COM. SEN. Lingua, go presently; command the Senses, upon their allegiance to our dread sovereign Queen Psyche, to dismiss their companies, and personally to appear before me without any pretence of excuse. LIN. I go, my lord. PHA. But hear you, madam? I pray you, let your Tongue's page[229] walk with us a little, till you return again. LIN. With all my heart. [_Exit_ LINGUA. PHA.[230] Hot youths, I protest: saw you those warlike preparations? MEN, Lately, my lords, I sped into the army; But O, 'tis far beyond my reach of wit Or strength of utterance to describe their forces. COM. SEN. Go to; speak what thou canst. MEN. Upon the right hand of a spacious hill Proud Visus marshalleth a puissant army, Three thousand eagles strong, whose valiant captain Is Jove's swift thunder-bearer, that same bird, That hoist up Ganymede from the Trojan plains. The vanguard strengthened with a wondrous flight Of falcons, haggards, hobbies, terselets,[231] Lanards and goshawks, sparhawks, and ravenous birds. The rearward granted to Auditus' charge, Is stoutly follow'd with an impetuous herd Of stiff-neck'd bulls and many horn-mad stags, Of the best head the forest can afford. PHA. I promise you, a fearful troop of soldiers. MEN. Right opposite stands Tactus, strongly mann'd With three thousand bristled urchens[232] for his pikemen, Four hundred tortoises for elephants; Besides a monstrous troop of ugly spiders, Within an ambushment he hath commanded Of their own guts to spin a cordage fine, Whereof t'have fram'd a net (O wondrous work!) That, fastened by the concave of the moon, Spreads down itself to th'earth's circumference. MEM. 'Tis very strange; I cannot remember the like engine at any time. MEN. Nay more, my lord, the masks[233] are made so strong, That I myself upon them scal'd the heavens, And boldly walk'd about the middle region, Where, in the province of the meteors, I saw the cloudy shops of hail and rain, Garners of snow, and crystals full of dew; Rivers of burning arrows, dens of dragons, Huge beams of flames, and spears like firebrands. Where I beheld hot Mars and Mercury, With rackets made of spheres and balls of stars, Playing at tennis for a tun of Nectar. And that vast gaping of the firmament Under the southern pole is nothing else But the great hazard[234] of their tennis-court; The Zodiac is the line; the shooting stars, Which in an eye-bright evening seem to fall, Are nothing but the balls they lose at bandy. Thus, having took my pleasure with those sights, By the same net I went up I descended. COM. SEN. Well, sirrah, to what purpose tends this stratagem? MEN. None know directly; but I think it is T'entrap the eagles, when the battles join. PHA. Who takes Tactus his part? MEN. Under the standard of thrice-hardy Tactus, Thrice-valiant Gustus leads his warlike forces; An endless multitude of desperate apes; Five hundred marmosets and long-tail'd monkeys, All trained to the field, and nimble gunners.