Part 55 (1/2)

So parts the chief; from rank to rank he flew, And round on all sides sent his piercing view

As the bold bird, endued with sharpest eye Of all that wings the le, from his walks above Looks down, and sees the distant thickethare, snatches his life amid the clouds of air

Not with less quickness, his exerted sight Pass'd this and that way, through the ranks of fight: Till on the left the chief he sought, he found, Cheering his : ”Beloved of Jove! draw near, For sadder tidings never touch'd thy ear; Thy eyes have witness'd what a fatal turn!

How Ilion triumphs, and the Achaians mourn

This is not all: Patroclus, on the shore Now pale and dead, shall succour Greece no more

Fly to the fleet, this instant fly, and tell The sad Achilles, how his loved-one fell: He too ain: The arms are Hector's, who despoil'd the slain”

The youthful warrior heard with silent woe, Frorief, he strove to say What sorrow dictates, but no word found way

To brave Laodocus his ar; Then ran the e to impart, With tearful eyes, and with dejected heart

Swift fled the youth: nor Menelaus stands (Though sore distress'd) to aid the Pylian bands; But bids bold Thrasymede those troops sustain; Himself returns to his Patroclus slain

”Gone is Antilochus (the hero said); But hope not, warriors, for Achilles' aid: Though fierce his rage, unbounded be his woe, Unarhts not with the Trojan foe

'Tis in our hands alone our hopes reain, And save ourselves, while with i, and this way rolls our fate”

”'Tis well (said Ajax), be it then thy care, With Merion's aid, the weighty corse to rear; Myself, and ing train: Nor fear we ar side by side; What Troy can dare, we have already tried, Have tried it, and have stood” The hero said

High froeneral claht: Loud shout the Trojans, and renew the fight

Not fiercer rush along the glooe insatiate, and with thirst of blood, Voracious hounds, that th before Their furious hunters, drive the wounded boar; But if the savage turns his glaring eye, They howl aloof, and round the forest fly

Thus on retreating Greece the Trojans pour, Wave their thick falchions, and their javelins shower: But Ajax turning, to their fears they yield, All pale they tremble and forsake the field

While thus aloft the hero's corse they bear, Behind thees all the stor Of : Less fierce the winds with rising flames conspire To whelloo teh the ruin rolls, And sheets of smoke mount heavy to the poles

The heroes sweat beneath their honour'd load: As when two ed road, Fro so drops of sweat distil, The enor down the hill: So these--Behind, the bulk of Ajax stands, And breaks the torrent of the rushi+ng bands

Thus when a river swell'd with sudden rains Spreads his broad waters o'er the level plains, So hill the strea tides

Still close they follow, close the rear engage; Aeneas store: While Greece a heavy, thick retreat ht of cranes, That shriek incessant, while the falcon, hung High on poised pinions, threats their callow young

So from the Trojan chiefs the Grecians fly, Such the wild terror, and the led cry: Within, without the trench, and all the way, Strow'd in bright heaps, their arms and armour lay; Such horror Jove impress'd! yet still proceeds The work of death, and still the battle bleeds

[Illustration: VULCAN FROM AN ANTIQUE GEM]

VULCAN FROM AN ANTIQUE GEM

BOOK XVIII

ARGUMENT

THE GRIEF OF ACHILLES, AND NEW ARMOUR MADE HIM BY VULCAN

The news of the death of Patroclus is brought to Achilles by Antilochus

Thetis, hearing his lamentations, comes with all her sea- nymphs to comfort him The speeches of the mother and son on this occasion Iris appears to Achilles by the command of Juno, and orders hiht of him turns the fortunes of the day, and the body of Patroclus is carried off by the Greeks The Trojans call a council, where Hector and Polydaree in their opinions: but the advice of the forrief of Achilles over the body of Patroclus

Thetis goes to the palace of Vulcan to obtain new arms for her son The description of the wonderful works of Vulcan: and, lastly, that noble one of the shi+eld of Achilles

The latter part of the nine-and-twentieth day, and the night ensuing, take up this book: the scene is at Achilles' tent on the sea-shore, froes to the palace of Vulcan

Thus like the rage of fire the combat burns,(250) And now it rises, now it sinks by turns

Meanwhile, where hellespont's broad waters flow, Stood Nestor's son, the er of woe: There sat Achilles, shaded by his sails, On hoisted yards extended to the gales; Pensive he sat; for all that fate design'd Rose in sad prospect to his boding mind

Thus to his soul he said: ”Ah! what constrains The Greeks, late victors, now to quit the plains?