The mellow harp did not their ears employ ; And mute was all the warlike symphony: Discourse, the food of souls, was their delight, And pleasing chat prolong'd the summer's night: The subject, deeds of arms; and valour shown, Or on the Trojan side or on their own.

Of dangers undertaken, fame achiev'd,

They talk'd by turns: the talk by turns reliev'd
What things but these could fierce Achilles tell,
Or what could fierce Achilles hear so well?
The last great act perform'd, of Cygnus slain,
Did most the martial audience entertain:
Wondering to find a body free by fate

From steel; and which could ev'n that steel rebatt
Amaz'd, their admiration they renew;
And scarce Pelides cou'd believe it true.

THE STORY OF CÆNEUS.

Then Nestor thus: What once this age In fated Cygnus, and in him alone, [know These eyes have seen in Cæneus long before; Whose body not a thousand swords could bore. Cæneus, in courage and in strength excell❜d; And still his Othrys with his fame is fill❜d : But what did most his martial deeds adorn, (Though since he chang'd his sex) a woman born. A novelty so strange, and full of fate, His listening audience ask'd him to relate. Achilles thus commends their common suit: 'O Father! first for prudence in repute; Tell, with that eloquence, so much thy own, What thou hast heard, or what of Cæneus known What was he, whence his change of sex begun, What trophies, join'd in wars with thee, he won?

Who conquer'd him, and in what fatal strife
The youth, without a wound, could lose his life?"
Neleides then: Though tardy age and time
Have shrunk my sinews, and decay'd my prime;
Though much I have forgotten of my store,
Yet not exhausted, I remember more.
Of all that arms achiev'd, or peace design'd,
That action still is fresher in my mind,
Than aught beside. If reverend age can give
To faith a sanction, in my third I live.

"Twas in my second century, I survey'd Young Canis, then a fair Thessalian maid : Canis the bright, was born to high command; A princess, and a native of thy land, Divine Achilles; every tongue proclaim'd Her beauty, and her eyes all hearts inflam'd. Peleus, thy sire, perhaps had sought her bed, Among the rest; but he had either led Thy mother then; or was by promise tied; But she to him, and all, alike her love denied. It was her fortune once to take her way Along the sandy margin of the sea: The power of occan view'd her as she pass'd, And, lov'd as soon as seen, by force embrac'd. So Fame reports. Her virgin-treasure seiz'd, And his new joys, the ravisher so pleas'd, That thus, transported, to the nymph he cried ; Ask what thou wilt, no prayer shall be denied. This also Fame relates: the haughty fair, Who not the rape ev'n of a god cou'd bear, This answer, proud, return'd; To mighty wrongs A mighty recompense, of right, belongs. Give me no more to suffer such a shame; But change the woman, for a better name;

One gift for all." She said; and while she spoke,
A stern, majestic, manly tone she took.
A man she was: and, as the godhead swore,
To Cæneus turn'd, who Cœnis was before.
To this the lover adds, without request,
"No force of steel should violate his breast.'
Glad of the gift, the new-made warrior goes;
And arms among the Greeks, and longs for equal
foes.

THE SKIRMISH BETWEEN THE CENTAURS AND LAPITHITES.

Now brave Pirithous, bold Ixion's son,
The love of fair Hippodamè had won.
The cloud-begotten race, half men, half beast,
Invited, came to grace the nuptial feast :
In a cool cave's recess the treat was made,
Whose entrance trees with spreading boughs o'er
shade.

They sat: and summon'd by the bridegroom, came,
To mix with those, the Lapithæan name :
Nor wanted I: the roofs with joy resound:
And Hymen, lö Hymen, rung around.
Rais'd altars shone with holy fires; the bride,
Lovely herself (and lovely by her side
A bevy of bright nymphs, with sober grace),
Came glittering like a star, and took her place.
Her heavenly form beheld, all wish'd her joy;
And little wanted, but in vain, their wishes all
employ.

For one, most brutal of the brutal brood,
Or whether wine or beauty fir'd his blood,
Or both at once, beheld with lustful eyes
The bride; at once resolv'd to make his prize.

Down went the board; and fastening on her hair, He seiz'd with sudden force the frighted fair. 'Twas Eurytus began: his bestial kind

His crime pursued; and each, as pleas'd his mind, Or her, whom chance presented, took: the feast An image of a taken town express'd.

The cave resounds with female shrieks; we rise,
Mad with revenge, to make a swift reprise :
And Theseus first, What phrenzy has possess'd,
O Eurytus!' he cried,' thy brutal breast,
To wrong Pirithous; and not him alone,
But while I live, two friends conjoin'd in one!'
To justify his threat, he thrusts aside

The crowd of Centaurs, and redeems the bride:
The monster nought replied: (for words were vain,
And deeds could only deeds unjust maintain ;)
But answers with his hand, and forward press'd,
With blows redoubled, on his face and breast.
An ample goblet stood, of antique mould,
And rough with figures of the rising gold;
The hero snatch'd it up, and toss'd in air
Full at the front of the foul ravisher.

He falls;
and falling, vomits forth a flood
Of wine, and foam, and brains, and mingled blood.
Half roaring and half neighing through the hall,
Arms! arms!' the double-form'd with fury call;
To wreak their brother's death: a medly flight
Of bowls and jars, at first supply the fight
(Once instruments of feasts, but now of fate ;)
Wine animates their rage, and arms their hate.
Bold Amycus, from the robb'd vestry brings
The chalices of heaven, and holy things
Of precious weight: a sconce that hung on high,
With tapers fill'd to light the sacristy,

Torn from the cord, with his unhallow'd hand

He threw amid the Lapithæan band.

On Celadon the ruin fell; and left

His face of feature and of form bereft :
So, when some brawny sacrificer knocks,
Before an altar led, an offer'd ox,

His eye-balls rooted out, are thrown to ground;
His nose, dismantled, in his mouth is found;
His jaws, cheeks, front, one undistinguish'd
wound.

This, Belates, the' avenger, could not brook ; But, by the foot, a maple-board he took, And hurl'd at Amycus; his chin it bent Against his chest, and down the centaur sent; Whom sputtering bloody teeth, the second blow Of his drawn sword dispatch'd to shades below. Grineus was near; and cast a furious look On the side-altar, 'cens'd with sacred smoke, And bright with flaming fires: 'The gods,' he cried, "Have with their holy trade our hands supplied: Why use we not their gifts? Then from the floor An altar-stone he heav'd, with all the load it bore: Altar and altar's freight together flew, Where thickest throng'd the Lapithæan crew: And, at once, Broteas and Oryus slew. Oryus' mother, Mycalè, was known

}

Down from her sphere to draw the labouring moon.
Exadius cried,' Unpunish'd shall not go
This fact, if arms are found against the foe.'
He look'd about, where on a pine were spread
The votive horns of a stag's branching head :
At Grineus these he throws; so just they fly,
That the sharp antlers stuck in either eye.