Driven out at length, unwillingly and flow,
She left her mortal house, and sought the shades below.
While, eager for the fight, an hardy crew
To one fole fide their force united drew,
The bark, unapt th' unequal poife to bear,
Turn'd o'er, and rear'd her loweft keel in air:
In vain his active arms the fwimmer tries,
No aid the fwimmer's ufelefs arts fupplies;
The covering vast o'erwhelming shuts them down,
And helpless in the hollow hold they drown.
One flaughter terrible above the reft,
The fatal horror of the fight exprest.
As o'er the crouded furface of the flood
A youthful fwimmer fwift his way purfued;
Two meeting fhips, by equal fury preft,
With hoftile prows transfix'd his ample breaft:
Sufpended by the dreadful fhock he hung,
The brazen beaks within his bofom rung;
Blood, bones, and entrails, mashing with the blow,
From his pale lips a hideous mixture flow.
At length the backing cars the fight reftrain,
The lifeless body drops amidst the main ;
Soon enter at the breach the rufhing waves,
And the falt ftream the mangled carcafe laves.
Around the watery champain wide dispread,
The living fhipwrecks float amidst the dead;
With active arms the liquid deep they ply,
And panting to their mates for fuccour cry
Now to fome focial veffel prefs they near,
Their fellows pale the crouding numbers fear;
With ruthless hearts their well-known friends withftand,
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 seek, 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 fhatter'd fhip 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
Some from their own fresh bleeding bofoms take,
And at the foe the dropping javelin fhake
The left-hand stays the blood, and fooths the pain,
The right fends back the reeking spear 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 mischiefs fwift fucceed,
The floating halks their own deftruction feed;
The smeary wax the brightening blaze supplies,
And wavy fires from pitchy planks arise:
Amidst the flood the ruddy torrent ftrays,
And fierce upon the fcattering fhipwrecks preys. 1015
Here one with haste a flaming veffel leaves :
Another, spent and beaten by the waves,
As eagor to the burning ruin cleaves.
Amidst the various ways of death to kill,
Whether by feas, by fires, or wounding steel,
The dreadfulleft is that, whofe prefent force we feel.
Nor valour lefs her fatal rage maintains,
In daring breafts that fwim 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 ftroke.
Some with strong grafp the foe conflicting join,
Mix limbs with limbs, and hoftile wreathings twine,
Till plunging, preffing to the bottom down, 1030%
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 clofe cleaving to his breast,
And underneath the tumbling billows preft:
But when the skilful victor would repair
To upper feas, and fought the freer air;
Haplefs beneath the crouding keels he rose,
The crouding keels his wonted way oppofe;
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 courfe;
Some to the last the caufe they love defend,
And valiant lives by useful deaths would ends
With breafts 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 fhrill whistling flies,
And cuts its way through hapless Tyrrhen's eyes.
Th' astonish'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 sound,
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 useless let your fellow-foldier die;
Give me, oppos'd against the foe to stand,
While like fome engine you dire& my hand.
And thou, my poor remaining life, prepare
To meet each hazard of the various war;
At least, my mangled carcase shall pretend
To interpofe, and fhield some 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 steel 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 staggering youth falls forward on his fate,
And helps the goring weapon with his weight.
It chanc'd, to ruthless destiny defign'd,
To the fame fhip his aged fire was join'd:
While young, for high atchievements was he known,
The firft in fair Maffilia for renown;
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 distant far he stood,.
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
As to the dizzy youth the fire appears,
His dying, weak, unwieldy head he rears;
With lifted eyes he caft a mournful look,
His pale lips inov'd, and fain he would have spoke ;
But unexprefs'd th' imperfect accent hung,
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 closing eye,
And in his father's fond embrace to die :
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