'd.
"Her hands extending, to the neighbouring main,
"O thou!--she cry'd--who gain'd my virgin spoil
"Snatch me from bondage.--Neptune had the maid
"Previous enjoy'd: nor spurn'd her earnest prayer.
"She whom her master following close, had seen
"In her own shape but now, in manly guise
"Appears,--in garments such as fishers clothe.
"The master sees, and speaks:--O, thou! who rul'st
"The trembling reed; whose bending wire thy baits
"Conceal; so may thy wiles the water aid;
"So may the fish deceiv'd, beneath the waves,
"Thy hooks detect not, till too firmly fixt.
"Say thou but where she is, who stood but now
"Upon this beach, in humble robes array'd,
"With locks disorder'd; on this shore she stood;
"I saw her,--but no further mark her feet.--
"The aid of Neptune well the maid perceiv'd,
"And joys that of herself herself is sought,
"Thus his enquiries answering;--Whom thou art
"I know not; studious bent, the deep alone,
"And care to drag my prey, my eyes employ.
"More to remove thy doubts, so may the god
"Who rules the ocean, aid my toiling art,
"As here I swear, no man upon this shore,
"Nor female, I excepted, has appear'd.
"These words the owner credits, and the sand
"Treads with returning steps; deluded goes,
"And as he goes, her former shape returns.
"Soon as this changing power the sire perceiv'd,
"The damsel oft he sold. Now she escapes
"Beneath a mare's resemblance: now a bird,
"An heifer now, and now a deer she seem'd.
"Her greedy parent's maw with food ill-gain'd
"Supplying. When at last his forceful plague
"Had every aid consum'd, and every aid
"Fresh food afforded to his fierce disease,
"Then he commenc'd with furious fangs to tear
"For nurture his own limbs; life to support,
"By what his body and his life destroy'd.

"But why on others' transformations dwell?
"Myself, O youths! enjoy a power, my form
"To alter; not unlimited my range.
"Now in the shape at present I assume;
"Anon I writhe beneath a serpent's form;
"Or take the figure of a lordly bull,
"And wear my strength in horns, while horns I had:
"Disfigur'd now, my forehead's side laments
"One weapon ravish'd, as you well may see."--
He spoke, and heavy sighs his words pursu'd.

*The Ninth Book.*

Combat of Acheloues and Hercules for Dejanira. Death of Nessus.
Torments and death of Hercules. His deification. Story of the