'The club hung round his ears, and batter'd brows;
He falls; and lafhing up his heels, his rider throws.
The fame Herculean arms Nedymrus wound;
And lay by him Lycotas on the ground;
And Hippafus, whofe beard his breaft invades ;
And Ripheus, haunter of the woodland fhades:
And Tereus, us'd with mountain-bears to strive;
And from their dens to draw th' indignant beafts alive.
Demoleon could not bear this hateful fight,
Or the long fortune of th' Athenian knight:
But pull'd with all his force, to difengage
From earth a pine, the product of an age:
The root ftuck faft: the broken trunk he fent
At Thefeus: Thefeus fruftrates his intent,
And leaps afide, by Pallas warn'd, the blow
To fhun: (for fo he said; and we beliey'd it fo.)
Yet not in vain th' enormous weight was caft;
Which, Crantor's body funder'd at the waift.
Thy father's fquire, Achilles, and his care;
Whom conquer'd in the Dolopeian war,
Their king, his prefent ruin to prevent,
A pledge of peace implor'd, to Peleus fent.
Thy fire, with grieving eyes, beheld his fate;
And cry'd, Not long, lov'd Crantor, fhalt thou wait
Thy vow'd revenge. At once he said, and threw
His afhen-fpear, which quiver'd as it flew,
With all his force and all his foul apply'd;
The sharp point enter'd in the Centaur's fide:
Both hands, to wrench it out, the monster join'd;
And wrench'd it out; but left the steel behind.
Stuck in his lungs it ftood: inrag'd he rears
His hoofs, and down to ground thy father bears,
Thus trampled under foot, his fhield defends
His head; his other hand the lance portends.
Ev'n while he lay extended on the dust,
He fped the Centaur, with one fingle thruft,
E 4

Two

Two more his lance before transfix'd from far
And two his fword had flain in clofer war.
To these was added Dorylas: who spread
A bull's two goring horns around his head.
With these he push'd; in blood already dy'd :
Him, fearless, I approach'd, and thus defy'd :
Now, monfter, now, by proof it shall appear,
Whether thy horns are fharper, or my fpear.
At this, I threw for want of other ward,
He lifted up his hand, his front to guard.
His hand it pass'd, and fix'd it to his brow:
Loud fhouts of ours attend the lucky blow:
Him Peleus finish'd, with a fecond wound,
Which thro' the navel pierc'd: he reel'd around,
And dragg'd his dangling bowels on the ground:
Trod what he dragg'd, and what he trod he crush'd :
And to his mother-earth, with empty belly, rufh'd.
Nor could thy form, O Cyllarus, foreshow
Thy fate; (if form to monfters men allow :)
Just bloom'd thy beard, thy beard of golden hue:
Thy locks, in golden waves, about thy fhoulders flew.
Sprightly thy look: thy fhapes in ev'ry part
So clean, as might inftruct the fculptor's art :
As far as man extended: where began
The beaft, the beaft was equal to the man.
Add but a horfe's head and neck, and he,
O Caftor, was a courfer-worthy thee.
So was his back proportion'd for the feat;

So rofe his brawny cheft; fo fwiftly mov'd his feet.
Coal-black his colour, but like jet it fhone;
His legs and flowing tail were white alone.
Belov'd by many maidens of his kind,
But fair Hylonome poffefs'd his mind;
Hylonome, for features, and for face,
Excelling all the nymphs of double race:
Nor lefs her blandifhments, than beauty, move;
At once both loving, and confeffing love.

For him the drefs'd; for him with female care
She comb'd, and fet in curls, her auburn hair.
Of roses, violets, and lilies mix'd,

And sprigs of flowing rosemary betwixt,

She form'd the chaplet, that adorn'd her front :
In waters of the Pegafæan fount,

:

And in the ftreams that from the fountain play,
She wash'd her face, and bath'd her twice a day.
The scarf of furs, that hung below her fide,
Was ermin, or the panther's fpotted pride;
Spoils of no common beaft: with equal flame
They lov'd their sylvan pleasures were the fame :
All day they hunted; and when day expir'd,
Together to fome fhady cave retir'd.
Invited, to the nuptials both repair :
And, fide by fide, they both engage in war.
Uncertain from what hand, a flying dart
At Cyllarus was fent, which pierc'd his heart.
The jav'lin drawn from out the mortal wound,
He faints with ftagg'ring fteps, and feeks the ground:
The fair within her arms receiv'd his fall,
And ftrove his wand'ring fpirits to recal:

And while her hand the streaming blood oppos'd,
Join'd face to face, his lips with hers fhe clos'd.
Stifled with kiffes, a fweet death he dies;
She fills the fields with undiftinguish'd cries:
At least her words were in her clamor drown'd;
For my ftunn'd ears receiv'd no vocal found.
In madness of her grief, fhe feiz'd the dart
New-drawn, and reeking from her lover's heart;
To her bare bofom the sharp point apply'd,
And wounded fell; and falling by his fide,
Embrac'd him in her arms, and thus embracing dy'd.
Ev'n ftill, methinks, I fee Phæocomes;
Strange was his habit, and as odd his dress.
Six lions hides, with thongs together faft,
His upper part defended to his waist ;

And where man ended, the continu'd veft,

Spread on his back, the houfs and trappings of a beast.
A ftump too heavy for a team to draw,

(It seems a fable, tho' the fact I saw ;)
He threw at Pholon; the defcending blow
Divides the skull, and cleaves his head in two.
The brains, from nofe and mouth, and either ear,
Came iffuing out, as through a colendar

The curdled milk or from the prefs the whey,
Driv'n down by weights above, is drain'd away.

But him, while ftooping down to fpoil the flain,
Pierc'd thro' the paunch, I tumbled on the plain.
Then Chthonius and Teleboas I flew :

A fork the former arm'd; a dart his fellow threw,
The jav'lin wounded me; (behold the scar.)
Then was my time to feek the Trojan war;
Then I was Hector's match in open field;
But he was then unborn; at least a child;
Now, I am nothing. I forbear to tell
By Periphantes how Pyretus fell;

The Centaur by the Knight: nor will I stay
On Amphix, or what deaths he dealt that day;
What honour, with a pointless lance, he won,
Stuck in the front of a four-footed man.

What fame young Macareus obtain'd in fight:
Or dwell on Neffus, now return'd from flight.
How prophet Mopfus not alone divin'd,
Whofe valour equal'd his foreseeing mind.

Already Caneus, with his conquering hand,
Had flaughter'd five the boldest of their band:
Pyrachmus, Helymus, Antimachus,
Bromus the brave, and ftronger Stiphelus :
Their names I number'd, and remember well,
No trace remaining, by what wounds they fell.
Latreus, the bulkieft of the double race,
Whom the fpoil'd arms of flain Halefus grace,

In

In years retaing ftill his youthful might,

Tho' his black hairs were interfpers'd with white,
Betwixt th' embattled ranks began to prance,
Proud of his helm, and Macedonian lance;
And rode the ring around; that either hoft
Might hear him, while he made this empty boat.
And from a ftrumpet fhall we fuffer shame?
For Canis ftill, not Cæneus is thy name:
And still the native softness of thy kind
Prevails, and leaves the woman in thy mind,
Remember what thou wert: what price was paid
To change thy fex: to make thee not a maid;
And but a man in fhew: go, card and spin;
And leave the bufinefs of the war to men.

While thus the boafter exercis'd his pride,
The fatal spear of Cæneus reach'd his fide:
Juft in the mixture of the kinds it ran;
Betwixt the nether breast and upper man.
The monfter mad with rage, and ftung with smart,
His lance directed at the hero's heart:

It ftrook; but bounded from his harden'd breast,
Like hail from tiles, which the safe house invest;
Nor feem'd the ftroke with more effect to come,
Than a small pebble falling on a drum.
He next his fauchion try'd, in closer fight;
But the keen fauchion had no pow'r to bite.
He thruft; the blunted point return'd again :
Since downright blows, he cry'd, and thrufts are vain,
I'll prove his fide: in ftrong embraces held,
He prov'd his fide; his fide the fword repell'd:
His hollow belly eccho'd to the ftroke;

Untouch'd his body, as a folid rock;

Aim'd at his neck at last, the blade in shivers broke.
Th' impaffive knight stood idle, to deride

His rage, and offer'd oft his naked fide:
At length, Now, monfter, in thy turn, he cry'd,

Try