South, East, and West, with mixed confusion roar, And roll the foaming billows to the shore. The cables crack; the sailors' fearful cries } Ascend; and sable night involves the skies; } And heaven itself is ravished from their eyes. } Loud peals of thunder from the poles ensue; Then flashing fires the transient light renew; The face of things a frightful image bears; And present death in various forms appears. Struck with unusual fright, the Trojan chief, With lifted hands and eyes, invokes relief; And "Thrice and four times happy those," he cried, "That under Ilian walls, before their parents, died! Tydides, bravest of the Grecian train! } Why could not I by that strong arm be slain, } And lie by noble Hector on the plain, } Or great Sarpedon, in those bloody fields, Where Simoïs rolls the bodies and the shields Of heroes, whose dismembered hands yet bear The dart aloft, and clench the pointed spear!" Thus while the pious prince his fate bewails, Fierce Boreas drove against his flying sails, And rent the sheets: the raging billows rise, And mount the tossing vessel to the skies: Nor can the shivering oars sustain the blow; The galley gives her side, and turns her prow; While those astern, descending down the steep, Through gaping waves behold the boiling deep. Three ships were hurried by the Southern blast, And on the secret shelves with fury cast. Those hidden rocks the Ausonian sailors knew: They called them Altars, when they rose in view, And showed their spacious backs above the flood. Three more fierce Eurus, in his angry mood, Dashed on the shallows of the moving sand, And in mid ocean left them moored a-land. Orontes' bark, that bore the Lycian crew, (A horrid sight!) even in the hero's view, From stem to stern by waves was overborne: The trembling pilot, from his rudder torn, Was headlong hurled: thrice round the ship was tossed, Then bulged at once, and in the deep was lost; And here and there above the waves were seen Arms, pictures, precious goods, and floating men. The stoutest vessel to the storm gave way, And sucked, through loosened planks, the rushing sea. Ilioneus was her chief: Aletes old, Achates faithful, Abas young and bold, Endured not less: their ships, with gaping seams, Admit the deluge of the briny streams. Mean time imperial Neptune heard the sound Of raging billows breaking on the ground. Displeased, and fearing for his watery reign, He reared his awful head above the main, Serene in majesty; then rolled his eyes Around the space of earth, and seas, and skies. He saw the Trojan fleet dispersed, distressed, By stormy winds and wintery heaven oppressed. Full well the god his sister's envy knew, And what her aims and what her arts pursue. He summoned Eurus and the Western blast,