Meanwhile on Hector, with untiring hate. The swift Achilles press’d: as when a hound, Through glen and tangled brake, pursues a fawn, Rous’d from its lair upon the mountain side; And if awhile it should evade pursuit, Low crouching in the copse, yet quests he back, Searching unwearied, till he find the trace; So Hector sought to baffle, but in vain, The keen pursuit of Peleus’ active son. Oft as he sought the shelter of the gates Beneath the well-built tow’rs, if haply thence His comrades’ weapons might some aid afford; So oft his foeman, with superior speed, Would cut him off, and turn him to the plain. He tow’rd the city still essay’d his flight; And as in dreams, when one pursues in vain, One seeks in vain to fly, the other seeks As vainly to pursue; so could not now Achilles reach, nor Hector quit, his foe. Yet how should Hector now the doom of death Have ’scap’d, had not Apollo once again, And for the last time, to his rescue come, And giv’n him strength and suppleness of limb? Then to the crowd Achilles with his head Made sign that none at Hector should presume To cast a spear, lest one might wound, and so The greater glory obtain, while he himself Must be contented with the second place. But when the fourth time in their rapid course The founts were reach’d, th’ Eternal Father hung His golden scales aloft, and plac’d in each The lots of doom, for great Achilles one, For Hector one, and held them by the midst: Down sank the scale, weighted with Hector’s death, Down to the shades, and Phoebus left his side. Then to Pelides came the blue-ey’d Maid, And stood beside him, and bespoke him thus: “Achilles, lov’d of Heav’n, I trust that now To thee and me great glory shall accrue In Hector’s fall, insatiate of the fight. Escape he cannot now, though at the feet Of aegis-bearing Jove, on his behalf, With earnest pray’r Apollo prostrate fall. But stay thou here and take thy breath, while I Persuade him to return and dare the fight.” So Pallas spoke; and he with joy obeying, Stood leaning on his brass-barb’d ashen spear. The Goddess left him there, and went (the form And voice assuming of Deiphobus) In search of godlike Hector; him she found, And standing near, with winged words address’d: “Sorely, good brother, hast thou been bested By fierce Achilles, who around the walls Hath chas’d thee with swift foot; now stand we both For mutual succour, and his onset wait.” To whom great Hector of the glancing helm: “Deiphobus, of all my brothers, sons Of Hecuba and Priam, thou hast been Still dearest to my heart; and now the more I honour thee who dar’st on my behalf, Seeing my peril, from within the walls To sally forth, while others skulk behind.”