At thy demand fhall I restore the maid?
First let the juft equivalent be paid;
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 fhall his prize refign,
Ulyffes' spoils, or ev'n thy own be mine.
The man who fuffers, loudly may complain;
And rage he may, but he shall rage in vain.
But this when time requires-It now remains
We launch a bark to plow the watery plains,
And waft the facrifice to Chryfa's shores,
With chofen pilots, and with labouring 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 afsuage.
At this, Pelides, frowning ftern, reply'd :
O tyrant, arm'd with infolence and pride!
Inglorious flave to intereft, ever join'd
With fraud unworthy of a royal mind!
What generous Greek, obedient to thy word,
Shall form an ambush, or shall lift the fword?
What cause have I to war at thy decree ?
The distant Trojans never injur❜d me:
To Phthia's realms no hostile troops they led,
Safe in her vales my warlike courfers fed;
Far hence remov'd, the hoarse-refounding main,
And walls of rocks, fecure my native reign,
Whofe 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 else to Troy th' assembled nations draws,
But thine, ungrateful, and thy brother's cause?
Is this the pay our blood and toils deserve ;
Difgrac'd and injur'd by the man we ferve?
And dar'st thou threat to snatch my prize away,
Due to the deeds of many a dreadful day?
A prize as fmall, O tyrant! match'd with thine,
As thy own actions if compar'd to mine.
Thine in each conqueft is the wealthy prey,
Though mine the sweat and danger of the day.
Some trivial prefents 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 fhall waft me to Theffalia's fhore.
Left by Achilles on the Trojan plain,
What spoils, what conquests, shall Atrides gain?
To this the king: Fly, mighty warrior! fly,
Thy aid we need not, and thy threats defy.
There want not chiefs in such a cause to fight,
And Jove himself shall guard a monarch's right.
Of all the kings (the God's distinguish'd care)
To power fuperior none fuch, hatred bear :
Strife and debate thy reftlefs foul employ,
And wars and horrours are thy favage joy.
If thou hast strength, 'twas Heaven that strength bestow'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 shalt thou prove my might, and curfe the hour, Thou stood'st a rival of imperial power;
And hence to all our hoft it shall be known,
That kings are subject to the Gods alone.
Achilles heard, with grief and rage opprest,
His heart fwell'd high, and labour'd in his breast.
Diftracting thoughts by turns his bofom rul'd,
Now fir'd by wrath, and now by reason cool'd:
That prompts his hand to draw the deadly fword, 255
Force through the Greeks, and pierce their haughty lord;
This whispers foft, his vengeance to control,
And calm the rising tempest of his foul.
Just as in anguish of fufpence he stay'd,
While half unfheath'd appear'd the glittering blade, 260
Minerva fwift descended from above,
Sent by the fifter and the wife of Jove
(For both the princes claim'd her equal care);
Behind the stood, 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 flames that sparkle from her eyes.
Defcends Minerva in her guardian care,
A heavenly witness of the wrongs I bear
From Atreus' fon: then let thofe 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 reason yield the empire o'er his mind.
By awful Juno this command is given;
The king and you are both the care of Heaven.
The force of keen reproaches let him feel,
But fheath, obedient, thy revenging steel.
For I pronounce (and truft a heavenly Power)
Thy injur'd honour has its fated hour.
When the proud monarch shall thy arms implore,
And bribe thy friendship with a boundless store,
Then let revenge no longer bear the sway,
Command thy paffions, and the Gods obey.
To her Pelides: With regardful ear
'Tis juft, O Goddefs! I thy dictates hear.
Hard as it is, my vengeance I suppress:
Those who revere the Gods, the Gods will blefs. 290.
He said, obfervant of the blue-ey'd Maid;
Then in the fheath return'd the shining blade.
The Goddess fwift to high Olympus flies,
And joins the facred fenate of the skies.
Nor yet the rage his boiling breast 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 through 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 flavish race,
Who, loft to fenfe of generous freedom past,
Are tam'd to wrongs, or this had been thy last.
Now by this facred fceptre hear me fwear,
Which never more fhall leaves or bloffoms bear,
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 ensign of the delegates of Jove,
From whom the power of laws and juftice fprings 315 (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 spread
The purpled fhore with mountains of the dead,
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