第10章

Assuage your thirst of blood, and strike the blow:

My death will both the kingly brothers please, And set insatiate Ithacus at ease.'

This fair unfinish'd tale, these broken starts, Rais'd expectations in our longing hearts:

Unknowing as we were in Grecian arts.

His former trembling once again renew'd, With acted fear, the villain thus pursued:

"'Long had the Grecians (tir'd with fruitless care, And wearied with an unsuccessful war)Resolv'd to raise the siege, and leave the town;And, had the gods permitted, they had gone;But oft the wintry seas and southern winds Withstood their passage home, and chang'd their minds.

Portents and prodigies their souls amaz'd;But most, when this stupendous pile was rais'd:

Then flaming meteors, hung in air, were seen, And thunders rattled thro' a sky serene.

Dismay'd, and fearful of some dire event, Eurypylus t' enquire their fate was sent.

He from the gods this dreadful answer brought:

"O Grecians, when the Trojan shores you sought, Your passage with a virgin's blood was bought:

So must your safe return be bought again, And Grecian blood once more atone the main."The spreading rumor round the people ran;All fear'd, and each believ'd himself the man.

Ulysses took th' advantage of their fright;Call'd Calchas, and produc'd in open sight:

Then bade him name the wretch, ordain'd by fate The public victim, to redeem the state.

Already some presag'd the dire event, And saw what sacrifice Ulysses meant.

For twice five days the good old seer withstood Th' intended treason, and was dumb to blood, Till, tir'd, with endless clamors and pursuit Of Ithacus, he stood no longer mute;But, as it was agreed, pronounc'd that I

Was destin'd by the wrathful gods to die.

All prais'd the sentence, pleas'd the storm should fall On one alone, whose fury threaten'd all.

The dismal day was come; the priests prepare Their leaven'd cakes, and fillets for my hair.

I follow'd nature's laws, and must avow I broke my bonds and fled the fatal blow.

Hid in a weedy lake all night I lay, Secure of safety when they sail'd away.

But now what further hopes for me remain, To see my friends, or native soil, again;My tender infants, or my careful sire, Whom they returning will to death require;Will perpetrate on them their first design, And take the forfeit of their heads for mine?

Which, O! if pity mortal minds can move, If there be faith below, or gods above, If innocence and truth can claim desert, Ye Trojans, from an injur'd wretch avert.'

"False tears true pity move; the king commands To loose his fetters, and unbind his hands:

Then adds these friendly words: 'Dismiss thy fears;Forget the Greeks; be mine as thou wert theirs.

But truly tell, was it for force or guile, Or some religious end, you rais'd the pile?'

Thus said the king.He, full of fraudful arts, This well-invented tale for truth imparts:

'Ye lamps of heav'n!' he said, and lifted high His hands now free, 'thou venerable sky!

Inviolable pow'rs, ador'd with dread!

Ye fatal fillets, that once bound this head!

Ye sacred altars, from whose flames I fled!

Be all of you adjur'd; and grant I may, Without a crime, th' ungrateful Greeks betray, Reveal the secrets of the guilty state, And justly punish whom I justly hate!

But you, O king, preserve the faith you gave, If I, to save myself, your empire save.

The Grecian hopes, and all th' attempts they made, Were only founded on Minerva's aid.

But from the time when impious Diomede, And false Ulysses, that inventive head, Her fatal image from the temple drew, The sleeping guardians of the castle slew, Her virgin statue with their bloody hands Polluted, and profan'd her holy bands;From thence the tide of fortune left their shore, And ebb'd much faster than it flow'd before:

Their courage languish'd, as their hopes decay'd;And Pallas, now averse, refus'd her aid.

Nor did the goddess doubtfully declare Her alter'd mind and alienated care.

When first her fatal image touch'd the ground, She sternly cast her glaring eyes around, That sparkled as they roll'd, and seem'd to threat:

Her heav'nly limbs distill'd a briny sweat.

Thrice from the ground she leap'd, was seen to wield Her brandish'd lance, and shake her horrid shield.

Then Calchas bade our host for flight And hope no conquest from the tedious war, Till first they sail'd for Greece; with pray'rs besought Her injur'd pow'r, and better omens brought.

And now their navy plows the wat'ry main, Yet soon expect it on your shores again, With Pallas pleas'd; as Calchas did ordain.

But first, to reconcile the blue-ey'd maid For her stol'n statue and her tow'r betray'd, Warn'd by the seer, to her offended name We rais'd and dedicate this wondrous frame, So lofty, lest thro' your forbidden gates It pass, and intercept our better fates:

For, once admitted there, our hopes are lost;And Troy may then a new Palladium boast;

For so religion and the gods ordain, That, if you violate with hands profane Minerva's gift, your town in flames shall burn, (Which omen, O ye gods, on Graecia turn!)But if it climb, with your assisting hands, The Trojan walls, and in the city stands;Then Troy shall Argos and Mycenae burn, And the reverse of fate on us return.'

"With such deceits he gain'd their easy hearts, Too prone to credit his perfidious arts.

What Diomede, nor Thetis' greater son, A thousand ships, nor ten years' siege, had done-False tears and fawning words the city won.

"A greater omen, and of worse portent, Did our unwary minds with fear torment, Concurring to produce the dire event.

Laocoon, Neptune's priest by lot that year, With solemn pomp then sacrific'd a steer;When, dreadful to behold, from sea we spied Two serpents, rank'd abreast, the seas divide, And smoothly sweep along the swelling tide.

Their flaming crests above the waves they show;Their bellies seem to burn the seas below;Their speckled tails advance to steer their course, And on the sounding shore the flying billows force.