Full in his throat he plunged the fatal spear, That in the extended neck a passage found, _130 And pierced the solid timber through the wound. Fixed to the reeling trunk, with many a stroke Of his huge tail, he lashed the sturdy oak; Till spent with toil, and labouring hard for breath, He now lay twisting in the pangs of death. Cadmus beheld him wallow in a flood Of swimming poison, intermixed with blood; When suddenly a speech was heard from high, (The speech was heard, nor was the speaker nigh,) 'Why dost thou thus with secret pleasure see, _140 Insulting man! what thou thyself shalt be?' Astonished at the voice, he stood amazed, And all around with inward horror gazed: When Pallas, swift descending from the skies, Pallas, the guardian of the bold and wise, Bids him plough up the field, and scatter round The dragon's teeth o'er all the furrowed ground; Then tells the youth how to his wondering eyes Embattled armies from the field should rise. He sows the teeth at Pallas's command, _150 And flings the future people from his hand. The clods grow warm, and crumble where he sows; And now the pointed spears advance in rows; Now nodding plumes appear, and shining crests, Now the broad shoulders and the rising breasts: O'er all the field the breathing harvest swarms, A growing host, a crop of men and arms. So through the parting stage a figure rears Its body up, and limb by limb appears By just degrees; till all the man arise, _160 And in his full proportion strikes the eyes. Cadmus surprised, and startled at the sight Of his new foes, prepared himself for fight: When one cried out, 'Forbear, fond man, forbear To mingle in a blind, promiscuous war.' This said, he struck his brother to the ground, Himself expiring by another's wound; Nor did the third his conquest long survive, Dying ere scarce he had begun to live. The dire example ran through all the field, _170 Till heaps of brothers were by brothers killed; The furrows swam in blood: and only five Of all the vast increase were left alive. Echion one, at Pallas's command, Let fall the guiltless weapon from his hand; And with the rest a peaceful treaty makes, Whom Cadmus as his friends and partners takes: So founds a city on the promised earth, And gives his new Boeotian empire birth. Here Cadmus reigned; and now one would have guessed _180 The royal founder in his exile blessed: Long did he live within his new abodes, Allied by marriage to the deathless gods; And, in a fruitful wife's embraces old, A long increase of children's children told: But no frail man, however great or high, Can be concluded blessed before he die. Actæon was the first of all his race, Who grieved his grandsire in his borrowed face; Condemned by stern Diana to bemoan _190 The branching horns, and visage not his own; To shun his once-loved dogs, to bound away,