630

'Nor dar'd I to presume, that, press'd with grief,
My flight should urge you to this dire relief.
Stay, stay your steps, and listen to my vows,
''Tis the last interview that Fate allows!'
In vain he thus attempts her mind to move,
With tears and pray'rs, and late repenting love.
Disdainfully she look'd; then turning round,
But* fix'd her eyes unmov'd upon the ground,
And what he says, and swears, regards no more,
635
Than the deaf rocks, when the loud billows roar;
But whirl'd away, to shun his hateful sight,
Hid in the forest, and the shades of night.
Then sought Sichæus, through the shady grove,
Who answer'd all her cares, and equal'd all her love.
Some pious tears the pitying hero paid,

C41

And follow'd with his eyes the flitting shade; Then took the forward way by fate ordain'd, And, with his guide, the farther fields attain'd, Where, sever'd from the rest, the warrior souls remain'd...

645

Tideus he met, with Meleager's race,
The pride of armies, and the soldier's grace;
And pale Adrastus with his ghastly face.
Of Trojan chiefs he view'd a num'rous train,
All much lamented, all in battle slain :
Glaucus and Medon, high above the rest,
Antenor's sons, and Ceres' sacred priest :
And proud Idæus, Priam's charioteer,

650

Who shakes his empty reins, and aims his airy spear.

* She.

The gladsome ghosts, in circling troops, attend,655 And, with unweary'd eyes, behold their friend. Delight to hover near, and long to know

What bus'ness brought him to the realms below.
But Argive chiefs, and Agamemnon's train,
When his refulgent arms flash'd thro' the shadyplain,
Fled from his well-known face, with wonted fear,
As when his thund'ring sword and pointed spear
Drove headlong to their ships, and glean'd the
routed rear.

They rais'd a feeble cry, with trembling notes;
But the weak voice deceiv'd their gasping throats.
Here Priam's son, Deiphobus, he found, 666
Whose face and limbs were one continued wound.
Dishonest, with lopp'd arms, the youth appears,
Spoil'd of his nose, and shorten'd of his ears.
He scarcely knew him, striving to disown
His bloated form, and blushing to be known.
And therefore first began: 'O Teucer's race!
Who durst thy faultless figure thus deface?
'What heart could wish, what hand inflict, this
dire disgrace?

670

'Twas fam'd, that in our last and fatal night, 675 Your single prowess long sustain'd the fight: Till, tir'd, not forc'd, a glorious fate you chose, 'And fell upon a heap of slaughter'd foes. Then in remembrance of so brave a deed, 'A tomb and fun'ral honors I decreed, "Thrice call'd your manes on the Trojan plains: 'The place your armour and your name retains,

680

"Your body too I sought, and, had I found, 'Design'd for burial in your native ground.'

The ghost reply'd: Your piety has paid 635 All needful rites to rest my wand'ring shade: But cruel fate, and my more cruel wife, To Grecian swords betray'd my sleeping life., These are the monuments of Helen's love- 639 The shame I bear below, the marks I bore above • You know in what deluding joys we past

The night, that was by heav'n decreed our last. For, when the fatal horse descending down, Pregnant with arms o'erwhelm'd th' unhappy town, 'She feign'd nocturnal orgies; left my bed, 695 'And, mix'd with Trojan dames, the dances led; Then, waving high her torch, the signal made, Which rouz'd the Grecians from their ambuscade. With watching overworn, with cares oppress'd, Unhappy I had laid me down to rest;

And heavy sleep my weary limbs possess'd.

700

Meantime my worthy wife our arms mislaid, And, from beneath my head, my sword convey'd; ! The door unlatcli'd, and, with repeated calls, • Invites her former lord within my walls.

705

Thus in her crime her confidence she plac'd, And with new treasons would redeem the past. What need I more? Into the room they ran, • And meauly murder'd a defenceless man. Ulysses, basely born, first led the way.- 710 Avenging pow'rs! with justice if I pray, That fortune be their own another day!

724

'But answer you; and in your turn relate, "What brought you, living, to the Stygian state, 'Driv'n by the winds and errors of the sea; 715 'Or did you heav'n's superior doom obey? · 'Or tell what other chance conducts your way? To view with mortal eyes or dark retreats, "Tumults and torments of th' infernal seats?' While thus, in talk, the flying hours they pass, 720 The sun had finish'd more than half his race: And they, perhaps, in words and tears had spent The little time of stay, which heav'n had lent. But thus the Sibyl chides their long delay: "Night rushes down, and headlong drives the day. "Tis here, in diff'rent paths, the way divides; The right, to Pluto's golden palace guides; 'The left to that unhappy region tends, 'Which to the depth of Tartarus descends; 729 "The seat of night profound, and punish'd fiends.' Then thus Deiphobus: 'O sacred maid ! Forbear to chide; and be your will obey'd. 'Lo! to the secret shadows I retire, To pay my penance till my years expire. Proceed, auspicious prince, with glory crown'd, And born to better fates than I have found.' He said; and, while he said, his steps he turn'd To secret shadows, and in silence mourn'd, The hero, looking on the left, espy'd

A lofty tow'r, and strong on every side

734

740

A recent Editor conjectures that there has been omitted a

line to this effect--

While thus in tears we pass the hours away.

With treble walls, which Phlegethon surrounds, Whose fiery flood the burning empire bounds; And, press'd betwixt the rocks, the bellowing noise resounds.

Wide is the fronting gate, and, rais'd on high
With adamantine columns, threats the sky. 745
Vain is the force of man, and heav'n's as vain,
To crush the pillars which the pile sustain.
Sublime on these a tow'r of steel is rear'd,
And dire Tisiphone there keeps the ward.
Girt in her sanguine gown, by night and day, 750
Observant of the souls that pass the downward way:
From hence are heard the groans of ghosts,thepains
Of sounding lashes, and of dragging chains.
The Trojan stood astonish'd at their cries,
And ask'd his guide, from whence the yells arise?
And what the crimes and what the tortures were,
And loud faments that rent the liquid air?

She thus reply'd: The chaste and holy race
'Are all forbidden this polluted place.

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754

759

"But Hecate, when she gave to rule the woods, Then led me trembling thro' these dire abodes, And taught the tortures of th' avenging gods. 'These are the realms of unrelenting Fate : 'And awful Rhadamanthus rules the state; 'He hears and judges each committed crime; 765 'Inquires into the manner, place, and time. The conscious wretch must all his acts reveal; '(Loth to confess, unable to conceal;)