Fed on his trembling limbs, and lapped the gore. Th' astonished mother, when the rumour came, Forgets her father, and neglects her fame; With loud complaints she fills the yielding air, And beats her breast, and rends her flowing hair; 700 Then wild with anguish to her sire she flies: Demands the sentence, and contented dies. "But touched with sorrow for the dead too late, The raging god prepares t' avenge her fate. He sends a monster, horrible and fell,[113] 705 Begot by furies in the depths of hell.[114] The pest a virgin's face and bosom bears; } High on a crown a rising snake appears, } Guards her black front, and hisses in her hairs: } About the realm she walks her dreadful round, 710 When night with sable wings o'erspreads the ground, Devours young babes before their parents' eyes, And feeds and thrives on public miseries.[115] "But gen'rous rage the bold Choroebus warms, Choroebus, famed for virtue, as for arms; 715 Some few like him, inspired with martial flame, Thought a short life well lost for endless fame. These, where two ways in equal parts divide, } The direful monster from afar descried; } Two bleeding babes depending at her side; } 720 Whose panting vitals, warm with life, she draws, And in their hearts embrues her cruel claws. The youths surround her with extended spears; But brave Choroebus in the front appears, Deep in her breast he plunged his shining sword, 725 And hell's dire monster back to hell restored. Th' Inachians[116] view the slain with vast surprize, Her twisting volumes and her rolling eyes, Her spotted breast, and gaping womb embrued With livid poison, and our children's blood. 730 The crowd in stupid wonder fixed appear, Pale ev'n in joy, nor yet forget to fear. Some with vast beams the squalid corpse engage, And weary all the wild efforts of rage. The birds obscene, that nightly flocked to taste, 735 With hollow screeches fled the dire repast; And rav'nous dogs, allured by scented blood, And starving wolves ran howling to the wood. "But fired with rage, from cleft Parnassus' brow } Avenging Phoebus bent his deadly bow, } 740 And hissing flew the feathered fates below: } A night of sultry clouds involved around The tow'rs, the fields, and the devoted ground: And now a thousand lives together fled, } Death with his scythe cut off the fatal thread,[117] } 745 And a whole province in his triumph led. } "But Phoebus, asked why noxious fires appear, And raging Sirius blasts the sickly year,