That I may reach the beast!--The god allowed His prayer, and, smiling, gave him what he could: He reached the savage, but no blood he drew; Dian unarmed the javelin as it flew. This chafed the boar, his nostrils flames expire, And his red eye-balls roll with living fire. Whirled from a sling, or from an engine thrown, Amidst the foes so flies a mighty stone, As flew the beast: the left wing put to flight, The chiefs o'erborne, he rushes on the right. Empalamos and Pelagon he laid In dust, and next to death, but for their fellows' aid. Onesimus fared worse, prepared to fly; The fatal fang drove deep within his thigh, And cut the nerves; the nerves no more sustain The bulk; the bulk unprop'd, falls headlong on the plain. Nestor had failed the fall of Troy to see, But, leaning on his lance, he vaulted on a tree; Then, gathering up his feet, looked down with fear, And thought his monstrous foe was still too near. Against a stump his tusk the monster grinds, And in the sharpened edge new vigour finds; Then, trusting to his arms, young Othrys found, And ranched his hips with one continued wound. Now Leda's twins, the future stars, appear; White were their habits, white their horses were; Conspicuous both, and both in act to throw, Their trembling lances brandished at the foe: Nor had they missed; but he to thickets fled, Concealed from aiming spears, not pervious to the steed. But Telamon rushed in, and happed to meet A rising root, that held his fastened feet; So down he fell, whom, sprawling on the ground, His brother from the wooden gyves unbound. Meantime the virgin-huntress was not slow To expel the shaft from her contracted bow. Beneath his ear the fastened arrow stood, And from the wound appeared the trickling blood. She blushed for joy: But Meleagrus raised His voice with loud applause, and the fair archer praised. He was the first to see, and first to show His friends the marks of the successful blow. Nor shall thy valour want the praises due, He said;--a virtuous envy seized the crew. They shout; the shouting animates their hearts, And all at once employ their thronging darts; But out of order thrown, in air they join, And multitude makes frustrate the design. With both his hands the proud Ancæus takes, And flourishes his double biting axe: Then forward to his fate, he took a stride Before the rest, and to his fellows cried,-- Give place, and mark the difference, if you can, Between a woman-warrior and a man; The boar is doomed; nor, though Diana lend Her aid, Diana can her beast defend.-- Thus boasted he; then stretched, on tiptoe stood, Secure to make his empty promise good; But the more wary beast prevents the blow, And upward rips the groin of his audacious foe.