Dear Menalippus, heed the king's command,
And my paternal tenderness revere.
Thou from these ranks withdraw thee, to my use
Thy arms surrend'ring. Fortune will supply
New proofs of valour. Vanquish then, or find
A glorious grave; but spare thy father's eye
The bitter anguish to behold thy youth
Untimely bleed before him." Grief suspends
His speech, and interchangeably their arms
Impart the last embraces. Either weeps,
The hoary parent, and the blooming son.

But from his temples the pontific wreath
Megistias now unloosens. He resigns

[blush.

His hallow'd vestments; while the youth in tears
The helmet o'er his parent's snowy locks,
O'er his broad chest adjusts the radiant mail.
Dieneces was nigh. Oppress'd by shame,
His downcast visage Menalippus hid
From him, who cheerful thus. "Thou needst not
Thou hear'st thy father and the king command,
What I suggested, thy departure hence.
Train'd by my care, a soldier thou return'st.
Go, practice my instructions. Oft in fields
Of future conflict may thy prowess call

Me to remembrance. Spare thy words. Farewell."
While such contempt of life, such fervid zeal
To die with glory animate the Greeks,
Far diff'rent thoughts possess Argestes' soul.
Amaze and mingled terrour chill his blood.
Cold drops, distill'd from ev'ry pore, bedew
His shiv'ring flesh. His bosom pants. His knees
Yield to their burden. Ghastly pale his checks,
Pale are his lips and trembling. Such the minds
Of slaves corrupt; on them the beauteous face
Of virtue turns to horrour. But these words
From Lacedæmon's chief the wretch relieve.

"Return to Xerxes. Tell him, on this rock
The Grecians, faithful to their trust, await
His chosen myriads Tell him, thou hast seen,
How far the lust of empire is below
A freeborn spirit; that my death, which seals
My country's safety, is indeed a boon
His folly gives, a precious boon, which Greece
Will by perdition to his throne repay."

He said. The Persian hastens through the pass.
Once more the stern Diomedon arose.
Wrath overcast his forehead while he spake.
"Yet more must stay and bleed. Detested

Thebes

This spot

Ne'er shall receive her traitors back.
Shall see their perfidy aton'd by death,
Ev'n from that pow'r, to which their abject hearts
Have sacrific'd their faith. Nor dare to hope,
Ye vile deserters of the public weal,
Ye coward slaves, that, mingled in the heaps
Of gen'rous victims to their country's good,
You shall your shame conceal. Whoe'er shall pass
Along this field of glorious slain, and mark
For veneration ev'ry nobler corse;

His heart, though warm in rapturous applause,
Awhile shall curb the transport to repeat
His execrations o'er such impious heads,
On whom that fate, to others yielding fame,
Is infamy and vengeance." Dreadful thus
On the pale Thebans sentence he pronounc'd,
Like Rhadamanthus from th' infernal seat
Of judgment, which inexorably dooms
The guilty dead to ever-during pain;
While Phlegethon his flaming volumes rolls
Before their sight, and ruthless furies shake

Their hissing serpents. All the Greeks assent
In clamours, echoing through the concave rock.
Forth Anaxander in th' assembly stood,
Which he address'd with indignation feign'd.

"if yet your clamours, Grecians, are allay'd, Lo! I appear before you to demand,

Why these my brave companions, who alone
Among the Thebans through dissuading crowds
Their passage forc'd to join your camp, should bear
The name of traitors? By an exil'd wretch
We are traduc'd, by Demaratus, driv'n
From Spartan confines, who hath meanly sought
Barbarian courts for shelter. Hath he drawn
Such virtues thence, that Sparta, who before
Held him unworthy of his native sway,
Should trust him now, and doubt auxiliar friends?
Injurious men! We scorn the thoughts of flight.
Let Asia bring her numbers; unconstrain'd,
We will confront them, and for Greece expire."
Thus in the garb of virtue he adorn'd
Necessity. Laconia's king perceiv'd
Through all its fair disguise the traitor's heart.
So, when at first mankind in science rude
Rever'd the Moon, as bright in native beams,
Some sage, who walk'd with Nature through her
By Wisdom led, discern'd the various orb, [works,
Dark in itself, in foreign splendours clad.

Leonidas concludes. "Ye Spartans, hear;
Hear you, O Grecians, in our lot by choice
Partakers, destin'd to enrol your names
In time's eternal record, and enhance
Your country's lustre: lo! the noontide blaze
Inflames the broad horizon. Each retire;
Each in his tent invoke the pow'r of sleep
To brace his vigour, to enlarge his strength
For long endurance. When the Sun descends,
Let each appear in arms. You, brave allies
Of Corinth, Phlius, and Mycena's tow'rs,
Arcadians, Locrians, must not yet depart.
While we repose, embattled wait. Retreat,
When we our tents abandon. I resign
To great Oileus' son supreme command.
Take my embraces, Aschylus. The fleet
Expects thee. To Themistocles report,
What thou hast seen and heard."—"O thrice fare-
well!"

Th' Athenian answer'd. "To yourselves, my friends,
Your virtues immortality secure,
Your bright examples victory to Greece."

Retaining these injunctions, all dispers'd;
While in his tent Leonidas remain'd

| Apart with Agis, whom he thus bespake.
Yet in our fall the pond'rous hand of Greece
Shall Asia feel. This Persian's welcome tale
Of us, inextricably doom'd her prey,
As by the force of sorcery will wrap
Security around her, will suppress
All sense, all thought of danger. Brother, know,
That soon as Cynthia from the vault of Heav'n
Withdraws her shining lamp, through Asia's host
Shall massacre and desolation rage.

Yet not to base associates will I trust
My vast design. Their perfidy might warn
The unsuspecting foe, our fairest fruits
Of glory thus be wither'd. Ere we move,
While on the solemn sacrifice intent,
As Lacedæmon's ancient laws ordain,
Our prayers we offer to the tuneful Nine,
Thou whisper through the willing ranks of Thebes
Slow and in silence to disperse and fly."

Now left by Agis, on his couch reclin'd, The Spartan king thus meditates alone.

My fate is now impending. O my soul,
What more auspicious period couldst thou choose
For death than now, when, beating high in joy,
Thou tell'st me I am happy? If to live,
Or die, as virtue dictates, be to know
The purest bliss; if she her charms displays
Still lovely, still unfading, still serene
To youth, to age, to death: whatever be
Those other climes of happiness unchang'd,
Which Heav'n in dark futurity conceals,
Still here, O Virtue, thou art all our good.
Oh! what a black, unspeakable reverse
Must the unrighteous, must the tyrant prove?
What in the struggle of departing day,
When life's last glimpse, extinguishing, presents
Unknown, inextricable gloom? But how
Can I explain the terrours of a breast,
Where guilt resides? Leonidas, forego
The horrible conception, and again
Within thy own felicity retire;

Bow grateful down to him, who form'd thy mind
Of crimes unfruitful never to admit
The black impression of a guilty thought.
Else could I fearless by delib'rate choice
Relinquish life? This calm from minds deprav'd
Is ever absent. Oft in them the force
Of some prevailing passion for a time
Suppresses fear. Precipitate they lose
The sense of danger; when dominion, wealth,
Or purple pomp enchant the dazzled sight,
Pursuing still the joys of life alone.

"But he, who calmly seeks a certain death,
When duty only, and the general good
Direct his courage, must a soul possess,
Which, all content deducing from itself,
Can by unerring virtue's constant light
Discern, when death is worthy of his choice.

"The man, thus great and happy, in the scope
Of his large mind is stretch'd beyond his date.
Ev'n on this shore of being he in thought,
Supremely bless'd, anticipates the good,
Which late posterity from him derives."

At length the hero's meditations close.
The swelling transport of his heart subsides
In soft oblivion; and the silken plumes
Of sleep envelop his extended limbs.

LEONIDAS. BOOK XI.

THE ARGUMENT.

Leonidas, rising before sunset, dismisses the forces under the command of Medon; but observing a reluctance in him to depart, reminds him of his duty, and gives him an affectionate farewell. He then relates to his own select band a dream, which is interpreted by Megistias, arms himself, and marches in procession with his whole troop to an altar, newly raised on a neighbouring meadow; there offers a sacrifice to the Muses: he invokes the assistance of those goddesses; he animates his companions; then, placing himself at their head, leads them against the enemy in the dead of the night.

THE day was closing. Agis left his tent.
He sought his godlike brother. Him he found
Stretch'd o'er his tranquil couch. His looks retain'd
The cheerful tincture of his waking thoughts
To gladden sleep. So smile soft evening skies,
Yet streak'd with ruddy light, when summer's suns
Have veil'd their beaming foreheads. Transport fill'd
The eye of Agis. Friendship swell'd his heart.
His yielding knee in veneration bent.

The hero's hand he kiss'd, then fervent thus.
"O excellence ineffable, receive
This secret homage; and may gentle sleep
Yet longer seal thine eyelids, that, unblam'd,
I may fall down before thee." He concludes
In adoration of his friend divine,
Whose brow the shades of slumber now forsake.
So, when the rising Sun resumes his state,
Some white-rob'd magus on Euphrates side,
Or Indian seer on Ganges, prostrate falls
Before th' emerging glory, to salute
That radiant emblem of th' immortal mind.

Uprise both heroes. From their tents in arms
Appear the bands elect. The other Greeks
Are filing homeward. Only Medon stops.
Melissa's dictates he forgets awhile.
All inattentive to the warning voice
Of Melibœus, earnest he surveys
Leonidas. Such constancy of zeal

In good Oïleus' offspring brings the sire
To full remembrance in that solemn hour,
And draws these cordial accents from the king.
Approach me, Locrian. In thy look I trace
Consummate faith and love. But, vers'd in arms,
Against thy gen'ral's orders wouldst thou stay?
Go, prove to kind Oileus, that my heart

Of him was mindful, when the gates of death
I barr'd against his son. Yon gallant Greeks,
To thy commanding care from mine transferr'd,
Remove from certain slaughter. Last repair
To Lacedæmon. Thither lead thy sire.
Say to her senate, to her people tell,
Here didst thou leave their countrymen and king
On death resolv'd, obedient to the laws."

The Locrian chief, restraining tears, replies.
"My sire, left slumb'ring in the island-fane,
Awoke no more."-" Then joyful I shall meet
Him soon," the king made answer. "Let thy worth
Supply thy father's. Virtue bids me die,
Thee live. Farewell." Now Medon's grief, o'eraw'd
By wisdom, leaves his long-suspended mind
To firm decision. He departs, prepar'd
For all the duties of a man, by deeds
To prove himself the friend of Sparta's king,
Melissa's brother, and Oïleus' son.
The gen'rous victims of the public weal,
Assembled now, Leonidas salutes,
His pregnant soul disburd'ning.
"O thrice hail!
Surround me, Grecians; to my words attend.
This evening's sleep no longer press'd my brows,
Than o'er my head the empyreal form
Of heav'n-enthron'd Alcides was display'd.
I saw his magnitude divine. His voice
I heard, his solemn mandate to arise.
I rose. He bade me follow. I obey'd.
A mountain's summit, clear'd from mist, or cloud,
We reach'd in silence. Suddenly the howl
Of wolves and dogs, the vulture's piercing shriek,
The yell of ev'ry beast and bird of prey
Discordant grated on my ear. I turn'd.

The king proceeds: from whose superior frame
A soul like thine, O Phidias, might conceive
In Parian marble, or effulgent brass,
The form of great Apollo; when the god,
Won by the pray'rs of man's afflicted race,
In arms forsook his lucid throne to pierce
The monster Python in the Delphian vale.
Close by the hero Polydorus waits

To gaide destruction through the Asian tents.
As the young eagle near his parent's side
In wanton flight essays his vig'rous wing,
Ere long with her to penetrate the clouds,
To dart impetuous on the fleecy train,
And dye his beak in gore; by Sparta's king
The injur'd Polydorus thus prepares
His arm for death. He feasts his angry soul
On promis'd vengeance. His impatient thoughts
Ev'n now transport him furious to the scat
Of his long sorrows, not with fetter'd hands,
But now once more a Spartan with his spear,
His shield restor'd, to lead his country's bands,
And with them devastation. Nor the rest
Neglect to form. Thick-rang'd, the helmets blend
Their various plumes, as intermingling oaks
Combine their foliage in Dodona's grove;
Or as the cedars on the Syrian hills

Their shady texture spread. Once more the king,
O'er all the phalanx his consid'rate view
Extending, through the ruddy gleam descries
One face of gladness; but the godlike van
He most contemplates: Agis, Alpheus there,
Megistias, Maron with Platæa's chief,
Dieneces, Demophilus are seen

With Thespia's youth: nor they their steady sight
From his remove, in speechless transport bound
By love, by veneration; till they hear
His last injunction. To their diff'rent posts
They sep'rate. Instant on the dewy turf

Are cast th' extinguish'd brands. On all around
Drops sudden darkness, on the wood, the hill,
The snowy ridge, the vale, the silver stream.
It verg'd on midnight. Tow'rd the hostile camp
In march compos'd and silent down the pass
The phalanx mov'd. Each patient bosom hush'd
Its struggling spirit, nor in whispers breath'd
The rapt'rous ardour virtue then inspir'd.
So louring clouds along th' ethereal void
In slow expansion from the gloomy north
Awhile suspend their horrours, destin'd soon
To blaze in lightnings, and to burst in storms.

LEONIDAS BOOK XII.

THE ARGUMENT.

Leonidas and the Grecians penetrate through the Persian camp to the very pavilion of Xerxes, who avoids destruction by flight. The barbarians are slaughtered in great multitudes, and their camp is set on fire. Leonidas conducts his men in good order back to Thermopylæ, engages the Persians, who were descended from the hills, and after numberless proofs of superior strength and valour, sinks down covered with wounds, and expires the last of all the Grecian commanders..

ACROSS th' unguarded bound of Asia's camp
Slow pass the Grecians. Through innum'rous tents,
Where all is mute and tranquil, they pursue
Their march sedate. Beneath the leaden hand
Of Sleep lie millions motionless and deaf,
Nor dream of Fate's approach. Their wary foes,
By Polydorus guided, still proceed.

Ev'n to the centre of th' extensive host
They pierce unseen; when, lo! th' imperial tent
Yet distant rose before them. Spreading round
Th' august pavilion, was an ample space
For thousands in arrangement. Here a band
Of chosen Persians, watchful o'er the king,
Held their nocturnal station. As the hearts
Of anxious nations, whom th' unsparing sword
Or famine threaten, tremble at the sight
Of fear-engender'd phantoms in the sky,
Aerial hosts amid the clouds array'd,
Portending woe and death; the Persian guard
In equal consternation now descry'd
The glimpse of hostile armour. All disband,
As if auxil ar to his favour'd Greeks
Pan held their banner, scatt'ring from its folds
Fear and confusion, which to Xerxes couch,
Swift-winged, fly; thence shake the gen'ral camp,
Whose numbers issue naked, pale, unarm'd,
Wild in amazement, blinded by dismay,
To ev'ry foe obnoxious. In the breasts
Of thousands, gor'd at once, the Grecian steel
Reeks in destruction. Deluges of blood
Float o'er the field, and foam around the heaps
Of wretches, slain unconscious of the hand
Which wastes their helpless multitude. Amaze,
Affright, distraction from his pillow chase
The lord of Asia, who in thought beholds
United Greece in arms. Thy lust of pow'r!
Thy hope of glory! whither are they flown
With all thy pomp? In this disastrous hour
What could avail th' immeasurable range
Of thy proud camp, save only to conceal
Thy trembling steps, O Xerxes, while thou fly'st?
To thy deserted couch, with other looks,
With other steps, Leonidas is nigh.
Before him Terrour strides.

Gigantic Death,

And Desolation at his side, attend.

The vast pavilion's empty space, where lamps Of gold shed light and odours, now admits The hero. Ardent throngs behind him press, But miss their victim. To the ground are hurl'd The glitt'ring ensigns of imperial state. The diadem, the sceptre, late ador'd Through boundless kingdoms, underneath their feet In mingled rage and scorn the warriors crush,' A sacrifice to freedom. They return

Again to form. Leonidas exalts,

For new destruction, his resistless spear;
When double darkness suddenly descends.
The clouds, condensing, intercept the stars.
Black o'er the furrow'd main the raging east
In whirlwinds sweeps the surge. The coasts resound.
The cavern'd rocks, the crashing forests roar.
Swift through the camp the hurricane impells
Its rude career; when Asia's numbers, veil'd
Amid the shelt'ring horrours of the storm,
Evade the victor's lance. The Grecians halt;
While to their gen'rals pregnant mind occurs
A new attempt and vast. Perpetual fire
Beside the tent of Xerxes, from the hour
He lodg'd his standards on the Malian plains,