Then shook the sacred shrine, and sudden light Sprung through the vaulted roof, and made the temple bright. The Power, behold! the Power in glory shone, By her bent bow and her keen arrows known; The rest, a huntress issuing from the wood, Reclining on her cornel spear she stood. Then gracious thus began: "Dismiss thy fear, And Heaven's unchanged decrees attentive hear: More powerful gods have torn thee from my side, Unwilling to resign, and doomed a bride; The two contending knights are weighed above; One Mars protects, and one the Queen of Love: But which the man is in the Thunderer's breast; This he pronounced, 'Tis he who loves thee best.' The fire that, once extinct, revived again Foreshows the love allotted to remain. Farewell!" she said, and vanished from the place; The sheaf of arrows shook, and rattled in the case. Aghast at this, the royal virgin stood, Disclaimed, and now no more a sister of the wood: But to the parting Goddess thus she prayed: "Propitious still, be present to my aid, Nor quite abandon your once favoured maid." Then sighing she returned; but smiled betwixt, With hopes, and fears, and joys with sorrows mixt. The next returning planetary hour of Mars, who shared the heptarchy of power, His steps bold Arcite to the temple bent, To adorn with pagan rites the power armipotent: Then prostrate, low before his altar lay, And raised his manly voice, and thus began, to pray: "Strong God of Arms, whose iron sceptre sways The freezing North, and Hyperborean seas, And Scythian colds, and Thracia's wintry coast, Where stand thy steeds, and thou art honoured most: There most, but everywhere thy power is known, The fortune of the fight is all thy own: Terror is thine, and wild amazement, flung From out thy chariot, withers even the strong; And disarray and shameful rout ensue, And force is added to the fainting crew. Acknowledged as thou art, accept my prayer! If aught I have achieved deserve thy care, If to my utmost power with sword and shield I dared the death, unknowing how to yield, And falling in my rank, still kept the field; Then let my arms prevail, by thee sustained, That Emily by conquest may be gained. Have pity on my pains; nor those unknown To Mars, which, when a lover, were his own. Venus, the public care of all above, Thy stubborn heart has softened into love: Now, by her blandishments and powerful charms, When yielded she lay curling in thy arms, Even by thy shame, if shame it may be called, When Vulcan had thee in his net enthralled; O envied ignominy, sweet disgrace, When every god that saw thee wished thy place! By those dear pleasures, aid my arms in fight, And make me conquer in my patron's right: For I am young, a novice in the trade, The fool of love, unpractised to persuade, And want the soothing arts that catch the fair, But, caught my self, lie struggling in the snare;