At once the clashing clouds to battle move,
And lightnings run across the fields above :
I know them well, and mark'd their rude comport,
While yet a child within my father's court:

In times of tempefts they command alone,
And he but fits precarious on the throne:
The more I know, the more my fears augment;
And fears are oft prophetic of th' event.
But if not fears, or reafons will prevail,
If fate has fix'd thee obftinate to fail,' ·
Go not without thy wife, but let me bear
My part of danger with an equal share
And prefent, what I fuffer only fear:
Then o'er the bounding billows fhall we fly,

Secure to live together, or to die.

These reasons mov'd her ftariike hufband's heart,

But ftill he held his purpose to depart :

For as he lov'd her equal to his life,

He would not to the feas expofe his wife;
Nor could be wrought his voyage to refrain,
But fought by arguments to footh her pain:
Nor thefe avail'd; at length he lights on one,
With which fo difficult a caufe he won :
My love, fo fhort an abfence cease to fear,

For by my father's holy flame I fwear,

Before

Before two moons their orb with light adorn,
If heav'n allow me life, I will return.

This promise of so short a ftay prevails;
He foon equips the fhip, fupplies the fails,
And gives the word to lanch; fhe trembling views
This pomp of death, and parting tears renews :
Laft with a kiss she took a long farewel,

Sigh'd with a fad prefage, and fwooning fell:
While Ceyx feeks delays, the lufty crew,
Rais'd on their banks, their oars in order drew
To their broad breafts, the fhip with fury flew.

The
queen recover'd, rears her humid eyes,
And first her husband on the poop espies,
Shaking his hand at diftance on the main;
She took the fign, and fhook her hand again.
Still as the ground recedes, contracts her view
With fharpen'd fight, 'till fhe no longer knew
The much-lov'd face; that comfort loft fupplics
With lefs, and with the galley feeds her eyes:
The galley borne from view by rifing gales,
She follow'd with her fight the flying fails:
When ev'n the flying fails were feen no more,
Forfaken of all fight fhe left the fhore.

Then on her bridal bed her body throws,
And fought in fleep her wearied eyes to clofe:

}

Her

Her husband's pillow, and the widow'd part
Which once he prefs'd, renew'd the former fmart.

And now a breeze from fhore began to blow,
The failors fhip their oars, and cease to row;
Then hoist their yards a-trip, and all their fails
Let fall, to court the wind, and catch the gales:
By this the veffel half her course had run ;
And as much rested 'till the rifing fun;

Both fhores were loft to fight, when at the close
Of day a ftiffer gale at eaft arose :

The fea grew white, the rolling waves from far,
Like heralds, firft denounce the watry war.

This feen, the mafter foon began to cry,

Strike, ftrike the top-fail; let the main-fheet fly,

And furl your fails: the winds repel the found,
And in the speaker's mouth the fpeech is drown'd.
Yet of their own accord, as danger taught
Each in his way, officioufly they wrought:
Some ftow their oars, or flop the leaky fides,
Another bolder yet the yard beftrides,

And folds the fails; a fourth with labour laves
Th' intruding feas, and waves ejects on waves.

In this confufion while their work they ply,
The winds augment the winter of the fky,
And wage inteftine wars; the fuff'ring feas
Are tofs'd, and mingled, as their tyrants please.

The

The mafter would command, but in defpair
Of safety, ftands amaz'd with stupid care;
Nor what to bid, or what forbid he knows,
Th' ungovern'd tempeft to fuch fury grows:
Vain is his force, and vainer is his skill;
With fuch a concourse comes the flood of ill;
The cries of men are mix'd with rattling shrowds;
Seas dash on feas, and clouds encounter clouds:
At once from eaft to weft, from pole to pole,
The forky lightnings flash, the roaring thunders roll.
Now waves on waves afcending scale the skies,
And in the fires above the water fries:

When yellow fands are fifted from below,
The glittering billows give a golden fhow:
And when the fouler bottom fpews the black,
The Stygian dye the tainted waters take:
Then frothy white appear the flatted seas,
And change their colour, changing their disease,
Like various fits the Trachin veffel finds:

And now fublime, fhe rides upon the winds;
As from a lofty fummit looks from high,
And from the clouds beholds the nether sky;
Now from the depth of hell they lift their fight,
And at a distance fee fuperior light;

The lafhing billows make a loud report,
And beat her fides, as batt'ring rams a fort:

Or

Or as a lion bounding in his way,
With force augmented, bears against his prey.
Sidelong to feize; or unappall'd with fear,
Springs on the toils, and rufhes on the spear:
So feas impell'd by winds, with added pow'r
Affault the fides, and o'er the hatches tow'r.

The planks (their pitchy cov'rings wash'd away)
Now yield; and now a yawning breach display:
The roaring waters with a hoftile tide
Rush through the ruins of her gaping fide.
Meantime in fheets of rain the sky defcends,
And ocean fwell'd with waters upwards tends;
One rifing, falling one, the heav'ns and fea
Meet at their confines, in the middle way:

The fails are drunk with fhow'rs, and drop with rain,
Sweet waters mingle with the briny main.
No flar appears to lend his friendly light;
Darkness and tempeft make a double night;
But flashing fires difclofe the deep by turns,
And while the lightnings blaze, the water burns.

Now all the waves their fcatter'd force unite;
And as a foldier foremoft in the fight,
Makes way for others, and an host alone
Still preffes on, and urging gains the town;
So while th' invading billows come a-breaft,
The hero tenth advanc'd before the reft,

Sweeps