Now front to front the hoftile armies stand, Eager of fight, and only wait command;

When, to the van, before the fons of fame

Whom Troy fent forth, the beauteous Paris came,
In form a God! the panther's speckled hide
Flow'd o'er his armour with an easy pride,
His bended bow across his fhoulders flung,
His fword befide him regligently hung,
Two pointed fpears he shook with gallant grace,
And dar'd the braveft of the Grecian race.

As thus, with glorious air and proud disdain,
He boldly stalk'd, the foremost on the plain,
Him Menelaus, lov'd of Mars, efpies,
With heart elated, and with joyful eyes:
So joys a lion, if the branching deer,
Or mountain goat, his bulky prize, appear
Eager he feizes and devours the flain,
Preft by bold youths and baying dogs in vain.
Thus fond of vengeance, with a furious bound,
In clanging arms he leaps upon the ground
From his high chariot: him, approaching near,
The beauteous champion views with marks of fear;
Smit with a confcious fenfe, retires behind,
And fhuns the fate he well deferv'd to find.

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As when some shepherd, from the rustling trees
Shot forth to view, a fcaly ferpent fees;

Trembling and pale, he starts with wild affright,
And all confus'd precipitates his flight:

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So from the king the fhining warriour flies,
And plung'd amid the thickest Trojans lies.

A&

As God-like Hector fees the prince retreat, He thus upbraids him with a generous heat: Unhappy Paris! but to women brave !

So fairly form'd, and only to deceive!

Oh, hadst thou died when first thou faw'ft the light,
Or died at least before thy nuptial rite!

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A better fate than vainly thus to boast,

And fly, the fcandal of the Trojan host.
Gods! how the feornful Greeks exult to fee
Their fears of danger undeceiv'd in thee!
Thy figure promis'd with a martial air,
But ill thy foul fupplies a form so fair.
In former days, in all thy gallant pride

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When thy tall ships triumphant ftemm'd the tide, When Greece beheld thy painted canvass flow, And crowds stood wondering at the paffing show; Say, was it thus, with fuch a baffled mien, You met th' approaches of the Spartan queen, Thus from her realm convey'd the beauteous prize, And both her warlike lords outfhin'd in Helen's eyes? This deed, thy foes delight, thy own difgrace, Thy father's grief, and ruin of thy race; This deed recalls thee to the proffer'd fight;

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Or haft thou injur'd whom thou dar'ft not right?
Soon to thy coft the field would make thee know
Thou keep'ft the confort of a braver foe.
Thy graceful form inftilling foft defire,

Thy curling treffes, and thy filver lyre,
Beauty and youth; in vain to these you truft,
When youth and beauty shall be laid in dust :

Thefeus and Menelaus.

Troy yet may wake, and one avenging blow
Crush the dire author of his country's woe.

His filence here, with blushes, Paris breaks
'Tis juft, my brother, what your anger speaks :
But who like thee can boaft a foul fedate,

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So firmly proof to all the fhocks of fate?
Thy force like fteel a temper'd hardness shows,
Still edg'd to wound, and still untir'd with blows. go
Like fteel, uplifted by some strenuous fwain,
With falling woods to ftrow the wafted plain.
Thy gifts I praife; nor thou despise the charms
With which a lover golden Venus arms;
Soft moving speech, and pleasing outward show,
No wifh can gain them, but the Gods bestow.
Yet, would'st thou have the proffer'd combat ftand,
The Greeks and Trojans feat on either hand
Then let a mid-way space our hofts divide,
And on that ftage of war the cause be try'd:
By Paris there the 'Spartan king be fought,
For beauteous Helen and the wealth she brought:
And who his rival can in arms fubdue,
His be the fair, and his the treasure too.
Thus with a lafting league your toils may
And Troy poffefs her fertile fields in peace;
Thus may the Greeks review their native flrore,
Much fam'd for generous fteeds, for beauty more.

ceafe,

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He faid. The challenge Hector heard with joy, Then with his fpear restrain'd the youth of Troy, 110 Held by the midft, athwart; and near the foe Advanc'd with steps majeftically flow:

While round his dauntless head the Grecians pour
Their stones and arrows in a mingled shower.

Then thus the monarch great Atrides cry'd;
Forbear, ye warriours! lay the darts afide:
A parley Hector asks, a message bears,
We know him by the various plume he wears.
Aw'd by his high command the Greeks attend,
The tumult filence, and the fight suspend.

While from the centre Hector rolls his eyes
On either hoft, and thus to both applies:
Hear, all ye Trojans, all ye Grecian bands!
What Paris, author of the war, demands..
Your fhining fwords within the sheath restrain,
And pitch your lances in the yielding plain.
Here in the midst, in either army's fight,
He dares the Spartan king to fingle fight;
And wills, that Helen and the ravish'd spoil
That caus'd the conteft, fhall reward the toil.
Let these the brave triumphant victor grace,
And differing nations part in leagues of peace.

He spoke in ftill fufpenfe on either fide

:

Each army ftood: the Spartan chief reply'd:

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Me too, ye warriours, hear, whose fatal right 135

A world engages in the toils of fight.

To me the labour of the field resign;

Me Paris injur'd; all the war be mine.
Fall he that muft, beneath his rival's arms;
And live the rest, secure of future harms.
Two lambs, devoted by your country's rite,
To Earth a fable, to the Sun a white,

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Prepare, ye Trojans! while a third we bring
Select to Jove, th' inviolable king.
Let reverend Priam in the truce engage,
And add the fanction of confiderate age;
His fons are faithlefs, headlong in debate,
And youth itself an empty wavering state:
Cool age advances venerably wife,

Turns on all hands its deep-difcerning eyes;
Sees what befel, and what may yet befall,
Concludes from both, and best provides for all.
The nations hear, with rifing hopes poffeft,
And peaceful profpects dawn in every
breaft.
Within the lines they drew their steeds around,
And from their chariots issued on the ground:
Next all, unbuckling the rich mail they wore,
Lay'd their bright arms along the fable fhore.
On either fide the meeting hofts are seen
With lances fix'd, and close the space between.
Two heralds now, difpatch'd to Troy, invite
The Phrygian monarch to the peaceful rite;
Talthybius haftens to the fleet, to bring
The lamb for Jove, th' inviolable king.

'Meantime, to beauteous Helen, from the skies
The various Goddefs of the rain-bow flies
(Like fair Laodicè in form and face

The lovelieft nymph of Priam's royal race).
Her in the palace, at her loom fhe found;
The golden web her own fad itory crown'd.
The Trojan wars the weav'd (herself the prize)
And the dire triumphs of her fatal eyes.

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