Sans secours, sans asile, errant de mers en mers, Par les flots en courroux jeté dans nos deserts, Je l’ai reçu, l’ingrat! des fureurs de l’orage J’ai sauvé ses sujets, ses vaisseaux de naufrage, Je lui donne mon cœur, mon empire, ma main: O fureur, et voilà que ce monstre inhumain Ose imputer aux dieux son horrible parjure, Me parle et d’Apollon, et d’oracle, et d’augure! Pour presser son depart, l’ambassadeur des dieux Est descendu vers lui de la voûte des cieux: Dignes soins, en effet, de ces maîtres du monde! En effet, sa grandeur trouble leur paix profonde! --C’en est assez; va, pars; je ne te retiens pas; Va chercher loin de moi je ne sais quels états: S’il est encore un dieu redoubtable aux ingrats, J’espère que bientôt, pour prix d’un si grand crime, Brisé contre un écueil, plongé dans un abîme, Tu paîras mes malheurs, perfide! et de Didon Ta voix, ta voix plaintive invoquera le nom.” [28] One of the Roman sea-deities. [29] Such explanations of an unfavourable result are not entirely unknown in the annals of modern boat-races. Reasons of a very apocryphal kind, if not so boldly mythological, have been assigned by modern captains of crews for their having been beaten. When an unsuccessful oarsman recounts his deeds to a sympathetic audience, and “tells how fields were” _not_ won, he is apt to complain that, in some form or other, the river-gods were unjust. The state of the tide, or an intruding barge, or an imprudent supper on the part of “No. 7,” takes the place of Panope and Portunus. [30] “Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.” [31] Virgil himself has no word of reproach for these weaker spirits, who thus preferred the rest of Sicily to the far-off hopes of Hesperia. But his impassioned pupil Dante is less merciful: he classes them in his “Purgatory” with the murmuring Israelites:-- “First they died, to whom the sea Opened, or ever Jordan saw his heirs; And they who with Æneas to the end Endured not suffering, for their portion chose Life without glory.” --Purg. xviii. (Cary.) [32] Keble.