Diana's kindled wrath, and free the seas. Affection, interest, fame, his heart assailed, But soon the father o'er the king prevailed; Bold, on himself he took the pious crime, As angry with the gods as they with him. No subject could sustain their sovereign's look, Till this hard enterprize I undertook; I only durst the imperial power controul, And undermined the parent in his soul; Forced him to exert the king for common good, And pay our ransom with his daughter's blood. Never was cause more difficult to plead, Than where the judge against himself decreed; Yet this I won by dint of argument. } The wrongs his injured brother underwent, } And his own office, shamed him to consent. } 'Twas harder yet to move the mother's mind, And to this heavy task was I designed: Reasons against her love I knew were vain; I circumvented whom I could not gain. Had Ajax been employed, our slackened sails Had still at Aulis waited happy gales. Arrived at Troy, your choice was fixed on me, A fearless envoy, fit for a bold embassy. Secure, I entered through the hostile court, Glittering with steel, and crowded with resort: There, in the midst of arms, I plead our cause, Urge the foul rape, and violated laws; Accuse the foes as authors of the strife, Reproach the ravisher, demand the wife. Priam, Antenor, and the wiser few, I moved; but Paris and his lawless crew Scarce held their hands, and lifted swords; but stood In act to quench their impious thirst of blood. This Menelaus knows; exposed to share With me the rough preludium of the war. Endless it were to tell what I have done, In arms, or counsel, since the siege begun. The first encounters past, the foe repelled, They skulked within the town, we kept the field. War seemed asleep for nine long years; at length, Both sides resolved to push, we tried our strength. Now what did Ajax while our arms took breath, Versed only in the gross mechanic trade of death? If you require my deeds, with ambushed arms I trapped the foe, or tired with false alarms; Secured the ships, drew lines along the plain, The fainting cheered, chastised the rebel-train, Provided forage, our spent arms renewed; Employed at home, or sent abroad, the common cause pursued. The king, deluded in a dream by Jove, Despaired to take the town, and ordered to remove. What subject durst arraign the power supreme, Producing Jove to justify his dream? Ajax might wish the soldiers to retain From shameful flight, but wishes were in vain; As wanting of effect had been his words, Such as of course his thundering tongue affords. But did this boaster threaten, did he pray, } Or by his own example urge their stay? }