ght forth,
By stealth, AEsacus 'neath thick Ida's shade.
Wall'd cities he detested; and remote
From glittering palaces, secluded hills
Inhabited, and unambitious plains;
And scarce at Troy's assemblies e'er was seen.
Yet had he not a clownish heart, nor breast
To love impregnable. By chance he saw
Cebrenus' daughter, fair Hesperie--oft
By him through every shady wood pursu'd--
As on her father's banks her tresses, spread
Adown her back, in Phoebus' rays she dry'd.
The nymph, discover'd, fled. So rapid flies
Th' affrighted stag to 'scape the tawny Wolf;
Or duck, stream-loving, from the hawk, when caught,
Far from her wonted lakes. The Trojan youth
Quick follows, swift through hope; she swift through fear.
Lo! in the herbage hid, her flying foot
With crooked fang a serpent bit, and pour'd
O'er all her limbs the poison: with her flight
Her life was stopp'd. Frantic, he clasps her form
Now lifeless, and exclaims--"how grieve I now,
"That e'er I thee pursu'd; not this I fear'd!
"How mean my conquest, bought at such a price!
"Both, hapless nymph! in thy destruction join'd:
"I gave the cause, the serpent but the wound.
"I guiltier far than he, unless my death
"Shall thine avenge."--He said, and in the main,
From an high rock, by hoarsely-roaring waves
Deep-worn beneath, prepar'd to plunge. Receiv'd
By pitying Tethys softly in his fall,
She clothes him, as he swims the main, with wings;
And death, so much desir'd, denies him still.
The lover, furious at th' unwelcome gift
Of life upon him forc'd, and his pent soul,
Bent on escaping from its hated seat
Confin'd, soon as the new-shot plumes he felt
Spring from his shoulders, up he flew, and plunged
Again his body in the depths below:
His feathers broke his fall. AEsacus rav'd,
And deeply div'd; with headlong fury still,
And endless perseverance death he sought.
Love keeps him meagre still; from joint to joint
His legs still longer grow; his outstretch'd neck
Is long; and distant far his head is plac'd.
He loves the ocean, and the name he bears,
From constant diving, seems correctly giv'n.

*The Twelfth Book.*

Rape of Helen. Expedition of the Greeks against Troy. House of
Fame. The Trojan war. Combat of Achilles and Cygnus. The latter
slain and transformed to a swan. Story of Caeneus. Fight of the
Lapithae and Centaurs. Change of Caeneus to a bird. C