Found no Pelides there: at length I came
With proffer'd wares to this pretended dame ;
She, not discover'd by her mien or voice,
Betray'd her manhood by her manly choice;
And while on female toys her fellows look, 2711
Grafp'd in her warlike hand, a javelin shook ;
Whom, by this act reveal'd, I thus bespoke:
O goddess-born! refift not heav'n's decree,
The fall of Ilium is referv'd for thee;
Then feiz'd him, and, produc'd in open light,
Sent blushing to the field the fatal knight.
Mine then are all his actions of the war;
Great Telephus was conquer'd by my spear,
And after cur'd: to me the Thebans owe,
Lefbos and Tenedos, their overthrow;
Scyros and Cylla: not on all to dwell,
By me Lyrnefus and ftrong Chryfa fell:
And fince I fent the man who Hector flew,
To me the noble Hector's death is due :
Thofe arms I put into his living hand,
Thofe arms, Pelides dead, I now demand.
When Greece was injur'd in the Spartan
prince,
And met at Aulis to revenge the offence,
'Twas a dead calm, or adverse blasts, that
And in the port the wind-bound fleet detain'd: Bad figns were feen, and oracles fevere
Were daily thunder'd in our general's ear;
That by his daughter's blood we must appease
Diana's kindled wrath, and free the feas.
Affection, intereft, fame, his heart affail'd;
But foon the father o'er the king prevail'd:
Bold, on himself he took the pious crime,
As
angry with the gods, as they with him.
No fubject could fuftain their sov'reign's look,
Till this hard enterprize I undertook :
I only durft th' imperial pow'r control,
And undermin❜d the parent in his foul;
Forc'd him to exert the king for common good,
And pay our ransom with his daughter's blood.
Never was cause more difficult to plead,
Than where the judge against himself decreed:
Yet this I won by dint of argument ;
The wrongs his injur'd brother underwent,
And his own office, fham'd him to confent.
'Twas harder yet to move the mother's mind,
And to this heavy tafk was I defign'd:
Reasons against her love I knew were vain:
I circumvented whom I could not gain :
Had Ajax been employ'd, our flacken'd fails 315
Had still at Aulis waited happy gales.
Arriv'd at Troy, your choice was fix'd on
A fearlefs envoy, fit for a bold embaffy: Secure, I enter'd through the hoftile court, Glittering with steel, and crouded with refort:
There in the midft of arms, I plead our caufe, 321
Urge the foul rape, and violated laws;
Accufe the foes, as authors of the ftrife,
Reproach the ravifher, demand the wife.
Priam, Antenor, and the wiser few,
I mov'd; but Paris and his lawless crew
Scarce held their hands, and lifted fwords: but
In act to quench their impious thirft of blood:
This Menelaus knows; expos'd to share
With me the rough preludium of the war.
Endless it were to tell what I have done, In arms, or counsel, fince the fiege begun : The first encounters paft, the foe repell'd, They fkulk'd within the town, we kept the field. War feem'd afleep for nine long years; at length,
Both fides refolv'd to push, we try'd our
Now what did Ajax while our arms took breath, Vers'd only in the grofs mechanic trade of death?
If you require my deeds, with ambush'd arms
I trapp'd the foe, or tir'd with falfe alarms; 340
Secur'd the fhips, drew lines along the plain,
The fainting chear'd, chaftis'd the rebel train,
Provided forage, our spent arms renew'd ;
Employ'd at home, or fent abroad, the com-
mon cause purfu'd.
The king, deluded in a dream by Jove,
Defpair'd to take the town, and order'd to re
What fubject durft arraign the pow'r fupreme, Producing Jove to juftify his dream?
Ajax might wish the foldiers to retain
From shameful flight, but wishes were in vain ;
As wanting of effect had been his words,
Such as of course his thund'ring tongue affords.
But did this boafter threaten, did he
Or by his own example urge their stay?
None, none of thefe, but ran himself
I faw him run, and was afham'd to fee;
Who ply'd his feet so fast to get aboard as he?
Then speeding thro' the place, I made a fa¬nd,
And loudly cry'd, O bafe degen'rate band,
To leave a town already in your hand! 360
After fo long expence of blood, for fame,
To bring home nothing but perpetual shame!
Thefe words, or what I have forgotten fince,
(For grief infpir'd me then with eloquence)
Reduc'd their minds, they leave the crouded
port,
And to their late forfaken camp refort;
Dismay'd the council met: this man was there,
But mute, and not recover'd of his fear:
Therfites tax'd the king, and loudly rail'd,
But his wide opening mouth with blows I feal'd.
Then, rifing, I excite their fouls to fame,
And kindle fleeping virtue into flame,
From thence, whatever he perform'd in fight
Is juftly mine, who drew him back from flight.
Which of the Grecian chiefs conforts with
But Diomede defires my company,
And ftill communicates his praise with me.
As guided by a god, fecure he goes,
Arm'd with my fellowship, amid the foes :
And fure no little merit I may boaft,
Whom fuch a man felects from fuch an hoft;
Unforc'd by lots I went without affright,
To dare with him the dangers of the night:
On the fame errand fent, we met the spy
Of Hector, double-tongu'd, and us'd to lye; 385
Him I dispatch'd, but not till, undermin’d,
I drew him first to tell what treacherous Troy
defign'd:
My task perform'd, with praife I had retir'd,
But not content with this, to greater praise
Invaded Rhofus, and his Thracian crew,
And him, and his, in their own ftrength, I flew ;
Return'd a victor, all my vows complete,
With the king's chariot, in his royal feat:
Refufe me now his arms, whofe fiery steeds
Were promis'd to the fpy for his nocturnal deeds:
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