第63章

Allur'd with hope of plunder, and intent By force to rob, by fraud to circumvent, The brutal Cacus, as by chance they stray'd, Four oxen thence, and four fair kine convey'd;And, lest the printed footsteps might be seen, He dragg'd 'em backwards to his rocky den.

The tracks averse a lying notice gave, And led the searcher backward from the cave.

"Meantime the herdsman hero shifts his place, To find fresh pasture and untrodden grass.

The beasts, who miss'd their mates, fill'd all around With bellowings, and the rocks restor'd the sound.

One heifer, who had heard her love complain, Roar'd from the cave, and made the project vain.

Alcides found the fraud; with rage he shook, And toss'd about his head his knotted oak.

Swift as the winds, or Scythian arrows' flight, He clomb, with eager haste, th' aerial height.

Then first we saw the monster mend his pace;Fear his eyes, and paleness in his face, Confess'd the god's approach.Trembling he springs, As terror had increas'd his feet with wings;Nor stay'd for stairs; but down the depth he threw His body, on his back the door he drew (The door, a rib of living rock; with pains His father hew'd it out, and bound with iron chains):

He broke the heavy links, the mountain clos'd, And bars and levers to his foe oppos'd.

The wretch had hardly made his dungeon fast;The fierce avenger came with bounding haste;Survey'd the mouth of the forbidden hold, And here and there his raging eyes he roll'd.

He gnash'd his teeth; and thrice he compass'd round With winged speed the circuit of the ground.

Thrice at the cavern's mouth he pull'd in vain, And, panting, thrice desisted from his pain.

A pointed flinty rock, all bare and black, Grew gibbous from behind the mountain's back;Owls, ravens, all ill omens of the night, Here built their nests, and hither wing'd their flight.

The leaning head hung threat'ning o'er the flood, And nodded to the left.The hero stood Adverse, with planted feet, and, from the right, Tugg'd at the solid stone with all his might.

Thus heav'd, the fix'd foundations of the rock Gave way; heav'n echo'd at the rattling shock.

Tumbling, it chok'd the flood: on either side The banks leap backward, and the streams divide;The sky shrunk upward with unusual dread, And trembling Tiber div'd beneath his bed.

The court of Cacus stands reveal'd to sight;The cavern glares with new-admitted light.

So the pent vapors, with a rumbling sound, Heave from below, and rend the hollow ground;A sounding flaw succeeds; and, from on high, The gods with hate beheld the nether sky:

The ghosts repine at violated night, And curse th' invading sun, and sicken at the sight.

The graceless monster, caught in open day, Inclos'd, and in despair to fly away, Howls horrible from underneath, and fills His hollow palace with unmanly yells.

The hero stands above, and from afar Plies him with darts, and stones, and distant war.

He, from his nostrils huge mouth, expires Black clouds of smoke, amidst his father's fires, Gath'ring, with each repeated blast, the night, To make uncertain aim, and erring sight.

The wrathful god then plunges from above, And, where in thickest waves the sparkles drove, There lights; and wades thro' fumes, and gropes his way, Half sing'd, half stifled, till he grasps his prey.

The monster, spewing fruitless flames, he found;He squeez'd his throat; he writh'd his neck around, And in a knot his crippled members bound;Then from their sockets tore his burning eyes:

Roll'd on a heap, the breathless robber lies.

The doors, unbarr'd, receive the rushing day, And thoro' lights disclose the ravish'd prey.

The bulls, redeem'd, breathe open air again.

Next, by the feet, they drag him from his den.

The wond'ring neighborhood, with glad surprise, Behold his shagged breast, his giant size, His mouth that flames no more, and his extinguish'd eyes.

From that auspicious day, with rites divine, We worship at the hero's holy shrine.

Potitius first ordain'd these annual vows:

As priests, were added the Pinarian house, Who rais'd this altar in the sacred shade, Where honors, ever due, for ever shall be paid.

For these deserts, and this high virtue shown, Ye warlike youths, your heads with garlands crown:

Fill high the goblets with a sparkling flood, And with deep draughts invoke our common god."This said, a double wreath Evander twin'd, And poplars black and white his temples bind.

Then brims his ample bowl.With like design The rest invoke the gods, with sprinkled wine.

Meantime the sun descended from the skies, And the bright evening star began to rise.

And now the priests, Potitius at their head, In skins of beasts involv'd, the long procession led;Held high the flaming tapers in their hands, As custom had prescrib'd their holy bands;Then with a second course the tables load, And with full chargers offer to the god.

The Salii sing, and cense his altars round With Saban smoke, their heads with poplar bound-One choir of old, another of the young, To dance, and bear the burthen of the song.

The lay records the labors, and the praise, And all th' immortal acts of Hercules:

First, how the mighty babe, when swath'd in bands, The serpents strangled with his infant hands;Then, as in years and matchless force he grew, Th' Oechalian walls, and Trojan, overthrew.

Besides, a thousand hazards they relate, Procur'd by Juno's and Eurystheus' hate:

"Thy hands, unconquer'd hero, could subdue The cloud-born Centaurs, and the monster crew:

Nor thy resistless arm the bull withstood, Nor he, the roaring terror of the wood.

The triple porter of the Stygian seat, With lolling tongue, lay fawning at thy feet, And, seiz'd with fear, forgot his mangled meat.

Th' infernal waters trembled at thy sight;Thee, god, no face of danger could affright;Not huge Typhoeus, nor th' unnumber'd snake, Increas'd with hissing heads, in Lerna's lake.

Hail, Jove's undoubted son! an added grace To heav'n and the great author of thy race!