'If great Achilles rise in all his might, 'His be the danger: I shall stand the fight. 'Honour, ye gods! or let me gain, or give; And live he glorious, whosoe'er shall live! 'Mars is our common lord, alike to all: 'And oft the victor triumphs, but to fall.' 337 355 360 The shouting host in loud applauses join'd: So Pallas robb'd the many of their mind; To their own sense condemn'd, and left to choose The worst advice, the better to refuse. While the long night extends her sable reign, Around Patroclus mourn'd the Grecian train. Stern in superior grief Pelides stood; 365 Those slaughtering arms, so used to bathe in blood, 370 And o'er the vales and o'er the forest bounds; 375 I vow'd his much-lov'd offspring to restore, 'Charged with rich spoils, to fair Opuntia's shore P 'But mighty Jove cuts short, with just disdain, The long, long views of poor designing man! 'One fate the warrior and the friend shall strike, 385 'And Troy's black sands must drink our blood alike: Me, too, a wretched mother shall deplore, 'Shall йector's head be offer'd to thy shade; "That, with his arms, shall hang before thy shrine ; 'And twelve, the noblest of the Trojan line, Sacred to vengeance, by this hand expire, 395 Their lives effus'd around thy flaming pyre. Thus let me lie till then! thus, closely press'd, 'Bathe thy cold face, and sob upon thy breast! While Trojan captives here thy mourners stay, 'Weep all the night, and murmur all the day, Spoils of my arms, and thine; when, wasting wide, They brought, and placed it o'er the rising flame; 405 410 And decent cover'd with a linen shade; Last o'er the dead the milk-white veil they threw ; 415 That done, their sorrows and their sighs renew. (His wife and sister) spoke almighty Jove: At last thy will prevails: great Peleus' son Rises in arms: such grace thy Greeks have won. 420 'What words are these ?' (th' imperial dame replies, While anger flash'd from her majestic eyes ;) Succour like this a mortal arm might lend, And such success mere human wit attend: ' And shall not I, the second power above, 'Heaven's queen, and consort of the thundering Jove, 425 Say, shall not I one nation's fate command, 'Not wreak my vengeance on one guilty land?' So they. Meanwhile the silver-footed dame 430 Reach'd the Vulcanian dome, eternal frame! High-eminent amid the works divine, Where heaven's far-beaming brazen mansions shine. There the lame architect the goddess found, 435 Obscure in smoke, his forges flaming round, While bathed in sweat from fire to fire he flew, For their fair handles now, o'erwrought with flowers, 440 445 |