And fast’ned by their chariots; when others brought from town Fat sheep and oxen, instantly, bread, wine; and hewéd down Huge store of wood. The winds transferr’d into the friendly sky Their supper’s savour; to the which they sat delightfully, And spent all night in open field; fires round about them shin’d. As when about the silver moon, when air is free from wind, And stars shine clear, to whose sweet beams, high prospects, and the brows Of all steep hills and pinnacles, thrust up themselves for shows, And ev’n the lowly valleys joy to glitter in their sight, When the unmeasur’d firmament bursts to disclose her light, And all the signs in heav’n are seen, that glad the shepherd’s heart; So many fires disclos’d their beams, made by the Trojan part, Before the face of Ilion, and her bright turrets show’d. A thousand courts of guard kept fires, and ev’ry guard allow’d Fifty stout men, by whom their horse ate oats and hard white corn, And all did wishfully expect the silver-thronéd morn. THE END OF THE EIGHTH BOOK. [1] Virgil maketh this likewise his place, adding, _Bis patet in præceps tantum, tenditque sub umbras, etc._ THE NINTH BOOK OF HOMER’S ILIADS THE ARGUMENT To Agamemnon, urging hopeless flight, Stand Diomed, and Nestor, opposite. By Nestor’s counsel, legates are dismiss’d To Thetis’ son; who still denies t’ assist. ANOTHER ARGUMENT Iota sings the Ambassy, And great Achilles’ stern reply. So held the Trojans sleepless guard; the Greeks to flight were giv’n, The feeble consort of cold fear, strangely infus’d from heav’n; Grief, not to be endur’d, did wound all Greeks of greatest worth. And as two lateral-sited winds, the west wind and the north, Meet at the Thracian sea’s black breast, join in a sudden blore, Tumble together the dark waves, and pour upon the shore A mighty deal of froth and weed, with which men manure ground; So Jove, and Troy did drive the Greeks, and all their minds confound. But Agamemnon most of all was tortur’d at his heart, Who to the voiceful heralds went, and bade them cite, apart, Each Grecian leader sev’rally, not openly proclaim. In which he labour’d with the first; and all together came. They sadly sate. The king arose, and pour’d out tears as fast As from a lofty rock a spring doth his black waters cast, And, deeply sighing, thus bespake the Achives: “O my friends, Princes, and leaders of the Greeks, heav’n’s adverse King extends His wrath, with too much detriment, to my so just design, Since he hath often promis’d me, and bound it with the sign Of his bent forehead, that this Troy our vengeful hands should race, And safe return; yet, now engag’d, he plagues us with disgrace, When all our trust to him hath drawn so much blood from our friends. My glory, nor my brother’s wreak, were the proposéd ends, For which he drew you to these toils, but your whole countries’ shame, Which had been huge to bear the rape of so divine a dame, Made in despite of our revenge. And yet not that had mov’d