

He sent refulgent to the field of war:

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(Unhappy change!) now senseless, pale, he found,

Stretch'd forth, and gash'd with many a gaping wound.
Meantime, unwearied with his heavenly way,

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In ocean's waves th' unwilling light of day
Quench'd his red orb, at Juno's high command,1
And from their labours eas'd th' Achaian band.
The frighted Trojans (panting from the war,
Their steeds unharness'd from the weary car)
A sudden council call'd: each chief appear'd
In haste, and standing; for to sit they fear'd.
'Twas now no season for prolong'd debate;
They saw Achilles, and in him their fate.
Silent they stood: Polydamas at last,
Skill'd to discern the future by the past,
The son of Panthus, thus express'd his fears:
(The friend of Hector, and of equal years:
The self-same night to both a being gave,
One wise in council, one in action brave :)

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In free debate, my friends, your sentence speak:
I move, before the morning break,

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" For me,
'To raise our camp: too dangerous here our post,
Far from Troy walls, and on a naked coast.

I deem'd not Greece so dreadful, while engaged
In mutual feuds her king and hero raged;
Then, while we hop'd our armies might prevail,
We boldly camp'd beside a thousand sail.
'I dread Pelides now: his rage of mind
'Not long continues to the shores confin'd,

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1 The sun is said to set with reluctance, because his setting-time was not yet come. Jupiter had promised Hector that he should prevail till the sun should go down, and sacred darkness cover all; Juno therefore, impatient to arrest the victor's progress, and having no other means of doing it, shortens the time allotted him. Couper.

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'Nor to the fields, where long in equal fray

Contending nations won and lost the day;

For Troy, for Troy, shall henceforth be the strife, 'And the hard contest, not for fame, but life.

Haste then to Ilion, while the favouring night Detains those terrors, keeps that arm from fight; 'If but the morrow's sun behold us here,

'That arm, those terrors, we shall feel, not fear;

'And hearts that now disdain, shall leap with joy,

'If heaven permits them then to enter Troy.

Let not my fatal prophecy be true,

Whatever be our fate, yet let us try

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• Nor what I tremble but to think, ensue.

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'What force of thought and reason can supply;

'Let us on counsel for our guard depend;

'The town, her gates and bulwarks shall defend.

When morning dawns, our well-appointed powers, 'Array'd in arms, shall line the lofty towers. 'Let the fierce hero then, when fury calls, 'Vent his mad vengeance on our rocky walls, 'Or fetch a thousand circles round the plain,

Till his spent coursers seek the fleet again :

So may his rage be tir'd, and labour'd down;

And dogs shall tear him ere he sack the town.'

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Return?' (said Hector, fir'd with stern disdain,) 'What! coop whole armies in our walls again? 'Was't not enough, ye valiant warriors say, 'Nine years imprison'd in those towers ye lay? 'Wide o'er the world was Ilion fam'd of old For brass exhaustless, and for mines of gold; 'But while inglorious in her walls we stay'd, 'Sunk were her treasures, and her stores decay'd; 'The Phrygians now her scatter'd spoils enjoy,

And proud Mæonia wastes the fruits of Troy. 'Great Jove at length my arms to conquest calls, And shuts the Grecians in their wooden walls: 'Dar'st thou dispirit whom the gods incite?

Flics any Trojan? I shall stop his flight.

To better counsel then attention lend;

'Take due refreshment, and the watch attend. 'If there be one whose riches cost him care,

Forth let him bring them for the troops to share ;
'Tis better generously bestow'd on those,
Than left the plunder of our country's foes.
Soon as the morn the purple orient warms,
'Fierce on yon navy will we pour our arms.

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