bove my head in death, before
I hear thy cries, as thou art borne away!"
So saying, mighty Hector stretched his arms
To take the boy. The boy shrank crying back
To his fair nurse's bosom, scared to see
His father helmeted in glittering brass,
And eying with affright the horse-hair plume
That grimly nodded from the crest on high.
The tender father and fond mother smiled;
And hastily the mighty Hector took
The helmet from his brow, and laid it down
Gleaming upon the ground, and, having kissed
His darling son, and tossed him up in play,
Prayed thus to Jove and all the gods of heaven:--
"O Jupiter, and all ye deities!
Vouchsafe that this my son may yet become
Among the Trojans eminent like me,
And, with a might and courage like my own,
Rule nobly over Ilium. May they say,
'This man is greater than his father was,'
When they behold him from the battle-field
Bring back the bloody spoils of the slain foe,
That so his mother may be glad at heart."
So speaking, to the arms of his dear spouse
He gave the boy. She on her fragrant breast
Received him, weeping as she smiled. The chief
Beheld, and, moved with tender pity, smoothed
Her forehead gently with his hand, and said:--
"Sorrow not thus, beloved one, for me.
No living man can send me to the shades
Before my time; no man of woman born,
Coward or brave, can shun his destiny.
But go thou home, and tend thy labors there,
The web, the distaff, and command thy maids
To speed the work; the cares of war pertain
To all men born in Troy, and most to me."
Thus spake the mighty Hector, and took up
His helmet shadowed with the horse-hair plume,
While homeward his beloved consort went,
Oft looking back and shedding many tears.
Soon was she in the spacious palace-halls
Of the man-queller Hector. There she found
A troop of damsels; with them all she shared
Her grief, and all in his own house bewailed
The living Hector, whom they thought no more
To see returning from the battle-field,
Escaped the rage and weapons of the Greeks.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.

This active, energetic, and in every way remarkable man, who was not
only the originator, proprietor, and purveyor, but the editor,--the
actual and only editor,--of "Blackwood's Magazine," up to the day of his
death, in 1834, has never