Betwixt true valour, and an empty boast.-- At this advanced, and, sudden as the word, In proud Plexippus' bosom plunged the sword: Toxeus amazed, and with amazement slow, Or to revenge, or ward the coming blow, Stood doubting; and, while doubting thus he stood, Received the steel bathed in his brother's blood. Pleased with the first, unknown the second news, Althæa to the temples pays their dues For her son's conquest; when at length appear } Her grisly brethren stretched upon the bier: } Pale, at the sudden sight, she changed her cheer, } And with her cheer her robes; but hearing tell The cause, the manner, and by whom they fell, 'Twas grief no more, or grief and rage were one Within her soul; at last 'twas rage alone; Which burning upwards, in succession dries The tears that stood considering in her eyes. There lay a log unlighted on the earth: When she was labouring in the throes of birth For the unborn chief, the Fatal Sisters came, And raised it up, and tossed it on the flame; Then on the rock a scanty measure place Of vital flax, and turned the wheel apace; And turning sung,--To this red brand and thee, O new-born babe, we give an equal destiny; So vanished out of view. The frighted dame Sprung hasty from her bed, and quenched the flame; The log, in secret locked, she kept with care, And that, while thus preserved, preserved her heir. This brand she now produced; and first she strows The hearth with heaps of chips, and after blows; Thrice heaved her hand, and heaved, she thrice repressed; } The sister and the mother long contest, } Two doubtful titles in one tender breast; } And now her eyes and cheeks with fury glow, Now pale her cheeks, her eyes with pity flow; Now lowring looks presage approaching storms, And now prevailing love her face reforms: Resolved, she doubts again; the tears, she dried With blushing rage, are by new tears supplied; And, as a ship, which winds and waves assail, } Now with the current drives, now with the gale, } Both opposite, and neither long prevail, } She feels a double force; by turns obeys The imperious tempest, and the impetuous seas: So fares Althæa's mind; first she relents With pity, of that pity then repents: Sister and mother long the scales divide, But the beam nodded on the sister's side. Sometimes she softly sighed, then roared aloud; But sighs were stifled in the cries of blood. The pious impious wretch at length decreed, To please her brothers' ghosts, her son should bleed; And when the funeral flames began to rise, Receive, she said, a sister's sacrifice; A mother's bowels burn:--high in her hand, Thus while she spoke, she held the fatal brand;