If there be here, whose dauntless courage dare In gauntlet fight, with limbs and body bare, His opposite sustain in open view,

480

Stand forth the champion, and the games renew. 'Two prizes I propose, and thus divide

490

A bull with gilded horns, and fillets ty'd, 'Shall be the portion of the conqu'ring chief: "A sword and helm shall cheer the loser's grief.' 485 Then haughty Dares in the lists appears, Stalking he strides, his head erected bears: His nervous arms the weighty gauntlet wield, And loud applauses echo through the field. Dares alone in combat us'd to stand, The match of mighty Paris hand to hand; The same at Hector's fun'rals undertook Gigantic Butes, of th' Amycian stock. And, by the stroke of his resistless hand, Stretch'd the vast bulk upon the yellow sand. 495 Such Dares was; and such he strode along, And drew the wonder of the gazing throng. His brawny back, and ample breast he shows; His lifted arms around his head he throws, And deals in whistling air his empty blows.500 His match is sought: but through the trembling baud, Not one dares answer to the proud demand. Presuming of his force, with sparkling eyes, Already he devours the promis'd prize. He claims the bull with aweless insolence; And, having sciz'd his horns, accosts the prince:

505

510

515

'If none my matchless valour dares oppose, 'How long shall Dares wait his dastard foes? • Permit me, Chief! permit, without delay, To lead this uncontended gift away.' The crowd assents; and, with redoubled cries, For the proud challenger demands the prize. Acestes, fir'd with just disdain, to see The palm usurp'd without a victory, Reproach'd Entellus thus, who sate beside, And heard and saw, unmov'd, the Trojan's pride : 6 Once, but in vain, a champion of renown, 'So tamely can you bear the ravish'd crown, A prize in triumph, borne before your sight, And shun for fear the danger of the fight? 520 Where is our Eryx now, the boasted name, 'The god who taught your thundering arm the game? 'Where now your baffled honor? where the spoil That fill'd your house, and fame that fill'd our isle?' Entellus, thus: 'My soul is still the same; 525 "Unmov'd with fear, and mov'd with martial fame: 'But my chill blood is curdled in my

veins. And scarce the shadow of a man remains. Oh! could I turn to that fair prime again,

• That prime, of which this boaster is so vain, 530 The brave who this decrepit age defies,

Should feel my force, without the promis'd prize. He said: and, rising at the word, he threw Two pond'rous gauntlets down, in open viewGauntlets, which Eryx wont in fight to wield, 535 And sheathe his hands with, in the listed field.

With fear and wonder seiz'd, the crowd beholds The gloves of death, with seven distinguish'd folds Of tough bull-hides: the space within is spread With iron, or with loads of heavy lead. 540 Dares himself was daunted at the sight, Renounc'd his challenge, and refus'd to fight. Astonish'd at their weight the hero stands, And pois'd the pond'rous engines in his hands. 'What had your wonder,' said Entellus, 'been, Had you the gauntlets of Alcides seen, 546 'Orview'd the stern debate on this unhappy green! 'These which I bear, your brother Eryx bore, 'Still mark'd with batter'd brains and mingled gore. With these he long sustain'd th' Herculean arm ; And these I wielded while my blood was warm; "This languish'd frame while better spirits fed, 'Ere age unstrung my nerves, or time o'ersnow'd But, if the challenger these arms refuse, [my head. And cannot wield their weight, or dare not use 'If great Æneas and Acestes join

556

In his request, these gauntlets I resign: 'Let us with equal arms perform the fight; And let him leave to fear, since I resign my right." This said, Entellus for the strife prepares;

560

Stript off his quilted coat, his body bares:
Compos'd of mighty bones and brawn, he stands,
A goodly tow'ring object on the sands.
Then just Æneas equal arms supply'd,

Which round their shoulders to their wrists they ty'd

566

570

?

Both on the tiptoe stand, at full extent,
Their arms aloft, their bodies inly bent;
Their heads from aiming blows they bear afar;
With clashing gauntlets then provoke the war.
One on his youth and pliant limbs relies;
One on his sinews, and his giant size.
The last is stiff with age, his motion slow,
And clouds of issuing smoke his nostrils loudly
He heaves for breath; he staggers to and fro; [blow.)
Yet, equal in success, they ward, they strike: 575
Their ways are diff'rent, but their art alike.
Before, behind, the blows are dealt; around
Their hollow sides the rattling thumps resound.
A storm of strokes well-meant with fury flies,
And errs about their temples, ears, and eyes: 580
Nor always errs; for oft the gauntlet draws
A sweeping stroke, along the crackling jaws.
Heavy with age, Entellus stands his ground,
But, with his warping body, wards the wound.
His hand and watchful eye keep even pace; 585
While Dares traverses, and shifts his place;
And, like a captain, who beleaguers round
Some strong-built castle, on a rising ground,
Views all th' approaches with observing eyes,
This, and that other part, in vain he tries, 590
And more on industry than force relies.

With hands on high, Entellus threats the foe;
But Dares watch'd the motion from below,[blow,
And slipt aside, and shunn'd the long-descending

Entellus wastes his forces on the wind;
And thus deluded of the stroke design'd,
Headlong and heavy fell: his ample breast,'
And weighty limbs, his ancient mother press'd.
So falls a hollow pine, that long had stood
On Ida's height, or Erymanthus' wood,

595

600

Torn from the roots: the diff'ring nations rise,
And shouts, and mingled murmurs, rend the skies.
Acestes runs, with eager haste, to raise
The fall'n companion of his youthful days:
Dauntless he rose, and to the fight return'd, 605
With shame his glowing cheeks, his eyes with fury
burn'd:

Disdain and conscious virtue fir'd his breast,
And, with redoubled force, his foe he press'd.
He lays on load with either hand, amain,
And headlong drives the Trojan o'er the plain,610
Nor stops, nor stays; nor rest nor breath allows,
But storms of strokes descend about his brows,
A rattling tempest, and a hail of blows.

But now the prince, who saw the wild increase
Of wounds, commands the combatants to cease:
And bounds Entellus' wrath, and bids the peace.
First to the Trojan, spent with toil, he came,
And sooth'd his sorrow for the suffer'd shame.
What fury seiz'd my friend? The gods,' (said he,)
To him propitious, and averse to thee, 620
'Have giv'n his arm superior force to thine;
"Tis madness to contend with strength divine.
The gauntlet fight thus ended, from the shore
His faithful friends unhappy Dares bore: