Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Upon

his heart the thirsty poisons prey, And drain the facred juice of life away.

No kindly floods of moisture bathe his tongue, 1265

But cleaving to the parched roof it hung;

No trickling drops distil, no dewy sweat,

To ease his weary limbs, and cool the raging heat.
Nor could he weep; ev'n grief could not fupply
Streams for the mournful office of his eye,
The never-failing source of tears was dry.
Frantic he flies, and with a careless hand-
Hurls the neglected eagle on the fand;

Nor hears, nor minds, his pitying chief's command.
For fprings he feeks, he digs, he proves the ground,
For fprings, in vain, explores the defert round, 1276
For cooling draughts, which might their aid impart,
And quench the burning venom in his heart.
Plung'd in the Tanaïs, the Rhone, or Po,
Or Nile, whose wandering ftreams o'er Ægypt flow,
Still would he rage, ftill with the fever glow.
The fcorching climate to his fate confpires,
And Libya's fun affists the Dipfas' fires.
Now every where for drink, in vain he pries,
Now to the Syrts and briny seas he flies;
The briny feas delight, but fecm not to fuffice.
Nor

yet he knows what fecret plague he nurs`d,
Nor found the poison, but believ`d it thirst.
Of thirst, and thirft alone, he ftill complains,
Raving for thirft, he tears his fwelling veins ;
From every veffel drains a crimson flood,
And quaffs in greedy draughts his vital blood.

1290

This Cato faw, and straight, without delay, Commands the legions on to urge their way; Nor give th' enquiring foldier time to know What deadly deeds a fatal thirst could do.

1295

1300

But foon a fate more fad, with new furprize,
From the firft object turns their wondering eyes.
Wretched Sabellus by a Seps was stung;
Fix'd to his leg, with deadly teeth, it hung:
Sudden the foldier fhook it from the wound,
Transfix'd and nail'd it to the barren ground.
Of all the dire deftructive ferpent race,
None have fo much of death, though none are lefs.
For ftraight, around the part, the skin withdrew,
The flesh and shrinking finews backward flew,
And left the naked bones expos'd to view.
The spreading poifons all the parts confound,
And the whole body finks within the wound.
The brawny thighs no more their muscles boast, 1310
But, melting, all in liquid filth are loft;

The well-knit groin above, and ham below,
Mixt in one putrid stream, together flow;
The firm Peritoneum, rent in twain,
No more the preffing entrails could sustain,

It yields, and forth they fall, at once they gush amain.
Small relics of the mouldering mafs were left,

At once of fubftance, as of form bereft ;
Diffolv'd the whole in liquid poison ran,
And to a nauseous puddle fhrunk the man.
Then burst the rigid nerves, the manly breast,
And all the texture of the heaving cheft;

}

}

1320

Refiftlefs

Refiftlefs way the conquering venom made,
And fecret nature was at once display'd;
Her facred privacies all open lie

1325

}

1330

To each prophane, enquiring, vulgar eye.
Then the broad shoulders did the pest invade,
Then o'er the valiant arms and neck it spread;
Laft funk, the mind's imperial feat, the head.
So fnows diffolv'd by southern breezes run,
So melts the wax before the noon-day fun.
Nor ends the wonder here; though flames are known
To waste the flesh, yet ftill they spare the bone:
Here none were left, no leaft remains were feen;

}

No marks to fhew, that once the man had been. 1335
Of all the plagues which curfe the Libyan land,
(If death and mischief may a crown demand)
Serpent, the palm is thine. Though others may
Boaft of their power to force the foul away,
Yet foul and body both become thy prey.
A fate of different kind Nafidius found,
A burning Prefter gave the deadly wound;
And straight a sudden flame began to spread,
And paint his vifage with a glowing red.
With swift expanfion fwells the bloated skin,
Nought but an undistinguished mass is seen,
While the fair human form lies left within.
The puffy poison spreads, and heaves around,
Till all the man is in the monster drown'd.
No more the fteely plate his breaft can stay,
But yields, and gives the bursting poison way.
Not waters fo, when fire the rage supplies,
Bubbling on heaps, in boiling cauldrons rife :

}

1350

Nor

Nor fwells the stretching canvas half so fast,
When the fails gather all the driving blast,
Strain the tough yards, and bow the lofty mast.
The various parts no longer now are known,
One headless formless heap remains alone;
The feather'd kind avoid the fatal feast,
And leave it deadly to fome hungry beast;
With horror feiz'd, his fad companions too,
In hafte from the unbury'd carcafe flew;

}

1360

1365

1370

Look'd back, but fled again, for ftill the monster grew.
But fertile Libya ftill new plagues fupplies,
And to more horrid monsters turns their eyes.
Deeply the fierce Hæmorrhoïs imprest
Her fatal teeth on Tullus' valiant breast,
The noble youth with virtue's love infpir'd,
Her, in her Cato, follow'd and admir'd;
Mov'd by his great example, vow'd to share,
With him, each chance of that difaftrous war.
And as when mighty Rome's spectators meet
In the full theatre's capacious feat,
At once, by fecret pipes and channels fed,
Rich tinctures gufh from every antique head;
At once ten thousand saffron currents flow,
And rain their odours on the croud below:
So the warm blood at once from every part

1375

Ran purple poifon down, and drain'd the fainting heart. Blood falls for tears, and o'er his mournful face 1380 The ruddy drops their tainted paffage trace:

Where-e'er the liquid juices find a way,

There ftreams of blood, there crimson rivers ftray:

His mouth and gufhing noftrils pour a flood,

And ev❜n the pores ooze out the trickling blood; 1385
In the red deluge all the parts lie drown'd,

And the whole body feems one bleeding wound.
Lævus, a colder Aspic bit, and straight
His blood forgot to flow, his heart to beat;
Thick fhades upon his eye-lids feem'd to creep, 1390
And lock him faft in everlasting fleep :

No fenfe of pain, no torment did he know,
But funk in flumbers to the fhades below.

Not fwifter death attends the noxious juice,
Which dire Sabæan Aconites produce.
Well may their crafty priests divine, and well
The fate which they themselves can cause, foretel.
Fierce from afar a darting Javelin shot,
(For fuch, the ferpents name has Afric taught)
And through unhappy Paulus' temples flew ;
Nor poifon, but a wound, the foldier flew.
No flight fo fwift, fo rapid none we know,
Stones for the founding fling, compar'd, are flow,
And the fhaft loiters from the Scythian bow.

A bafilifk bold Murrus kill'd in vain,
And nail'd it dying to the fandy plain;
Along the fpear the fliding venom ran,

1395

1400

}

1405

And fudden, from the weapon, seiz'd the man:
His hand firft touch'd, ere it his arm invade,
Soon he divides it with his fhining blade:

1410

The ferpent's force by fad example taught,
With his loft hand, his ranfom'd life he bought.
Who that the fcorpion's infect form surveys,
Would think that ready death his call obeys?

1414 Threatening

« ПредишнаНапред »