Such foul aspersions, when he spares not you: If Palamede unjustly fell by me, Your honour suffered in the unjust decree. I but accused, you doomed; and yet he died, Convinced of treason, and was fairly tried. You heard not he was false; your eyes beheld The traitor manifest, the bribe revealed. That Philoctetes is on Lemnos left, Wounded, forlorn, of human aid bereft, Is not my crime, or not my crime alone; Defend your justice, for the fact's your own. 'Tis true, the advice was mine; that, staying there, } He might his weary limbs with rest repair, } From a long voyage free, and from a longer war. } He took the counsel, and he lives at least; The event declares I counselled for the best; Though faith is all in ministers of state, For who can promise to be fortunate? Now since his arrows are the fate of Troy, Do not my wit, or weak address, employ; Send Ajax there, with his persuasive sense, To mollify the man, and draw him thence: But Xanthus shall run backward; Ida stand A leafless mountain; and the Grecian band Shall fight for Troy; if, when my counsels fail, The wit of heavy Ajax can prevail. Hard Philoctetes, exercise thy spleen Against thy fellows, and the king of men; Curse my devoted head, above the rest, And wish in arms to meet me, breast to breast; Yet I the dangerous task will undertake, And either die myself, or bring thee back. Nor doubt the same success, as when, before, The Phrygian prophet to these tents I bore, Surprised by night, and forced him to declare In what was placed the fortune of the war; Heaven's dark decrees and answers to display, And how to take the town, and where the secret lay. Yet this I compassed, and from Troy conveyed The fatal image of their guardian Maid. That work was mine; for Pallas, though our friend, Yet while she was in Troy, did Troy defend. Now what has Ajax done, or what designed? A noisy nothing, and an empty wind. If he be what he promises in show, Why was I sent, and why feared he to go? Our boasting champion thought the task not light To pass the guards, commit himself to night; Not only through a hostile town to pass, But scale, with deep ascent, the sacred place; With wandering steps to search the citadel, And from the priests their patroness to steal; Then through surrounding foes to force my way, And bear in triumph home the heavenly prey; Which had I not, Ajax in vain had held Before that monstrous bulk his sevenfold shield. That night to conquer Troy I might be said, When Troy was liable to conquest made. Why point'st thou to my partner of the war? Tydides had indeed a worthy share In all my toil, and praise; but when thy might Our ships protected, didst thou singly fight?