He said, but soon corrected his mistake, Found, by the doubtful answers which we make: Amaz"d, he would have shunn"d th" unequal fight; But we, more num"rous, intercept his flight.
As when some peasant, in a bushy brake, Has with unwary footing press"d a snake; He starts aside, astonish"d, when he spies His rising crest, blue neck, and rolling eyes; So from our arms surpris"d Androgeos flies.
In vain; for him and his we compa.s.s"d round, Possess"d with fear, unknowing of the ground, And of their lives an easy conquest found.
Thus Fortune on our first endeavor smil"d.
Coroebus then, with youthful hopes beguil"d, Swoln with success, and a daring mind, This new invention fatally design"d.
"My friends," said he, "since Fortune shows the way, "T is fit we should th" auspicious guide obey.
For what has she these Grecian arms bestow"d, But their destruction, and the Trojans" good?
Then change we shields, and their devices bear: Let fraud supply the want of force in war.
They find us arms." This said, himself he dress"d In dead Androgeos" spoils, his upper vest, His painted buckler, and his plumy crest.
Thus Ripheus, Dymas, all the Trojan train, Lay down their own attire, and strip the slain.
Mix"d with the Greeks, we go with ill presage, Flatter"d with hopes to glut our greedy rage; Unknown, a.s.saulting whom we blindly meet, And strew with Grecian carca.s.ses the street.
Thus while their straggling parties we defeat, Some to the sh.o.r.e and safer ships retreat; And some, oppress"d with more ign.o.ble fear, Remount the hollow horse, and pant in secret there.
"But, ah! what use of valor can be made, When heav"n"s propitious pow"rs refuse their aid!
Behold the royal prophetess, the fair Ca.s.sandra, dragg"d by her dishevel"d hair, Whom not Minerva"s shrine, nor sacred bands, In safety could protect from sacrilegious hands: On heav"n she cast her eyes, she sigh"d, she cried- "T was all she could- her tender arms were tied.
So sad a sight Coroebus could not bear; But, fir"d with rage, distracted with despair, Amid the barb"rous ravishers he flew: Our leader"s rash example we pursue.
But storms of stones, from the proud temple"s height, Pour down, and on our batter"d helms alight: We from our friends receiv"d this fatal blow, Who thought us Grecians, as we seem"d in show.
They aim at the mistaken crests, from high; And ours beneath the pond"rous ruin lie.
Then, mov"d with anger and disdain, to see Their troops dispers"d, the royal virgin free, The Grecians rally, and their pow"rs unite, With fury charge us, and renew the fight.
The brother kings with Ajax join their force, And the whole squadron of Thessalian horse.
"Thus, when the rival winds their quarrel try, Contending for the kingdom of the sky, South, east, and west, on airy coursers borne; The whirlwind gathers, and the woods are torn: Then Nereus strikes the deep; the billows rise, And, mix"d with ooze and sand, pollute the skies.
The troops we squander"d first again appear From several quarters, and enclose the rear.
They first observe, and to the rest betray, Our diff"rent speech; our borrow"d arms survey.
Oppress"d with odds, we fall; Coroebus first, At Pallas" altar, by Peneleus pierc"d.
Then Ripheus follow"d, in th" unequal fight; Just of his word, observant of the right: Heav"n thought not so. Dymas their fate attends, With Hypanis, mistaken by their friends.
Nor, Pantheus, thee, thy miter, nor the bands Of awful Phoebus, sav"d from impious hands.
Ye Trojan flames, your testimony bear, What I perform"d, and what I suffer"d there; No sword avoiding in the fatal strife, Expos"d to death, and prodigal of life; Witness, ye heavens! I live not by my fault: I strove to have deserv"d the death I sought.
But, when I could not fight, and would have died, Borne off to distance by the growing tide, Old Iphitus and I were hurried thence, With Pelias wounded, and without defense.
New clamors from th" invested palace ring: We run to die, or disengage the king.
So hot th" a.s.sault, so high the tumult rose, While ours defend, and while the Greeks oppose As all the Dardan and Argolic race Had been contracted in that narrow s.p.a.ce; Or as all Ilium else were void of fear, And tumult, war, and slaughter, only there.
Their targets in a tortoise cast, the foes, Secure advancing, to the turrets rose: Some mount the scaling ladders; some, more bold, Swerve upwards, and by posts and pillars hold; Their left hand gripes their bucklers in th" ascent, While with their right they seize the battlement.
From their demolish"d tow"rs the Trojans throw Huge heaps of stones, that, falling, crush the foe; And heavy beams and rafters from the sides (Such arms their last necessity provides) And gilded roofs, come tumbling from on high, The marks of state and ancient royalty.
The guards below, fix"d in the pa.s.s, attend The charge undaunted, and the gate defend.
Renew"d in courage with recover"d breath, A second time we ran to tempt our death, To clear the palace from the foe, succeed The weary living, and revenge the dead.
"A postern door, yet un.o.bserv"d and free, Join"d by the length of a blind gallery, To the king"s closet led: a way well known To Hector"s wife, while Priam held the throne, Thro" which she brought Astyanax, unseen, To cheer his grandsire and his grandsire"s queen.
Thro" this we pa.s.s, and mount the tow"r, from whence With unavailing arms the Trojans make defense.
From this the trembling king had oft descried The Grecian camp, and saw their navy ride.
Beams from its lofty height with swords we hew, Then, wrenching with our hands, th" a.s.sault renew; And, where the rafters on the columns meet, We push them headlong with our arms and feet.
The lightning flies not swifter than the fall, Nor thunder louder than the ruin"d wall: Down goes the top at once; the Greeks beneath Are piecemeal torn, or pounded into death.
Yet more succeed, and more to death are sent; We cease not from above, nor they below relent.
Before the gate stood Pyrrhus, threat"ning loud, With glitt"ring arms conspicuous in the crowd.
So shines, renew"d in youth, the crested snake, Who slept the winter in a th.o.r.n.y brake, And, casting off his slough when spring returns, Now looks aloft, and with new glory burns; Restor"d with poisonous herbs, his ardent sides Reflect the sun; and rais"d on spires he rides; High o"er the gra.s.s, hissing he rolls along, And brandishes by fits his forky tongue.
Proud Periphas, and fierce Automedon, His father"s charioteer, together run To force the gate; the Scyrian infantry Rush on in crowds, and the barr"d pa.s.sage free.
Ent"ring the court, with shouts the skies they rend; And flaming firebrands to the roofs ascend.
Himself, among the foremost, deals his blows, And with his ax repeated strokes bestows On the strong doors; then all their shoulders ply, Till from the posts the brazen hinges fly.
He hews apace; the double bars at length Yield to his ax and unresisted strength.
A mighty breach is made: the rooms conceal"d Appear, and all the palace is reveal"d; The halls of audience, and of public state, And where the lonely queen in secret sate.
Arm"d soldiers now by trembling maids are seen, With not a door, and scarce a s.p.a.ce, between.
The house is fill"d with loud laments and cries, And shrieks of women rend the vaulted skies; The fearful matrons run from place to place, And kiss the thresholds, and the posts embrace.
The fatal work inhuman Pyrrhus plies, And all his father sparkles in his eyes; Nor bars, nor fighting guards, his force sustain: The bars are broken, and the guards are slain.
In rush the Greeks, and all the apartments fill; Those few defendants whom they find, they kill.
Not with so fierce a rage the foaming flood Roars, when he finds his rapid course withstood; Bears down the dams with unresisted sway, And sweeps the cattle and the cots away.
These eyes beheld him when he march"d between The brother kings: I saw th" unhappy queen, The hundred wives, and where old Priam stood, To stain his hallow"d altar with his brood.
The fifty nuptial beds (such hopes had he, So large a promise, of a progeny), The posts, of plated gold, and hung with spoils, Fell the reward of the proud victor"s toils.
Where"er the raging fire had left a s.p.a.ce, The Grecians enter and possess the place.
"Perhaps you may of Priam"s fate enquire.
He, when he saw his regal town on fire, His ruin"d palace, and his ent"ring foes, On ev"ry side inevitable woes, In arms, disus"d, invests his limbs, decay"d, Like them, with age; a late and useless aid.
His feeble shoulders scarce the weight sustain; Loaded, not arm"d, he creeps along with pain, Despairing of success, ambitious to be slain!
Uncover"d but by heav"n, there stood in view An altar; near the hearth a laurel grew, Dodder"d with age, whose boughs encompa.s.s round The household G.o.ds, and shade the holy ground.
Here Hecuba, with all her helpless train Of dames, for shelter sought, but sought in vain.
Driv"n like a flock of doves along the sky, Their images they hug, and to their altars fly.
The Queen, when she beheld her trembling lord, And hanging by his side a heavy sword, "What rage," she cried, "has seiz"d my husband"s mind?
What arms are these, and to what use design"d?
These times want other aids! Were Hector here, Ev"n Hector now in vain, like Priam, would appear.
With us, one common shelter thou shalt find, Or in one common fate with us be join"d."
She said, and with a last salute embrac"d The poor old man, and by the laurel plac"d.
Behold! Polites, one of Priam"s sons, Pursued by Pyrrhus, there for safety runs.
Thro" swords and foes, amaz"d and hurt, he flies Thro" empty courts and open galleries.
Him Pyrrhus, urging with his lance, pursues, And often reaches, and his thrusts renews.
The youth, transfix"d, with lamentable cries, Expires before his wretched parent"s eyes: Whom gasping at his feet when Priam saw, The fear of death gave place to nature"s law; And, shaking more with anger than with age, "The G.o.ds," said he, "requite thy brutal rage!
As sure they will, barbarian, sure they must, If there be G.o.ds in heav"n, and G.o.ds be just- Who tak"st in wrongs an insolent delight; With a son"s death t" infect a father"s sight.
Not he, whom thou and lying fame conspire To call thee his- not he, thy vaunted sire, Thus us"d my wretched age: the G.o.ds he fear"d, The laws of nature and of nations heard.
He cheer"d my sorrows, and, for sums of gold, The bloodless carca.s.s of my Hector sold; Pitied the woes a parent underwent, And sent me back in safety from his tent."
"This said, his feeble hand a javelin threw, Which, flutt"ring, seem"d to loiter as it flew: Just, and but barely, to the mark it held, And faintly tinkled on the brazen shield.
"Then Pyrrhus thus: "Go thou from me to fate, And to my father my foul deeds relate.
Now die!" With that he dragg"d the trembling sire, Slidd"ring thro" clotter"d blood and holy mire, (The mingled paste his murder"d son had made,) Haul"d from beneath the violated shade, And on the sacred pile the royal victim laid.
His right hand held his b.l.o.o.d.y falchion bare, His left he twisted in his h.o.a.ry hair; Then, with a speeding thrust, his heart he found: The lukewarm blood came rushing thro" the wound, And sanguine streams distain"d the sacred ground.
Thus Priam fell, and shar"d one common fate With Troy in ashes, and his ruin"d state: He, who the scepter of all Asia sway"d, Whom monarchs like domestic slaves obey"d.
On the bleak sh.o.r.e now lies th" abandon"d king, A headless carca.s.s, and a nameless thing.
"Then, not before, I felt my cruddled blood Congeal with fear, my hair with horror stood: My father"s image fill"d my pious mind, Lest equal years might equal fortune find.
Again I thought on my forsaken wife, And trembled for my son"s abandon"d life.
I look"d about, but found myself alone, Deserted at my need! My friends were gone.
Some spent with toil, some with despair oppress"d, Leap"d headlong from the heights; the flames consum"d the rest.
Thus, wand"ring in my way, without a guide, The graceless Helen in the porch I spied Of Vesta"s temple; there she lurk"d alone; m.u.f.fled she sate, and, what she could, unknown: But, by the flames that cast their blaze around, That common bane of Greece and Troy I found.
For Ilium burnt, she dreads the Trojan sword; More dreads the vengeance of her injur"d lord; Ev"n by those G.o.ds who refug"d her abhorr"d.
Trembling with rage, the strumpet I regard, Resolv"d to give her guilt the due reward: "Shall she triumphant sail before the wind, And leave in flames unhappy Troy behind?
Shall she her kingdom and her friends review, In state attended with a captive crew, While unreveng"d the good old Priam falls, And Grecian fires consume the Trojan walls?
For this the Phrygian fields and Xanthian flood Were swell"d with bodies, and were drunk with blood?
"T is true, a soldier can small honor gain, And boast no conquest, from a woman slain: Yet shall the fact not pa.s.s without applause, Of vengeance taken in so just a cause; The punish"d crime shall set my soul at ease, And murm"ring manes of my friends appease."
Thus while I rave, a gleam of pleasing light Spread o"er the place; and, shining heav"nly bright, My mother stood reveal"d before my sight Never so radiant did her eyes appear; Not her own star confess"d a light so clear: Great in her charms, as when on G.o.ds above She looks, and breathes herself into their love.
She held my hand, the destin"d blow to break; Then from her rosy lips began to speak: "My son, from whence this madness, this neglect Of my commands, and those whom I protect?
Why this unmanly rage? Recall to mind Whom you forsake, what pledges leave behind.
Look if your helpless father yet survive, Or if Ascanius or Creusa live.
Around your house the greedy Grecians err; And these had perish"d in the nightly war, But for my presence and protecting care.