By hands divine, yet perished by their guilt? Lend me, for once, my friends, your valiant hands, To force from out their lines these dastard bands. Less than a thousand ships will end this war, Nor Vulcan needs his fated arms prepare. Let all the Tuscans, all the Arcadians, join! Nor these, nor those, shall frustrate my design. Let them not fear the treasons of the night, } The robbed Palladium, the pretended flight: } Our onset shall be made in open light. } No wooden engine shall their town betray; Fires they shall have around, but fires by day. No Grecian babes before their camp appear, Whom Hector's arms detained to the tenth tardy year. Now, since the sun is rolling to the west, Give we the silent night to needful rest: Refresh your bodies, and your arms prepare; The morn shall end the small remains of war." The post of honour to Messapus falls, To keep the nightly guard, to watch the walls, To pitch the fires at distances around, And close the Trojans in their scanty ground. Twice seven Rutulian captains ready stand, And twice seven hundred horse these chiefs command; All clad in shining arms the works invest, Each with a radiant helm and waving crest. Stretched at their length, they press the grassy ground; They laugh, they sing, (the jolly bowls go round,) With lights and cheerful fires renew the day, And pass the wakeful night in feasts and play. The Trojans, from above, their foes beheld, And with armed legions all the rampires filled. Seized with affright, their gates they first explore; Join works to works with bridges, tower to tower: Thus all things needful for defence abound: Mnestheus and brave Serestus walk the round, Commissioned by their absent prince to share The common danger, and divide the care. The soldiers draw their lots, and, as they fall, By turns relieve each other on the wall. Nigh where the foes their utmost guards advance, To watch the gate was warlike Nisus' chance. His father Hyrtacus of noble blood; His mother was a huntress of the wood, And sent him to the wars. Well could he bear His lance in fight, and dart the flying spear, But better skilled unerring shafts to send. Beside him stood Euryalus, his friend-- Euryalus, than whom the Trojan host No fairer face, or sweeter air, could boast. Scarce had the down to shade his cheeks begun. One was their care, and their delight was one. One common hazard in the war they shared, And now were both by choice upon the guard. Then Nisus thus:--"Or do the gods inspire This warmth, or make we gods of our desire? A generous ardour boils within my breast, Eager of action, enemy to rest: This urges me to fight, and fires my mind, To leave a memorable name behind. Thou seest the foe secure; how faintly shine