The fad remembrance? Now th' expiring night
And the declining ftars to reft invite;

Yet fince 'tis your command, what you so well
Are pleas'd to hear, I cannot grieve to tell.
By fate repelled, and with repulfes tir'd,
The Greeks, fo many lives and years expir'd,
A fabrick like a moving mountain frame,
Pretending vows for their return; this fame
Divulges, then within the beast's vast womb
The choice and flower of all their troops entomb;
In view the ifle of Tenedos, once high,

In fame and wealth, while Troy remain'd, doth lie, (Now but an unfecure and open bay)

Thither by stealth the Greeks their fleet convey.
We gave them gone, and to Mycenæ fail'd,
And Troy reviv'd, her mourning face unvail'd;
All through th' unguarded gates with joy refort
To fee the flighted camp, the vacant port.
Here lay Ulyffes, there Achilles; here
The battle join'd, the Grecian fleet rode there
But the valt pile th' amazed vulgar views,
Till they their reason in their wonder lose.
And firft Thymotes moves (urg'd by the power
Of fate or fraud) to place it in the tower;
But Capys and the graver fort thought fit
The Greeks fufpected prefent to commit
To feas or flames, at least to search and bore
The fides, and what that space contains t' explore.
Th' uncertain multitude with both engag'd,
Divided ftands, till from the tower, enrag'd

Laocoon ran, whom all the crowd attends,
Crying, what defperate frenzy's this, (oh friends)
To think them gone? Judge rather their retreat
But a defign, their gifts but a deceit;

For our deftruction 'twas contriv'd no doubt,
Or from within by fraud, or from without
By force; yet know ye not Ulyffes' fhifts?
Their fwords lefs danger carry than their gifts.
(This faid) against the horse's fide his fpear
He throws, which trembles with inclosed fear,
Whilft from the hollows of his womb proceed
Groans, not his own; and had not fate decreed
Our ruin, we had fill'd with Grecian blood
The place; then Troy and Priam's throne had stood.
Meanwhile a fetter'd prifoner to the king
With joyful fhouts the Dardan fhepherds bring,
Who to betray us did himself betray,

At once the taker, and at once the prey;
Firmly prepar'd, of one event fecur'd,
Or of his death or his defign affur'd.
The Trojan youth about the captive flock,
To wonder, or to pity, or to mock.

Now hear the Grecian fraud, and from this one
Conjecture all the rest.

Difarm'd, diforder'd, cafting round his eyes
On all the troops that guarded him, he cries,
What land, what fea, for me what fate attends }
Caught by my foes, condemned by my friends,
Incenfed Troy a wretched captive feeks

To facrifice; a fugitive, the Greeks.

To

To pity this complaint our former rage
Converts, we now enquire his parentage,
What of their counfels or affairs he knew:

Then fearless he replies, great king, to you
All truth I fhall relate: nor first can I
Myfelf to be of Grecian birth deny;

And though my outward ftate misfortune hath
Depreft thus low, it cannot reach my faith.
You may by chance have heard the famous name
Of Palamede, who from old Belus came,
Whom, but for voting peace, the Greeks purfue,
Accus'd unjustly, then unjustly flew,

Yet mourn'd his death. My father was his friend,
And me to his commands did recommend,
While laws and councils did his throne fupport,
I but a youth, yet fome efteem and port
We then did bear, till by Ulyffes' craft
(Things known I fpeak) he was of life bereft :
Since in dark forrow I my days did fpend,
Till now difdaining his unworthy end,
I could not filence my complaints, but vow'd
Revenge, if ever fate or chance allow'd

My wish'd return to Greece; from hence his hate,
From thence my crimes, and all my ills bear date :
Old guilt fresh malice gives; the peoples ears
He fills with rumours, and their hearts with fears,
And then the prophet to his party
drew.
But why do I these thankless truths pursue ;
Or why defer your rage? on me, for all
The Greeks, let your revenging fury fall.

Ulyffes this, th' Atride this defire

At any rate. We ftrait are fet on fire
(Unpractis'd in fuch myfteries) to enquire
The manner and the cause, which thus he told,
With geftures humble, as his tale was bold.
Oft have the Greeks (the fiege detesting) tir'd
With tedious war, a ftolen retreat defir'd,
And would to heaven they'd gone: but still dismay'd
By feas or fkies, unwillingly they stay'd.

Chiefly when this stupendous pile was rais'd,
Strange noifes fill'd the air; we, all amaz'd,
Difpatch Eurypylus t' enquire our fates,
Who thus the fentence of the gods relates;
A virgin's flaughter did the storm appease,
When first towards Troy the Grecians took the feas;
Their fafe retreat another Grecian's blood

Must purchase. All at this confounded stood:
Each thinks himself the man, the fear on all

Of what, the mifchief but on one can fall.
Then Calchas (by Ulyffes first infpir'd)

Was urg'd to name whom th' angry gods requir'd;
Yet was I warn'd (for many were as well

Infpir'd as he, and did my fate foretel)

Ten days the prophet in fufpence remain'd,

Would no man's fate pronounce; at last constrain'd By Ithacus, he folemnly defign'd

Me for the facrifice; the people join'd

In glad confent, and all their common fear
Determine in my fate; the day drew near,

The

The facred rites prepar'd, my temples crown'd
With holy wreaths; then I confefs I found
The means to my escape, my bones I brake,
Fled from my guards, and in a muddy lake
Amongst the fedges all the night lay hid,
Till they their fails had hoift (i fo they did).
And now alas no hope remains for me
My home, my father, and my fons to fee,
Whom they, enrag'd, will kill for my offence,
And punish, for my guilt, their innocence.
Those gods who know the truths I now relate,
That faith which yet remains inviolate
By mortal men; by these I beg, redress
My causeless wrongs, and pity such distress.
And now true pity in exchange he finds

For his false tears, his tongue his hands unbinds.
Then spake the king, Be ours, whoe'er thou art;
Forget the Greeks. But first the truth impart,
Why did they raife, or to what use intend
This pile? to a war-like, or religious end?
Skilful in fraud (his native art), his hands
Toward heaven he rais'd, deliver'd now from bands.
Ye pure æthereal flames, ye powers ador'd
By mortal men, ye altars, and the fword
I fcap'd;

; ye facred fillets that involv'd

My deftin'd head, grant I may ftand abfolv'd

From all their laws and rights, renounce all name Of faith or love, their fecret thoughts proclaim; Only, O Troy, preferve thy faith to me,

If what I fhall relate preferveth thee.

From