Pyrrhus, as the objects that were around him were brought gradually
into view by the gray light of the morning, was alarmed at seeing that
the walls of the citadel were covered with armed men, and at observing
various other indications, by which he was warned that there was a
very powerful force opposed to him within the city. As the light
increased, and brought the boundaries of the market-place where he
posted himself into view, and revealed the various images and figures
which had been placed there to adorn it, he was struck with
consternation at the sight of one of the groups, as the outlines of it
slowly made themselves visible. It was a piece of statuary, in
bronze, representing a combat between a wolf and a bull. It seems that
in former times some oracle or diviner had forewarned him that when he
should see a wolf encountering a bull, he might know that the hour of
his death was near. Of course, he had supposed that such a spectacle,
if it was indeed true that he was ever destined to see it, could only
be expected to appear in some secluded forest, or in some wide and
unfrequented spot among the mountains. Perhaps, indeed, he had paid
very little attention to the prophecy, and never expected that it
would be literally realized. When, however, this group in bronze came
out to view, it reminded him of the oracle, and the dreadful
foreboding which its appearance awakened, connected with the anxiety
and alarm naturally inspired by the situation in which he was placed,
filled him with consternation. He feared that his hour was come, and
his only solicitude now was to make good his retreat as soon as
possible from the fatal dangers by which he seemed to be surrounded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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