660 665 670 Our common fafety must be now the care; But foon as morning paints the fields of air, Sheath'd in bright arms let every troop engage, And the fir'd fleet behold the battle rage. Then, then shall Hedor and Tydides prove, Whose fates are heavieft in the fcales of Jove : To-morrow's light (oh hafte the glorious morn!) Shall fee his bloody fpoils in triumph borne; With this keen javelin fhall his breast be gor'd, And proftrate heroes bleed around their lord. Certain as this, oh! might my days endure, From age inglorious, and black death secure; So might my life and glory know no bound, Like Pallas worship'd, like the fun renown'd! As the next dawn, the last they shall enjoy, Shall crush the Greeks, and end the woes of Troy.. The leader spoke. From all his host around Shouts of applause along the fhores resound. Each from the yoke the finoking steeds unty'd, And fix'd their headstalls to his chariot-fide. Fat fheep and oxen from the town are led, With generous wine, and all-sustaining bread. Full hecatombs lay burning on the fhore; The winds to heaven the curling vapours bore. Ungrateful offering to th' immortal powers! Whose wrath hung heavy o'er the Trojan towers; Nor Priam nor his fons obtain'd their grace; Proud Troy they hated, and her guilty race. The troops exulting fat in order round, And beaming fires illumin'd all the ground; 675 680 685 As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night O'er heaven's clear azure fpreads her facred light, And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays: Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the fpires. And fhoot a fhady luftre o'er the field. Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend, 690 695 700 Whose umber'd arms, by fits, thick flashes fend; 705. THE ARGUMENT. The Embaffy to Achilles. Agamemnon, after the last day's defeat, proposes to the Greeks to quit the fiege, and return to their country. Diomed opposes this; and Neftor seconds him, praifing his wifdom and refolution: he orders the guard to be ftrengthened, and a council fummoned to deliberate what meafures are to be followed in this emergency. Agamemnon pursues this advice and Neftor farther prevails upon him to fend ambaffadors to Achilles, in order to move him to a reconciliation. Ulyffes and Ajax are made choice of, who are accompanied by old Phoenix. They make, each of them, very moving and preffing fpeeches; but are rejected, with roughness, by Achilles, who notwithstanding retains Phoenix in his tent. The ambaffadors return unfuccefsfully to the camp; and the troops betake themselves to fleep. This book, and the next following, take up the fpace of one night, which is the twenty-feventh from the beginning of the poem. The fcene lies on the fea. thore, the station of the Grecian ships. THE ILIA D. BOOK IX. THUS joyful Troy maintain'd the watch of night; Swells o'er the fea, from Thracia's frozen fhore, 20 Ye |