From hence the boar was rous'd, and sprung amain,
Like lightning sudden on the warrior-train;
Beats down the trees before him, shakes the ground,
The forest echoes to the crackling found :

Shout the fierce youth, and clamours ring around.
All flood with their protended spears prepar'd,
With broad fteel heads the brandish'd weapons glar'd.
The beast impetuous with his tuiks aside

Deals glancing wounds; the fearful dogs divide :
All spend their mouth aloft, but none abide.
Echion threw the first, but mifs'd his mark,
And ftuck his boar-fpear on a maple's bark,
Then Jafon; and his javelin feem'd to take,

}

But fail'd with over-force, and whizz'd above his back.
Mopfus was next; but ere he threw, addrefs'd
To Phœbus thus: O patron, help thy priest.
If I adore, and ever have ador'd

Thy power divine, thy prefent aid afford;
That I may reach the beaft. The God allow'd
His prayer, and, fmiling, gave him what he could:
He reach'd the favage, but no blood he drew,
Dian unarm'd the javelin as it flew.

This chaf'd the boar, his noftrils flames expire,
And his red eye-balls roll with living fire.
Whirl'd from a fling, or from an engine thrown,
Amidst the foes, fo flies a mighty stone,
As flew the beast; the left wing put to flight,
The chiefs o'erborn, he rushes on the right.
Empalamos and Pelagon he laid

In duft, and next to death, but for their fellows aid.

Onefimus far'd worfe, prepar'd to fly;

The fatal fang drove deep within his thigh,

And cut the nerves; the nerves no more fuftain

The bulk; the bulk unprop'd falls headlong on the

plain.

Neftor had fail'd the fall of Troy to fee,

But, leaning on his lance, he vaulted on a tree;
Then, gathering up his feet, look'd down with fear,
And thought his monftrous foe was still too near.
Against a ftump his tusk the monster grinds,
And in the fharpen'd edge new vigour finds ;
Then, trusting to his arms, young Othrys found,
And ranch'd his hips with one continued wound.
Now Leda's twins, the future ftars, appear:
White were their habits, white their horfes were;
Confpicuous both, and both in act to throw,
Their trembling lances brandifh'd at the foe:
Nor had they mifs'd; but he to thickets filed,
Conceal'd from aiming spears, not pervious to the steed.
But Telamon rush'd in, and happ'd to meet

A rifing root, that held his faften'd feet;

So down he fell, whom, fprawling on the ground,
His brother from the wooden gyves unbound.
Mean time the virgin-huntress was not flow
T'expel the fhaft from her contracted bow :
Beneath his ear the faften'd arrow ftood,

And from the wound appear'd the trickling blood.
She blush'd for joy: But Meleagrus rais'd

His voice with loud applaufe, and the fair archer prais'd.

5

He

He was the first to fee, and first to show
His friends the marks of the fuccefsful blow.
Nor fhall thy valour want the praises due,
He faid; a virtuous envy feiz'd the crew.
They shout; the fhouting animates their hearts,
And all at once employ their thronging darts;
But, out of order thrown, in air they join;
And multitude makes fruftrate the defign.
With both his hands the proud Ancæus takes,
And flourishes his double-biting ax :

Then, forward to his fate, he took a stride
Before the reft, and to his fellows cry'd,
Give place, and mark the difference, if you can,
Between a woman-warrior and a man ;
The boar is doom'd; nor, though Diana lend
Her aid, Diana can her beast defend.

Thus boasted he; then ftretch'd, on tiptoe stood,
Secure to make his empty promise good.
But the more wary beast prevents the blow,
And upward rips the groin of his audacious foe.
Ancæus falls; his bowels from the wound
Rush out, and clotted blood distains the ground.
Pirithous, no small portion of the war,

Prefs'd on, and shook his lance: to whom from far,
Thus Thefeus cry'd: O ftay, my better part,
My more than miftrefs; of my heart, the heart.
The ftrong may fight aloof: Ancæus try'd
His force too near, and by prefuming dy'd:
He faid, and while he fpake, his javelin threw;
Hifling in air th' unerring weapon flew;
B 4

But

But on an arm of oak, that stood betwixt
The marks-man and the mark, his lance he fixt.
Once more bold Jason threw, but fail'd to wound
The boar, and flew an undeferving hound;
And through the dog the dart was nail'd to ground.
Two fpears from Meleager's hand were fent,
With equal force, but various in th' event:
The first was fix'd in earth, the second flood

On the boar's bristled back, and deeply drank his blood.
Now while the tortur'd favage turns around,

And flings about his foam impatient of the wound,
The wound's great author close at hand provokes
His rage, and plies him with redoubled strokes ;
Wheels as he wheels; and with his pointed dart
Explores the neareft paffage to his heart.
Quick and more quick he fpins in giddy gires,
Then falls, and in much foam his foul expires.
This act with fhouts heaven-high the friendly band
Applaud, and ftrain in theirs the victor's hand.
Then all approach the flain with vast surprize,
Admire on what a breadth of earth he lies;
And, fcarce fecure, reach out their spears afar,
And blood their points, to prove their partnership of war,
But he, the conquering chief, his foot impress'd

On the strong neck of that destructive beast ;
And, gazing on the nymph with ardent eyes,
Accept, faid he, fair Nonacrine, my prize,
And, though inferior, suffer me to join
My labours, and my part of praife, with thine:

At

At this prefents her with the tusky head
And chine, with rifing briftles roughly spread.
Glad, fhe receiv'd the gift; and seem'd to take
With double pleasure, for the giver's fake.
The reft were feiz'd with fullen discontent,
And a deaf murmur through the fquadron went :
All envy'd; but the Theftyan brethren show'd
The least respect, and thus they vent their spleen aloud :
Lay down those honour'd spoils, nor think to share,
Weak woman as thou art, the prize of war:
Ours is the title, thine a foreign claim,
Since Meleagrus from our lineage came.
Truft not thy beauty; but reftore the prize,
Which he, befotted on that face and eyes,

Would rend from us. At this, inflam'd with fpite, From her they fnatch'd the gift, from him the giver's right.

But foon th' impatient prince his fauchion drew,

And cry'd, Ye robbers of another's due,

Now learn the difference, at your proper coft,
Betwixt true valour, and an empty boast.
At this advanc'd, and fudden as the word,
In proud Plexippus' bofom plung'd the fword:
Toxeus amaz'd, and with amazement flow,
Or to revenge, or ward the coming blow,
Stood doubting; and, while doubting thus he stood,
Receiv'd the fteel bath'd in his brother's blood.

Pleas'd with the firft, unknown the fecond news,
Althea to the temples pays their dues

For