Part 22 (1/2)

”Andromache! my soul's far better part, Why with untimely sorrows heaves thy heart?

No hostile hand can antedate my doom, Till fate condemns me to the silent tomb

Fix'd is the term to all the race of earth; And such the hard condition of our birth: No force can then resist, no flight can save, All sink alike, the fearful and the brave

No uide the spindle, and direct the loolory summons to the martial scene, The field of combat is the sphere for men

Where heroes war, the foreer as the first in falorious chief resu plu parts, and oft reverts her eye That streaht her own palace, and indulged her woe

There, while her tears deplored the Godlike h all her train the soft infection ran; The piousHector, as the dead

But now, no longer deaf to honour's call, Forth issues Paris froleah the town the warrior bends his way

The wanton courser thus with reins unbound(176) Breaks froround; Pamper'd and proud, he seeks the wonted tides, And laves, in height of blood his shi+ning sides; His head now freed, he tosses to the skies; His mane dishevell'd o'er his shoulders flies; He snuffs the fe, to his fields again

With equal triuent as the God of day, The son of Priaht, Rush'd forth with Hector to the fields of fight

And now, the warriors passing on the way, The graceful Paris first excused his stay

To whom the noble Hector thus replied: ”O chief! in blood, and now in arms, allied!

Thy power in ith justice none contest; Known is thy courage, and thy strength confess'd

What pity sloth should seize a soul so brave, Or Godlike Paris live a woman's slave!

My heart weeps blood at what the Trojans say, And hopes thy deeds shall wipe the stain away

Haste then, in all their glorious labours share, For much they suffer, for thy sake, in war

These ills shall cease, whene'er by Jove's decree We crown the bowl to heaven and liberty: While the proud foe his frustrate triuh her seas returns”

[Illustration: BOWS AND BOW CASE]

BOWS AND BOW CASE

[Illustration: IRIS]

IRIS

BOOK VII

ARGUMENT

THE SINGLE COMBAT OF HECTOR AND AJAX

The battle reneith double ardour upon the return of Hector, Minerva is under apprehensions for the Greeks Apollo, seeing her descend froree to put off the general engagee the Greeks to a single coe, the lot is cast and falls upon Ajax These heroes, after several attacks, are parted by the night The Trojans calling a council, Antenor purposes the delivery of Helen to the Greeks, to which Paris will not consent, but offers to restore them her riches Priam sends a herald tothe dead, the last of which only is agreed to by Agamemnon When the funerals are performed, the Greeks, pursuant to the advice of Nestor, erect a fortification to protect their fleet and camp, flanked with towers, and defended by a ditch and palisades Neptune testifies his jealousy at this work, but is pacified by a pro but Jupiter disheartens the Trojans with thunder, and other signs of his wrath

The three and twentieth day ends with the duel of Hector and Ajax, the next day the truce is agreed; another is taken up in the funeral rites of the slain and onethe fortification before the shi+ps So that somewhat about three days is employed in this book The scene lies wholly in the field

So spoke the guardian of the Trojan state, Then rush'd iate

Hihter, both resolved in arh thehave heaved the weary oar in vain, Jove bids at length the expected gales arise; The gales blow grateful, and the vessel flies

So welco train, The bands are cheer'd, the akes again

Bold Paris first the work of death begun On great Menestheus, Areithous' son, Sprung fro Arne was his native place