Fair liberty purfued, and meant a prey

To lawlels power, here turn'd, and stood at bay. When in that remedy all hope was plac'd, Which was, or fhould have been at least, the last. Here was that charter feal'd, wherein the crown All marks of arbitrary power lays down: Tyrant and flave, thofe names of hate in 1 fear, The happier ftile of king and fubject bear: Happy, when both to the fame center mo72, When kings give liberty, and subjects love. Therefore not long in force this charter stood; Wanting that feal, it must be feal'd in blood. The fubjects arm'd, the more their princes gave, Th' advantage only took, the more to crave: Till kings, by giving give themfelves away, And even that power, that fhould deny, betray, Who gives conftrain'd but his own fear reviles, "Not thank'd, but fcorn'd; nor are they gifts, but fpoils."

Thus kings, by grafping more than they could hold,

First made their fubjects, by oppreffion, bold: And popular fway, by forcing kings to give More than was fit for fubjects to receive, Ran to the fame extremes; and one excefs Made both, by ftriving to be greater, lefs. When a calm river, rais'd with fudden rains, Or nows diffolv'd, o'er flows th' adjoining plains, The hufbandmen with high-rais'd banks fecure Their greedy hopes; and this he can endure. But if with bays and dams they ftrive to force His channel to a new, or narrow courfe; No longer then within his banks he dwells, First to a torrent, then a deluge fwells, Stronger and fiercer by reftraint he roars, And knows no bound, but makes his power his

fhores.

And all thofe forrows to my fenfe reflore, Whereof none faw fo much, none fuffer'd more: Not the most cruel of our conquering foes So unconcern'dly can relate our woes As not to lend a tear; then how can I Reprefs the horror of my thoughts, which fly The fad remembrance? Now th' expiring night And the declining fars to reft invite; Yet fince 'cis your command, what you fo well Are pleas'd to hear, I cannot grieve to tell. By fate repell'd and with repulfes tir'd, The Greeks, fo many lives and years expir'd, A fabric like a moving mountain frame, Pretending vows for their return; this fame Divulges, then within the heart's valt womb The choice and flower of all their troops entomb; In view the ifle of Tenedos, once high, In fame and wealth, while Troy remain'd, deth lie, (Now but an unfecure and open bay) Thither by fealth the Greeks their fleet convey. We gave them gone, and to Mycena fail'd, And Troy reviv'd, her mourning face unvaii'd; All through th' unguarded gates with joy refort To fee the flighted camp, the vacant port. Here lay Ulyffes, there Achilles; here The battle join'd, the Grecian fleet rode there; But the valt pile th' amazed vulgar views, Till they their reafon in their wonder lofe. And firit Thymates moves (urg'd by the power Of fate or fraud) to place it in the tower; But Capys and the graver fort thought fit The Greeks fufpected prefent to commit To feas or flames, at leaft to fearch and bore The fides, and what that fpace contains t' explore. Th' uncertain multitude with both engag'd, Divided ftands, till from the tower, enrag'd Laccoon ran, whom all the crowd attends, Crying, what defperate frenzy's this, (oh friends) To think them gone? Judge rather their retreat But a defign, their gifts but a deceit; For our deftruction 'twas contriv'd, no doubt, Or from within by fraud, or from without By force; yet know ye not Ulyffes' fhifts? Their fwords lefs danger carry than their gifts. (This faid) against the horse's fide his fpear He throws, which trembles with inclosed fear, Whilft from the hollows of his womb proceed Groans not his own; and had not fate decreed Our ruin, we had fill'd with Grecian blood The place; then Troy and Priam's throne had

ftood.

Meanwhile a fetter'd prifoner to the king
With joyful fhouts the Dardan fhepherds bring,
Who to betray us did himself betray,

At once the taker, and at once the prey;
Firmly prepar'd, of one event fecur'd,
Or of his death or his defign affur'd.
The Trojan youth about the captive flock,
To wonder, or to pity, or to mock.
Now hear the Grecian fraud, and from this one
Conjecture all the reft.

Difarm'd, diforder'd, casting round his eyes
On all the troops that guarded him, he cries,
What land, what fea, for me what fate attends?
Caught by my foes, condemned by my friends,

Incensed Troy a wretched captive fecks
To facrifice; a fugitive, the Greeks.
To pity this complaint our former rage
Converts, we now enquire his parentage,
What of their counfels or affairs he knew:
Then fearless he replies, great king, to you
All truth I fhall relate: nor firft can I
Myfelf to be of Grecian birth deny;
And though my outward ftate misfortune hath
Depreft thus low, it cannot reach my faith.
You may by chance have heard the famous name
Of Palamede, who from old Belus came,
Whom, but for voting peace, the Greeks pursue,
Accus'd unjustly, then unjustly flew,
Yet mourn'd his death. My father was his friend,
And me to his commands did recommend,
While laws and councils did his throne fupport,
I but a youth, yet some efteen and port
We then did bear, till by Ulyffes' craft
(Things known I fpeak) he was of life bereft :
Since in dark forrow I my days did fpend,
Till now, difdaining his unworthy end,
I could not filence my complaints, but vow'd
Revenge, if ever fate or chance allow'd

My wifh'd return to Greece; from hence his hate,
From thence my crimes, and all my ills bear date:
Old guilt fresh malice gives; the people's ears
He fills with rumours, and their hearts with fears,
And then the prophet to his party drew.
But why do I thefe thankless truths pursue;
Or why defer your rage? on me, for all
'The Greeks, let your revenging fury fall.
Ulyffes this, th' Atride this defire

At any rate. We ftrait are fet on fire
(Unpractis'd in fuch mysteries) to enquire
The manner and the caufe, which thus he told,
With geftures humble, as his tale was bold.
Oft have the Greeks (the fiege detesting) tir'd
With tedious war, a stolen retreat defir'd,
And would to heaven they'd gone: but still dif-
may'd

By feas or fkies, unwillingly they stay'd.
Chiefly when this ftupendous pile was rais'd,
Strange noifes fill'd the air; we, all amaz'd,
Difpatch Eurypylus t' enquire out fates,
Who thus the fentence of the gods relates;
A virgin's flaughter did the ftorm appease,

The means to my escape, my bonds I brake,
Fled from my guards, and in a muddy lake
Amongst the fedges all the night lay hid,
Till they their fails had hoist (if so they did).
And now, alas! no hope remains for me
My home, my father, and my fons to fee,
Whom they, enrag'd, will kill for my offence,
And punish, for my guilt, their innocence.
Thofe gods who know the truths I now relate,
That faith which yet remains inviolate
By mortal men; by these I beg, redress
My causeless wrongs, and pity fuch distress:
And now true pity in exchange he finds
For his falfe tears, his tongue his hands unbinds.
Then spake the king, Be ours, whoe'er thou art;
Forget the Greeks. But first the truth impart,
Why did they raise, or to what use intend
This pile? to a war-like, or religious end?
Skilful in fraud (his native art), his hands
Toward heaven he rais'd, deliver'd now from
bands.

Ye pure æthereal flames, ye powers ador'd
By mortal men, ye altars, and the sword
I fcap'd; ye facred fillets that involv'd
My deftin'd head, grant I may stand abfolv'd
From all their laws and rights, renounce all name
Of faith or love, their fecret thoughts proclaim;
Only, O Troy, preferve thy faith to me,
If what I fhall relate preferveth thee.
From Pallas' favour, all our hopes, and all
Counfels and actions took original,
Till Diomed (for fuch attempts made fit
By dire conjunction with Ulyffes' wit)
Affails the facred tower, the guards they flay
Defile with bloody hands, and thence convey
The fatal image; ftraight with our fuccefs
Our hopes fell back, whilft prodigies exprefs
Her juft difdain, her flaming eyes did throw
Flashes of lightning, from each part did flow
A briny fweat, thrice brandifhing her fpear,
Her ftatue from the ground itself did rear;
Then, that we fhould our facrilege restore,
And re-convey their gods from Argos' fhore,
Calchas perfuades, till then we urge in vain
The fate of Troy. To measure back the main
They all confent, but to return again,
When reinforc'd with aids of gods and men.

feas;

Their fafe retreat another Grecian's blood
Muft purchase. All at this confounded flood:
Each thinks himfelf the man, the fear on all
Of what, the mifchief but on one can fall.
Then Calchas (by Ulyffes first infpir'd)

Was urg'd to name whom th' angry gods requir'd;
Yet was I warn'd (for many were as well
Infpir'd as he, and did my fate foretel)
Ten days the prophet in fufpence remain'd,
Would no man's fate pronounce; at last, constrain'd
By Ithacus, he folemnly defign'd

Me for the facrifice; the people join'd
In glad confent, and all their common fear
Determine in my fate; the day drew near,
The facred rites prepar'd, my temples crown'd
With holy wreaths; then 1 confefs I found

To Pallas was defign'd; to reconcile
Th' offended power, and expiate our guilt;
To this vaft height and monftrous stature built,
Left, through your gates receiv'd, it might renew
Your vows to her, and her defence to you.
But if this facred gift you disesteem,
The cruel plagues (which heaven divert on them!)
Shall fall on Priam's ftate: but if the horse
Your walls afcend, affifted by your force,
A league 'gainft Greece all Asia shall contract:
Our fons then fuffering what their fires would ac

Thus by his fraud and our own faith o'ercoms,
A feigned tear destroys us, again whom
Tydides nor Achilles could prevail,
Nor ten years conflict, nor a thousand fail.
This feconded by a most fad portent,
Which credit to the firft impofture lent;

Laocoon, Neptune's prieft, upon the day Devoted to that god, a bull did flay. When two prodigious ferpents were defcry'd, Whofe circling ftrokes the fea's fmooth face divide; Above the deep they raise their fcaly crefts, And ftem the flood with their erected breafts, Their winding tails advance, and fteer their courfe, And 'gainst the fhore the breaking billows force. Now landing, from their brandish'd tongues there

came

A dreadful hifs, and from their eyes a flame.
Amaz'd we fly; directly in a line
Laocoon they purfue, and firft entwine

Lach preying upon one) his tender fons;
Then him, who armed to their rescue runs,
They feiz'd, and with entangling folds embrac'd,
His neck twice compaffing, and twice his waist :
Their poisonous knots he ftrives to break and tear,
While flime and blood his facred wreaths befmear;
Then loudly roars, as when th' enraged bull
From th' altar flies, and from his wounded fkull
Shakes the huge ax; the conquering ferpents fly
To cruel Pallas' altar, and there lie
Under her feet, within her fhield's extent.
We, in our fears, conclude this fate was sent
July on him, who ftruck the facred oak
With his accurfed lance. Then to invoke
The goddess, and let in the fatal horse,
We all confent.

A fpacious breach we make, and Troy's proud wall,

Built by the gods, by her own hands doth fall;
Thus, all their help to their own ruin give,
Some draw with cords, and fome the monster drive
With rolls and levers: thus our works it climbs,
Eg with our fate; the youth with fongs and
rhimes,

Same dance, fome hale the rope; at laft let down
It caters with a thundering noise the town.

Troy, the feat of gods, in war renown'd! Three times it ftruck, as oft the clashing found Of arms was heard, yet blinded by the power Of fate, we place it in the facred tower. Cafandra then foretels th' event, but she Flads no belief (fuch was the gods' decree.) The altars with fresh flowers we crown, and wafte In feats that day, which was (alas!) our laft. Now by the revolution of the skies, Night's fable fhadows from the ocean rise, Which heaven and earth, and the Greek frauds involv'd,

The city in fecure repose diffolv'd,

When from the admiral's high poop appears
A light, by which the Argive fquadron steers
Their filent courfe to Ilium's well-known fhore,
When Sinon (fav'd by the gods' partial power)
Opens the horse, and through the unlockt doors
To the free air the armed freight reftores:

les, Stheneleus, Tifander, flide Down by a rope, Machaon was their guide; Atrides, Pyrrhus, Thoas, Athamas, And Epeus, who the fraud's contriver was: The gates they feize; the guards, with fleep and wine

Oppreft, furprize, and then their forces join.

By his infulting foc; O how transform'd,
How much unlike that Hector, who return'd
Clad in Achilles' fpoils; when he, among
A thoufand fhips, (like Jove) his lightning flung!
His horrid beard and knotted trefles flood
Stiff with his gore, and all his wounds ran blood:
Intranc'd lay, then (weeping) faid, the joy,
The hope and ftay of thy declining Troy;
What region held thee, whence, fo much defir'd,
Art thou reitor'd to us confum'd and tir'd
With toils and deaths; but what fad caufe con-

founds

Thy once fair looks, or why appear thofe wounds?
Regardless of my words, he no reply
Returns, but with a dreadful
groan doth cry,
Fly from the flame, O goddess-born, cur walls
The Greeks poffefs, and Troy confounded falls
From all her glories; if it might have flood
By any power, by this right hand it fhould.
What man could do, by me for Troy was done,
Take here her reliques and her gods, to run
With them thy fate, with them new walls ex-
pect,

Which, toft on feas, thou shalt at laft erect:
Then brings old Vefta from her facred quire,
Her holy wreaths and her eternal fire.
Meanwhile the walls with doubtful cries refound
From far (for fhady coverts did furround
My father's houfe); approaching ftill more near
The clafh of arms, and voice of men we hear :
Rouz'd from my bed, I speedily afcend
The houses tops, and liftening there attend.
As flames roll'd by the winds 'confpiring force,
O'er full-ear'd corn, or torrents raging courfe
Bears down th' oppofing oaks, the fields deftroys,
And mocks the plough-man's toil, th' unlook'd-
for noife

From neighbouring hills th' amaz'd fhepherd hears;
Such my furprize, and fuch their rage appears.
First fell thy houfe, Ucalegon, then thine
Deiphobus, Sigaan feas did fhine

Bright with Troy's flames; the trumpets dreadful found

The louder groans of dying men confound;
Give me my arms, I cry'd, refolv'd to throw
Myfelf 'mong any that oppos'd the foe.
Rage, anger, and defpair at once fuggeft,
That of all deaths, to die in arms was beft.
The first I met was Pantheus, Phoebus' prieft,
Who 'fcaping with his gods and reliques fled,
And towards the fhore his little grandchild led;
Pantheus, what hope remains? what force, what
place

Made good? but fighing, he replies, Alas!
Trojans we were, and mighty Ilium was;
But the laft period, and the fatal hour

Of Troy is come: our glory and our power

}

Incenfed Jove transfers to Grecian hands;
The foe within the burning town commands;
And (like a mother'd fire) an unfeen force
Breaks from the bowels of the fatal horfe :
Infulting Sinon flings about the flame,
And thoufands more than e'er from Argos came
Poffefs the gates, the paffes, and the firects,
And these the fword o'ertakes, and those it meets.
The guard nor fights nor flies; their fate so near
At once fufpends their courage and their fear.
Thus by the gods, and by Atrides' words
Infpir'd, I make my way through fire, through
fwords.

Where noifes, tumults, outcries and alarms,
I heard; first Iphitus, renown'd for arms,
We meet, who knew us (fer the moon did fhine);
Then Ripheus, Hypanis, and Dymas join
Their force, and young Chorobus, Mygdon's fon,
Who, by the love of fair Caffandra won,
Arriv'd but lately in her father's aid;
Unhappy whom the threats could not diffuade
Of his prophetic fpoufe;

Whom when I faw, yet daring to maintain
The fight, I faid, Brave fpirits (but in vain)
Are you refolv'd to follow one who dares
Tempt all extremes? the fate of our affairs
You fee: the gods have left us, by whofe aid
Oar empire ftocd; nor can the flame be ftaid:
Then let us fall amidft our foes; this one
Relief the vanquish'd have, to hope for none.
Then reinforc'd, as in a ftormy night
Wolves urged by their raging appetite
Forage for prey, which their neglected young
With greedy jaws expect, ev'n fo among
Foes, fire, and fwords, t' affured death we pafs,
Darkness our guide, defpair our leader was.
Who can relate that evening's woes and spoils,
Or can his tears proportion to our toils?
The city, which fo long had flourish'd, falls;
Death triumphs o'er the houses, temples, walls.
Nor only on the Trojans fell this doom,
Their hearts at last the vanquish'd re-affume;
And now the victors fall: on all fides fears,
Groans and pale death in all her shapes appears:
An irogeus first with his whole troop was caft
Upon us, with civility mifplac'd;

Thus grecting us, You lofe, by your delay,
Your share, both of the honour and the prey;
Others the fpoils of burning Troy convey
Back to thofe fhips, which you but now forfake.
We making no return; his fad mistake
Too late he finds: as when an unfeen faake
A traveller's unwary foot hath preft,
Who trembling farts, when the fnake's azure creft
Swoln with his riding anger, he efpies,
Sa from our view furpriz'd Androgeus flies.
But here an eafy victory we meet :

Feir binds their hands, and ignorance their feet.
Whilft fortune our first enterprize did aid,
Encourag'd with fuccefs, Chorcbus faid,
O friends, we now by better fates are led,
And in the fair path they lead us, let us tread.
Fuft change your arms, and their diftinctions
bear;

The fame, in foes, deceit and virtue are.

Then of his arms Androgens he divests,
His fword, his fhield he takes and plumed cres,
Then Ripheus, Dymas, and the reft, all glad
Of the occafion, in freth fpoils are clad.
Thus mixt with Greeks, as if their fortune ftill
Follow'd their fwords, we fight, purfue, and kill.
Some re-afcend the horse, and he whofe fides
Let forth the valiant, now the coward hides.
Some to their fafer guard, their ships retire:
But vain's that hope, 'gainst which the gods con-
fpire;

Behold the royal virgin, the divine
Caffandra, from Minerva's fatal fhrine
Dragg'd by the hair, cafting towards heaven, in
vain,

Her eyes; for cords her tender hands did ftrain;
Chorobus, at the spectacle enrag'd,
Flies in amidst the foes; we thus engag'd,
To fecond him, among the thickest ran;
Here firft our ruin from our friends began,
Who from the temple's battlements a shower
Of darts and arrows on our heads did pour:
They us for Creeks, and now the Greeks (who
knew

Caffandra's refcue) us for Trojans flew.
Then from all parts Ulyffes, Ajax then,
And then th' Atrida, rally all their men;
As winds that meet from feveral coafts, conteft,
Their prifons being broke, the fouth and weft,
And Eurus on his winged courfes born,
Triumphing in their speed, the woods are torn,
And chafing Nereus with his trident throws
The billows from the bottom; then all those
Who in the dark our fury did escape,
Returning, know our borrow'd arms, and shape,
And differing dialect. then their numbers fwell
And grow upon us; first Chorcbus fell
Before Minerva's altar, next did bleed
Juft Ripheus, whom no Trojan did exceed
In virtue, yet the gods his fate decreed.
Then Hypanis and Dymas, wounded by
Their friends; nor thee, Pantheus, thy piety,
Nor confecrated mitre, from the fame

}

Ill fate could fave; my country's funeral flame
And Troy's cold afhes I atteft, and call
To witness for myfelf, that in their fall
No foes, no death, nor danger, I declin'd,
Did, and deferv'd no lefs, my fate to find.
Now Iphitus with me, and Pelias
Slowly retire; the one retarded was
By feeble age, the other by a wound;
To court the cry directs us, where we found
Th' affault fo hot, as if 'twere only there,
And all the reft fecure from focs or fear:
The Grecks the gates approach'd, their targets

caft

Over their heads, fome fcaling-ladders plac'd
Against the walls, the reft the steps afcend,
And with their fhields on their left arms defend
Arrows and darts, and with their right hold fast
The battlement; on them the Trojans caft
Stones, rafters, pillars, beams; fuch arms as thefe
Now hopeless, for their laft defence they seize.
The gilded roofs, the marks of ancient state,
They tumble down; and now against the gate