And avenue to death. Hither he calls His watchful bands, and, low into the ground, A pit they sink, full many a fathom deep: Then, in the midst, a column high is rear’d, The butt of some fair tree; upon whose top A lamb is placed, just ravish’d from his dam; And next, a wall they build, with stones and earth Encircling round, and hiding from all view The dreadful precipice. Now, when the shades Of night hang lowering o’er the mountains brow, And hunger keen, and pungent thirst of blood, Rouze up the slothful beast, he shakes his sides, Slow-rising from his lair, and stretches wide His ravenous paws, with recent gore distain’d; The forests tremble as he roars aloud, Impatient to destroy. O’erjoy’d, he hears The bleating innocent, that claims, in vain, The shepherd’s care, and seeks, with piteous moan, The foodful teat; himself, alas! design’d Another’s meal. For now the greedy brute Winds him from far; and, leaping o’er the mound, To seize his trembling prey, headlong is plunged Into the deep abyss. Prostrate he lies, Astunn’d, and impotent. Ah! what avail Thine eye-balls flashing fire, thy length of tail [Sidenote: BOOK III THE CHASE v. 255-279.] That lashes thy broad sides, thy jaws besmear’d With blood, and offals crude, thy shaggy mane, The terrour of the woods, thy stately port, And bulk enormous, since, by stratagem, Thy strength is foil’d? Unequal is the strife, When sovereign reason combats brutal rage. On distant Ethiopia’s sun-burnt coasts, The black inhabitants a pitfall frame, But of a different kind, and different use: With slender poles the wide capacious mouth, And hurdles slight, they close; o’er these is spread A floor of verdant turf, with all its flowers Smiling delusive, and from strictest search Concealing the deep grave that yawns below: Then boughs of trees they cut, with tempting fruit, Of various kinds, surcharged; the downy peach, The clustering vine, and, of bright golden rind, The fragrant orange. Soon as evening gray Advances slow, besprinkling all around, With kind refreshing dews, the thirsty glebe, The stately elephant, from the close shade, With step majestic, strides, eager to taste The cooler breeze, that from the sea-beat shore Delightful breathes, or, in the limpid stream, To lave his panting sides; joyous he scents [Sidenote: BOOK III THE CHASE v. 280-304.]