Our chief Achaian, slain, whose loss the Greeks Fills with regret. Haste, therefore, to the fleet,835 Inform Achilles; bid him haste to save, If save he can, the body of his friend; He can no more, for Hector hath his arms. He ceased. Antilochus with horror heard Those tidings; mute long time he stood, his eyes840 Swam tearful, and his voice, sonorous erst, Found utterance none. Yet even so distress’d, He not the more neglected the command Of Menelaus. Setting forth to run, He gave his armor to his noble friend845 Laodocus, who thither turn’d his steeds, And weeping as he went, on rapid feet Sped to Achilles with that tale of wo. Nor could the noble Menelaus stay To give the weary Pylian band, bereft850 Of their beloved Antilochus, his aid, But leaving them to Thrasymedes’ care, He flew to Menœtiades again, And the Ajaces, thus, instant bespake. He goes. I have dispatch’d him to the fleet855 To seek Achilles; but his coming naught Expect I now, although with rage he burn Against illustrious Hector; for what fight Can he, unarm’d, against the Trojans wage? Deliberating, therefore, frame we means860 How best to save Patroclus, and to ’scape Ourselves unslain from this disastrous field. Whom answer’d the vast son of Telamon. Most noble Menelaus! good is all Which thou hast spoken. Lift ye from the earth865 Thou and Meriones, at once, and bear The dead Patroclus from the bloody field. To cope meantime with Hector and his host Shall be our task, who, one in name, nor less In spirit one, already have the brunt870 Of much sharp conflict, side by side, sustain’d. He ended; they enfolding in their arms The dead, upbore him high above the ground With force united; after whom the host Of Troy, seeing the body borne away,875 Shouted, and with impetuous onset all Follow’d them. As the hounds, urged from behind By youthful hunters, on the wounded boar Make fierce assault; awhile at utmost speed They stretch toward him hungering, for the prey,880 But oft as, turning sudden, the stout brawn Faces them, scatter’d on all sides escape; The Trojans so, thick thronging in the rear, Ceaseless with falchions and spears double-edged Annoy’d them sore, but oft as in retreat885 The dauntless heroes, the Ajaces turn’d To face them, deadly wan grew every cheek, And not a Trojan dared with onset rude Molest them more in conflict for the dead. Thus they, laborious, forth from battle bore890 Patroclus to the fleet, tempestuous war Their steps attending, rapid as the flames Which, kindled suddenly, some city waste; Consumed amid the blaze house after house Sinks, and the wind, meantime, roars through the fire;895 So them a deafening tumult as they went Pursued, of horses and of men spear-arm’d. And as two mules with strength for toil endued, Draw through rough ways down from the distant hills Huge timber, beam or mast; sweating they go,900 And overlabor’d to faint weariness; So they the body bore, while, turning oft, The Ajaces check’d the Trojans. As a mound