The mariner his fate bewails, Who in a lonely vessel sails, And, losing all his scanty store, With life alone attains the shore; But with a stouter heart the gale he braves, That sinks a thousand ships beneath the waves. 1030 When Phrixus fled in days of old Upon the ram with fleece of gold, His sister Helle with him fared And all his exiled wanderings shared; But when she fell and left him quite alone, Then nothing could for Helle's loss atone. 1035 Not so they wept, that fabled pair, Deucalion and Pyrrha fair, When 'midst the boundless sea they stood The sole survivors of the flood; For though their lot was hard and desolate, They shared their sorrow--'twas a common fate. 1040 Too soon our grieving company Shall scatter on the rolling sea, Where swelling sails and bending oars 1045 Shall speed us on to distant shores. Oh, then how hard shall be our wretched plight, When far away our country lies, And round us heaving billows rise, And lofty Ida's summit sinks from sight. Then mother shall her child embrace, 1050 And point with straining eyes the place Where Ilium's smouldering ruins lie, Far off beneath the eastern sky: "See there, my child, our Trojan ashes glow, Where wreathing smoke in murky clouds The distant, dim horizon shrouds; And by that sign alone our land we know." 1055 FOOTNOTES: [50] Reading, _haud regibus_. ACT V _Messenger_ [_entering_]: Oh, cruel fate, Oh, piteous, horrible! What sight so fell and bloody have we seen In ten long years of war? Between thy woes, Andromache, and thine, O Hecuba, I halt, and know not which to weep the more. _Hecuba:_ Weep whosesoe'er thou wilt--thou weepest mine. 1060 While others bow beneath their single cares, I feel the weight of all. All die to me; Whatever grief there is, is Hecuba's. _Messenger:_ The maid is slain, the boy dashed from the walls. But each has met his death with royal soul. _Andromache:_ Expound the deed in order, and display 1065 The twofold crime. My mighty grief is fain To hear the gruesome narrative entire. Begin thy tale, and tell it as it was.