Exult the Leuci, and the Remi now,
Expert in javelins, and the bending bow.
The Belge taught on cover'd wains to ride,
The Sequani the wheeling horfe to guide;
The bold Averni who from Flium come,
Vangiones, like loofe Sarmatians drest,
Who with rough hides their brawny thighs inveft; 765 Batavians fierce, whom brazen trumps delight,
And with hoarfe rattlings animate to fight;
The nations where the Cinga's waters flow,
And Pyrenæan mountains stand in fnow;
Those where flow Arar meets the rapid Rhone,
And with his stronger stream is hurry'd down;
Those o'er the mountains lofty summit spread,
Where high Gebenna lifts her hoary head;
With these the Trevir, and Ligurian fhorn,
Whose brow no more long falling locks adorn ;07
Though chief amongst the Gauls he wont to deck,
With ringlets comely spread, his graceful neck:
And you where Hefus' horrid altar stands,
Where dire Teutates human blood demands;
Where Taranis by wretches is obey'd,
And vies in flaughter with the Scythian maid:
All fee with joy the war's departing rage,
Seek diftant lands, and other foes engage.
You too, ye bards! whom facred raptures fire,
To chaunt your heroes to your country's lyre;
F 2
Who confecrate, in your immortal strain,
Brave patriot fouls in righteous battle flain;
Securely now the tuneful task renew,
And nobleft themes in deathlefs fongs purfue.
The Druids now, while arms are heard no more, 790 Old mysteries and barbarous rites restore :
A tribe who fingular religion, love,
And haunt the lonely coverts of the grove. han stod f
To thefe, and thefe of all mankind alone,
The gods are fure reveal'd, or fure unknown.
If dying mortals dooms they fing aright,
No ghofts defcend to dwell in dreadful. night:w bal No parting fouls to grifly Pluto go,
Nor feek the dreary filent fhades below:
But forth they fly immortal in their kind,
And other bodies in new worlds they find.
Thus life for ever runs its endless race,
And like a line, death but divides the fpace, il mark
A ftop which can but for a moment last,
A point between the future and the past. boy
Thrice happy they beneath their northern fkies,
Who that worst fear, the fear of death, despise;
Hence they no cares for this frail being feel,
But rush undaunted on the pointed steel ;
Provoke approaching fate, and bravely scorn
To fpare that life which muft fo foon return.
You too towards Rome advance, ye warlike band,
That wont the fhaggy Gauci to withstand;
Whom once a better order did affign,
To guard the paffes of the German Rhine;
Now from the fenceless banks you march away,
And leave the world the fierce barbarians prey.
While thus the numerous troops, from every part,
Affembling, raise their daring leader's heart;
Oter Italy he takes his warlike way,
The neighbouring towns his fummons straight obey,
And on their walls his enfigns high display.
Mean-while the bufy meffenger of ill,
Officious Fame, fupplies new terror still:
A thousand flaughters, and ten thousand fears,
She whispers in the trembling vulgar's ears.
Now comes a frighted meffenger, to tell
Of ruins which the country round befel;
The foe to fair Mevania's walls is paft,
And lays Clitumnus' fruitful pastures wafte;
Where Nar's white waves with Tiber mingling fall,
Range the rough German and the rapid Gaul.
But when himself, when Cæfar they would paint,
The stronger image makes defcription faint;
No tongue can speak with what amazing dread
Wild thought presents him at his army's head;
Unlike the man familiar to their
eyes,
Horrid he feems, and of gigantic fize :
Unnumber'd eagles rife amidst his train,
And millions feem to hide the crouded plain.
Around him all the various nations join,
Between the fnowy Alps and diftant Rhine.
He draws the fierce barbarians from their home,
With rage furpaffing theirs he feems to come,
And urge them on to spoil devoted Rome.
F 3
Thus fear does half the work of lying fame,
And cowards thus their own misfortunes frame;
By their own feigning fancies are betray'd,
And groan beneath thofe ills themselves have made.
Nor these alarms the croud alone infest,
But ran alike through every beating breast
With equal dread the grave Patricians shook,
'Their feats abandon'd, and the court forfook.
The scattering fathers quit the public care,
And bid the confuls for the war prepare.
Refolv'd on flight, yet still unknowing where
To fly from danger, or for aid repair.
Hafty and headlong differing paths they tread,
As blind impulfe and wild distraction lead;
The croud, a hurrying, heartless train, fucceed.
Who that the lamentable fight beheld,
The wretched fugitives that hid the field,
Would not have thought the flames, with rapid hafte
Destroying wide, had laid their city wafte;
Or groaning earth had fhook beneath their feet,
While threatening fabrics nodded o'er the street.
By fuch unthinking rashness were they led ;
Such was the madness which their fears had bred,
As if, of every other hope bereft,
To fly from Rome were all the fafety left.
So when the stormy South is heard to roar,
And rolls huge billows from the Libyan fhore
When rending fails flit with the driving blast,
And with a crash down comes the lofty maft;
Some coward mafter leaps from off the deck,
And, hafty to defpair, prevents the wreck;
And though the bark unbroken hold her way, o roli
His trembling crew all plunge into the fea.
From doubtful thus they run to certain harms,
And flying from the city rush to arms.
Then fons forfook their fires un-nerv'd and old,
Nor weeping wives their husbands could withhold
Each left his guardian Lares unador'd,
Nor with one parting prayer their aid implor'd:
None ftop'd, or fighing turn'd for one last view, 885€ Or bid the city of his birth adieu.
The headlong crowd regardless urge their way,
Though ev'n their gods and country ask their stay,
And pleading nature beg them to delay.
What means, ye gods ! this changing in your doom ?890 Freely you grant, but quickly you resume. Vain is the thort-liv'd fovereignty you lend;
The pile you raife you deign not to defend.
See where, forfaken by her native bands,
All defolate the once-great city stands !
She whom her swarming citizens made proud,
Where once the vanquish'd nations wont to croud,
Within the circuit of whofe ample space
Mankind might meet at once, and find a place;
A wide defenceless defert now the lies,
And yields herself the victor's easy prize.
The camp intrench'd secureft flumbers yields,
Though hoftile arms befet the neighbouring fields;
Rude banks of earth the hafty foldier rears,
And in the turfy wall forgets his fears:
While, Rome, thy fons all tremble from afar,
And scatter at the very name of war;
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