With ruthless hearts their well-known friends withstand,
And with keen faulchions lop each grafping hand; 990
The dying fingers cling and clench the wood,
The heavy trunk finks helpless in the flood..
Now spent was all the warriors steely store,
New darts they feek, and other arms explore,
This wields a flag-ftaff, that a ponderous oar.
Wrath's ready hands are never at a lofs;
The fragments of the shatter'd ship they tofs.
The ufelefs rower from his feat is caft,
Then fly the benches, and the broken mast.
Some feizing, as it finks, the breathless corfe,
From the cold grafp the blood ftain'd weapon force.
Some from their own fresh bleeding bofoms take,
And at the foe the dropping javelin shake :
The left-hand ftays the blood, and fooths the pain,
The right fends back the reeking fpear again.
Now gods of various elements confpire;
To Nereus, Vulcan joins his hoftile fire;
With oils, and living fulphur, darts they frame,
Prepar'd to spread afar the kindling flame;
Around the catching mifchiefs fwift fucceed,
The floating hulks their own deftruction feed;
The smeary wax the brightening blaze fupplies,
And wavy fires from pitchy planks arife:
Amidst the flood the ruddy torrent strays,
And fierce upon the scattering fhipwrecks preys, ro15
Here one with haste a flaming vessel leaves :
Another, spent and beaten by the waves,
As eager to the burning ruin cleaves.
Amidst the various ways of death to kill,
Whether by feas, by fires, or wounding steel,
The dreadfullest is that, whose present force we feel.
Nor valour lefs her fatal rage maintains,
In daring breasts that swim the liquid plains:
Some gather up the darts that floating lie,
And to the combatants new deaths supply.
Some ftruggling in the deep the war provoke,
Rife o'er the furge, and aim a languid stroke.
Some with strong grafp the foe conflicting join,
Mix limbs with limbs, and hostile wreathings twine,
Till plunging, preffing to the bottom down,
Vanquish'd, and vanquishers, alike they drown.
One, chief above the reft, is mark'd by Fame,
For watery fight, and Phoceus was his name:
The heaving breath of life he knew to keep,
While long he dwelt within the lowest deep;
Full many a fathom down he had explor'd,
For treasures loft, old ocean's oozy hoard;
Oft when the flooky anchor ftuck below,
He funk, and bade the captive vessel go.
A foe he feiz'd close cleaving to his breast,
And underneath the tumbling billows prest :
But when the skilful victor would repair
To upper feas, and fought the freer air;
Hapless beneath the crouding keels he rose,
The crouding keels his wonted way oppose;
Back beaten, and aftonish'd with the blow,
He finks, to bide for ever now below.
Some hang upon the oars with weighty force,
To intercept the hoftile veffel's course;
Some to the last the cause they love defend,
And valiant lives by useful deaths would end;
With breasts oppos'd the thundering beaks they brave,
And what they fought for living, dying fave.
As Tyrrhen, from a Roman poop on high, Ran o'er the various combat with his eye; Sure aiming, from his Balearic thong, Bold Ligdamus a ponderous bullet flung; Through liquid air the ball shrill whistling flies, And cuts its way through hapless Tyrrhen's eyes. Th' aftonish'd youth stands ftruck with fudden night, While bursting start the bleeding orbs of fight. At first he took the darkness to be death, And thought himself amidst the shades beneath; But foon recovering from the stunning found, He liv'd, unhappily he liv'd, he found. Vigour at length, and wonted force returns, And with new rage his valiant bofom burns:
To me, my friends, (he cry'd) your aid supply,
Nor ufelefs let your fellow-foldier die ;
Give me, oppos'd against the foe to stand,
While like fome engine you direct my hand.
And thou, my poor remaining life, prepare
To meet each hazard of the various war;
At least, my mangled carcafe fhall pretend
To interpofe, and fhield fome valiant friend:
Plac'd like a mark their darts I may fuftain,
And, to preferve fome better man, be flain.
Thus faid, unaiming he a javelin threw,
The javelin wing'd with fure deftruction flew ;
In Argus the defcending fteel takes place,
Argus, a Grecian, of illuftrious race.
Deep finks the piercing point, where to the loins
Above the navel high the belly joins :
The ftaggering youth falls forward on his fate,
And helps the goring weapon with his weight.
It chanc'd, to ruthless deftiny design'd,
To the fame fhip his aged fire was join'd:
While young, for high atchievements was he known,
The first in fair Maffilia for renown;
Now an example meerly, and a name,
Willing to rouze the younger fort he came,
And fire their fouls to emulate his fame.
When from the prow, where diftant far he ftood,
He faw his fon lie weltering in his blood;
Soon to the poop, oft ftumbling in his hafte,
With faultering steps the feeble father past.
No falling tears his wrinkled cheeks bedew,
But ftiffening cold and motionless he grew :
Deep night and deadly fhades of darkness rife,
And hide his much-lov'd Argus from his eyes. 1100
As to the dizzy youth the fire appears,
His dying, weak, unwieldy head he rears;
With lifted eyes he cast a mournful look,
His pale lips mov'd, and fain he would have spoke;
But unexprefs'd th' imperfect accent hung, 1105
Loft in his falling jaws and murmuring tongue :
Yet in his fpeechlefs vifage feems expreft,
What, had he words, would be his last request:
That aged hand to feal his clofing eye,
And in his father's fond embrace to die :
But he, when grief with keenest sense revives,
With nature's strongest pangs conflicting strives;
Let me not lose this hour of death, he cries,
Which my indulgent deftiny fupplies;
And thou forgive, forgive me, oh my son,
If thy dear lips and last embrace I shun.
Warn from thy wound the purple current flows,
And vital breath yet heaving comes and goes:
Yet my fad eyes behold thee yet alive,
And thou fhalt, yet, thy wretched fire furvive.
He said, and fierce, by frantic forrow preft,
Plung'd his sharp fword amidst his aged breast :
And though life's gufhing streams the weapon ftain,
Headlong he leaps amidst the greedy main;
While this laft wifh ran ever in his mind,
To die, and leave his darling fon behind;
Eager to part, his foul difdain'd to wait,
And truft uncertain to a fingle fate.
And now Maffilia's vanquish'd force gives way,
And Cæfar's fortune claims the doubtful day.
The Grecian fleet is all difpers'd around,
Some in the bottom of the deep lie drown'd;
Some, captives made, their haughty victors bore,
While fome, but those a few, fled timely to the thore.
But, oh! what verfe, what numbers, can exprefs 1135
The mournful city, and her fore distress !
Upon the beach lamenting matrons stand,
And wailings echo o'er the lengthning strand :
Their eyes are fix'd upon the waters wide,
And watch the bodies driving with the tide.
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