The fun is high advanc'd, and downward sheds
"His burning beams directly on our heads;
"Then by confent abstain from further spoils,
"Call off the dogs, and gather up the toils;
"And ere to-morrow's fun begins his race,
"Take the cool morning to renew the chace."
They all confent, and in a chearful train
The jolly huntfmen, loaden with the flain,
Return in triumph from the fultry plain.
Down in a vale with pine and cypress clad,
Refresh'd with gentle winds, and brown with fhade,
The chafte Diana's private haunt, there stood
Full in the center of the darkfome wood

A fpacious grotto, all around o'er-grown
With hoary mofs, and arch'd with pumice-stone.
From out its rocky clefts the waters flow,
And trickling fwell into a lake below.
Nature had every where fo play'd her part,
That every
where the feem'd to vie with art.

}

Here the bright goddess, toil'd and chaf'd with heat, Was wont to bathe her in the cool retreat.

Here did fhe now with all her train refort,

Panting with heat, and breathlefs from the sport;

Her armour-bearer laid her bow aside,

Some loos'd her fandals, fome her veil unty'd;

Each busy nymph her proper part undreft;
While Crocalè, more handy than the reft,
Gather'd her flowing hair, and in a noose
Bound it together, while her own hung loose.
Five of the more ignoble sort by turns

Fetch up the water, and unlade their urns.
L 4

Now

Now all undreft the fhining goddess stood,
When young A&tæon, wilder'd in the wood,
To the cool grot by his hard fate betray'd,
The fountains fill'd with naked nymphs furvey'd.
The frighted virgins fhriek'd at the furprize
(The foreft echo'd with their piercing cries).
Then in a huddle round their goddess preft:
She, proudly eminent above the rest,

With blushes glow'd; fuch blushes as adorn
The ruddy welkin, or the purple morn :
And though the crowding nymphs her body hide,
Half backward fhrunk, and view'd him from aside.
Surpriz'd, at first she would have fnatch'd her bow,
But fees the circling waters round her flow;
Thefe in the hollow of her hand she took,

And dash'd them in his face, while thus fhe spoke :
"Tell, if thou canft, the wondrous fight difclos'd;
"A goddess naked to thy view expos'd."
This faid, the man begun to disappear
By flow degrees, and ended in a deer.
A rifing horn on either brow he wears,

And ftretches out his neck, and pricks his ears;
Rough is his fkin, with fudden hairs o'er-grown,
His bofom pants with fears before unknown.
Transform'd at length, he flies away in haste,
And wonders why he flies away fo fast.
But as by chance, within a neighbouring brook,
He faw his branching horns and alter'd look,
Wretched A&tæon! in a doleful tone

He try'd to speak, but only gave a groan;

And

And as he wept, within the watery glass
He faw the big round drops, with filent pace,
Run trickling down a favage hairy face.
What should he do? Or feek his old abodes,
Or herd among the deer, and fculk in woods?
Here fhame diffuades him, there his fear prevails,
And each by turns his aking heart affails.

}

As he thus ponders, he behind him spies. His opening hounds, and now he hears their cries: A generous pack, or to maintain the chace, Or fnuff the vapour from the fcented grafs. He bounded off with fear, and swiftly ran O'er craggy mountains, and the flowery plain; Through brakes and thickets forc'd his way, and flew Through many a ring, where once he did pursue. In vain he oft endeavour'd to proclaim

His new misfortune, and to tell his name;

Nor voice nor words the brutal tongue fupplies;
From thouting men, and horns, and dogs, he flies,
Deafen'd and stunn'd with their promifcuous cries.
When now the fleetest of the pack, that prest
Clofe at his heels, and fprung before the rest,
Had faften'd on him, ftraight another pair

hound

Hung on his wounded haunch, and held him there,
Till all the pack came up,
and every
Tore the fad huntfman groveling on the ground,
Who now appear'd but one continued wound.
With dropping tears his bitter fate he moans,
And fills the mountain with his dying groans.
His fervants with a piteous look he spies,
And turns about his fupplicating eyes.

His

His fervants, ignorant of what had chanc'd,
With eager hafte and joyful shouts advanc'd,
And call'd their Lord Acteon to the game;
He fhook his head in anfwer to the name;
He heard, but with'd he had indeed been gone,
Or only to have stood a looker-on.

But, to his grief, he finds himself too near,
And feels his ravenous dogs with fury tear
Their wretched mafter panting in a deer.

THE BIRTH OF BACCHUS.

ACTION's fufferings, and Diana's rage,
Did all the thoughts of men and gods engage;
Some call'd the evils, which Diana wrought,
Too great, and difproportion'd to the fault;
Others again efteem'd Acteon's woes
Fit for a virgin-goddefs to impofe.
The hearers into different parts divide,
And reafons are produc'd on either fide.

Juno alone, of all that heard the news,
Nor would condemn the goddess, nor excufe:
She heeded not the juftice of the deed,
But joy'd to fee the race of Cadinus bleed;
For ftill fhe kept Europa in her mind,
And, for her fake, detefted all her kind.
Besides, to aggravate her hate, fhe heard
How Semele, to Jove's embrace preferr'd,
Was now grown big with an immortal load,
And carry'd in her womb a future God.
Thus terribly incens'd, the goddess broke

To fudden fury, and abruptly spoke :

« Are

"Are my reproaches of fo small a force?
" 'Tis time I then purfue another course:
"It is decreed the guilty wretch fhall die,
"If I'm indeed the mifirefs of the sky;
"If rightly ftyl'd among the powers above
"The wife and fifter of the thundering Jove
(And none can sure a fifter's right deny) ;
"It is decreed the guilty wretch fhall die.
"She boafts an honour I can hardly claim;
“Pregnant she rises to a mother's name;
"While proud and vain the triumphs in her Jove
"And shows the glorious tokens of his love:
"But if I'm ftill the miftrefs of the fkies,
"By her own lover the fond beauty dies."
This faid, defcending in a yellow cloud,
Before the gates of Semele fhe stood.

Old Beroe's decrepit shape she wears,
Her wrinkled visage, and her hoary hairs;
Whilft in her trembling gait fhe totters on,
And learns to tattle in the nurfe's tone.
The goddefs, thus difguis'd in age, beguil'd
With pleafing ftories her false foster-child.
Much did the talk of love, and when she came
To mention to the nymph her lover's name,
Fetching a figh, and holding down her head,
"'Tis well, fays fhe, if all be true that 's faid.
"But trust me, child, I'm much inclin'd to fear
"Some counterfeit in this your Jupiter.

"Many an honeft well-defigning maid
"Has been by thefe pretended gods betray'd.

"But