Such as a king might afk; and let it be
A treasure worthy her and worthy me.
Or grant me this, or with a monarch's claim,
This hand fhall feize fome other captive dame.
The mighty Ajax shall his prize resign,
Ulyffes' spoils, or ev'n thy own be mine.
The man who fuffers, loudly may complain;
And rage he may, but he fhall rage in vain.
But this when time requires It now remains
We launch a bark to plow the watry plains,
And waft the facrifice to Chryfa's fhores,
With chofen pilots, and with lab'ring oars.
Soon fhall the fair the fable fhip afcend,
And fome deputed prince the charge attend;
This Creta's king, or Ajax fhall fulfill,
Or wife Ulyffes fee perform'd our will;
Or, if our royal pleasure shall ordain,
Achilles' felf conduct her o'er the main ;
Let fierce Achilles, dreadful in his rage,
The God propitiate, and the peft affuage.
At this, Pelides, frowning ftern reply'd :
O tyrant, arm'd with infolence and pride!
Inglorious flave to int'reft, ever join'd
With fraud, unworthy of a royal mind!
What gen'rous Greek, obedient to thy word,
Shall form an ambush, or shall lift the fword?
What cause have I to war at thy decree?
The diftant Trojans never injur'd me:
To Phthia's realms no hoftile troops they led,
Safe in her vales my warlike courfers fed;
Far hence remov❜d, the hoarfe-resounding main,
And walls of rocks, fecure my native reign,
Whose fruitful foil luxuriant harvests grace,
Rich in her fruits, and in her martial race.
Hither we fail'd, a voluntary throng,
T'avenge a private, not a public wrong :
What elfe to Troy th' affembled nations draws,
But thine, ungrateful, and thy brother's caufe?
Is this the pay our blood and toils deserve;
Difgrac'd and injur'd by the man we serve?
And dar'ft thou threat to fnatch my prize away,
Due to the deeds of many a dreadful day?
A prize as small, O-tyrant match'd with thine,
As thy own actions if compar'd to mine.
Thine in each conqueft is the wealthy prey,
Tho' mine the sweat and danger of the day.
Some trivial prefent to my fhips I bear,
Or barren praises pay the wounds of war.
But know, proud monarch, I'm thy flave no more;
My fleet shall waft me to Theffalia's fhore.
Left by Achilles on the Trojan plain,
What fpoils, what conquests shall Atrides gain?
To this the king: Fly, mighty warriour! Aly,
Thy aid we need not, and thy threats defy.
There want not chiefs in such a cause to fight,
And Jove himself fhall guard a monarch's right.
Of all the kings (the God's diftinguish'd care)
To pow'r fuperiour none fuch hatred bear:
Strife and debate thy reftlefs foul employ,
And wars and horrours are thy favage joyn
If thou haft ftrength, 'twas heaven that ftrength beftow'd,
For know, vain man! thy valour is from God.
Hafte, launch thy veffels, fly with speed away,
Rule thy own realms with arbitrary sway:
I heed thee not, but prize at equal rate
Thy fhort-liv'd friendship, and thy groundless hate.
Go, threat thy earth-born Myrmidons; but here
'Tis mine to threaten, prince, and thine to fear.
Know, if the God the beauteous dame demand,
My bark fhall waft her to her native land;
But then prepare, imperious prince! prepare,
Fierce as thou art, to yield thy captive fair:
Ev'n in thy tent I'll feize the blooming prize,
Thy lov'd Brifeïs with the radiant eyes.
Hence fhalt thou prove my might, and curfe the hour,
Thou stood'st a rival of imperial pow'r ;
And hence to all our hoft it fhall be known,
That kings are fubject to the Gods alone.
Achilles heard, with grief and rage oppreft,
His heart fwell'd high, and labour'd in his breast.
Distracting thoughts by turns his bofom rul'd,
Now fir'd by wrath, and now by reafon cool'd:
That prompts his hand to draw the deadly fword,
Force thro' the Greeks, and pierce their haughty lord ;
This whispers foft, his vengeance to controul,
And calm the rifing tempeft of his foul.
Juft as in anguifh of fufpence he ftay'd,
While half unfheath'd appear'd the glitt'ring blade,
Minerva fwift defcended from above,
Sent by the fifter and the wife of Jove;"
(For both the princes claim'd her equal care)
Behind the ftood, and by the golden hair
Achilles feiz'd; to him alone confeft;
A fable cloud conceal'd her from the reft.
He fees, and fudden to the Goddess cries,
Known by the ftreams that sparkle from her eyes.
Defcends Minerva in her guardian care,
A heav'nly witnefs of the wrongs I bear
From Atreus' fon? Then let those eyes that view
The daring crime, behold the vengeance too.
Forbear! the progeny of Jove replies,
To calm thy fury I forfake the skies:
Let great Achilles, to the Gods refign'd,
To reafon yield the empire o'er his mind.
By awful Juno this command is giv❜n;
The king and you are both the care of heav'n.
The force of keen reproaches let him feel,
But fheath, obedient, thy revenging steel.
For I pronounce (and truft a heav'nly pow'r}
Thy injur'd honour has it's fated hour,
When the proud monarch fhall thy arms implore,
And bribe thy friendship with a boundless ftore.
Then let revenge no longer bear the fway,
Command thy paffions, and the Gods obey,
To her Pelides. With regardful ear
'Tis juft, O Goddess! I thy dictates hear.
Hard as it is, my vengeance I fuppress:
Those who revere the Gods, the Gods will blefs...
He faid, obfervant of the blue-ey'd maid;
Then in the feath return'd the fhining blade.
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The Goddefs fwift to high Olympus flies,
And joins the facred fenate of the skies.
Nor yet the rage his boiling breaft forfook,
Which thus redoubling on Atrides broke.
O monster! mix'd of infolence and fear,
Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!
When wert thou known in ambush'd fights to dare,
Or nobly face the horrid front of war?
'Tis ours, the chance of fighting fields to try,
Thine to look on, and bid the valiant die.
So much 'tis fafer thro' the camp to go,
And rob a fubject, than defpoil a foe...
Scourge of thy people, violent and base!
Sent in Jove's anger on a flavifh race,
Who, lost to sense of gen'rous freedom paft,
Are tam'd to wrongs, or this had been thy lafty and on V Now by this facred fceptre, hear me fwear,
Which never more shall leaves or bloffoms bear, golf of Which fever'd from the trunk (as I from thee).
On the bare mountains left its parent tree;
This fceptre, form'd by temper'd steel to prove
An enfign of the delegates of Jove,
From whom the pow'r of laws and juftice fprings:
(Tremendous oath! inviolate to kings)
By this I fwear, when bleeding Greece again
Shall call Achilles, the fhall call in vain.
When flush'd with flaughter, Hector comes to fpread
The purpled fhore with mountains of the dead,
Then fhalt thou mourn th' affront thy madnefs gave,
Forc'd to deplore, when impotent to fave:
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