Loft to the milky fares and rural feat,
He came to perish on the bank of fate.
The dread Pternoglyphus demands the fight, Which tender Calaminthius fhuns by flight, Drops the green target, fpringing quits the foe, Glides thro' the lake, and fafely dives below. But dire Pternophagus divides his
Thro' breaking ranks, and leads the dreadful day.
No nibbling prince excell'd in fierceness more,
His parents fed him on the favage boar;
But where his lance the field with blood imbru'd,
Swift as he mov'd, Hydrocharis purfu'd,
'Till fall'n in death he lies, a fhatt'ring stone
Sounds on the neck, and crushes all the bone.
His blood pollutes the verdure of the plain,
And from his noftrils bursts the gushing brain.
Lychopinax with Borbocaetes fights,
A blameless Frog, whom humbler life delights;
The fatal jav'lin unrelenting flies,
And darkness feals the gentle croaker's eyes.
Incens'd Praffophagus with fpritely bound, Bears Cniffodioctes off the rifing ground, Then drags him o'er the lake depriv'd of breath, And downward plunging, finks his foul to death. But now the great Pfycarpax fhines afar, (Scarce he fo great whofe lofs provok'd the war) Swift to revenge his fatal jav'lin fled,
And thro' the liver ftruck Pelufius dead;
His freckled corps before the victor fell,
His foul indignant fought the fhades of hell.
Thus faw Pelobates, and from the flood
Heav'd with both hands a monstrous mafs of mud, The cloud obfcene o'er all the hero flies,
Dishonours his brown face, and blots his eyes.
Enrag'd, and wildly fputt'ring, from the shore
A ftone immenfe of fize the warrior bore,
A load for lab'ring earth, (whofe bulk to raise,
Afks ten degen❜rate Mice of modern days.)
Full on the leg arrrives the crufhing wound;
The Frog fupportless, writhes upon the ground.
Thus flush'd, the victor wars with matchlefs force,
'Till loud Craugafides arrests his course,
Hoarfe-croaking threats precede! with fatal speed
Deep thro' the belly run the pointed reed,
Then strongly tugg'd, return'd imbru'd with gore,
And on the pile his reeking entrails bore.
The lame Sitophagus, opprefs'd with pain,
Creeps from the defp'rate dangers of the plain;
And where the ditches rifing weeds fupply
To fpread their lowly shades beneath the sky,
There lurks the filent Moufe reliev'd from heat,
And fafe embour'd, avoids the chance of fate.
But here Troxartes, Phyfignathus there,
Whirl the dire furies of the pointed fpear:
But where the foot around its ankle plies,
Troxartes wounds, and Phyfignathus fliesy
Halts to the pool, a safe retreat to find,
And trails a dangling length of leg behind.
The Mouse still urges, ftill the Frog retires,
And half in anguish of the flight expires:
Then pious ardor young Preffaeus brings,
Betwixt the fortunes of contending kings:
Lank, harmless Frog! with forces hardly grown,
He darts the reed in combats not his own,
Which faintly tinkling on Troxartes' fhield,
Hangs at the point, and drops upon the field.
Now nobly tow'ring o'er the rest appears A gallant prince that far transcends his years, Pride of his fire, and glory of his house, And more a Mars in combat than a Mouse: His action bold, robust his ample frame, And Meridarpax his refounding name. The warrior fingled from the fighting croud, Boafts the dire honours of his arms aloud; Then ftrutting near the lake, with looks elate, To all its nations threats approaching fate. And fuch his ftrength, the filver lakes around Might roll their waters o'cr unpeopled ground. But pow'rful Jove, who fhews no less his grace To Frogs that perifh, than to human race, Felt foft compaffion rifing in his foul,
And fhook his facred head, that shook the pole. Then thus to all the gazing pow'rs began
The fire of Gods, and Frogs, and Mice, and Man.
What feas of blood I view ! what worlds of flain!
An Iliad rifing from a day's campaign!
How fierce his jav'lin o'er the trembling lakes
The black-furr'd hero Meridarpax fhakes!
Unless fome fav'ring deity defcend,
Soon will the Frogs loquacious empire end.
Let dreadful Pallas wing'd with pity fly,
And make her Aegis blaze before his eye:
While Mars refulgent on his rattling car,
Arrests his raging rival of the war.
He ceas'd reclining with attentive head,
When thus the glorious God of combats faid.
Nor Pallas, Jove! tho' Pallas take the field,
With all the terrors of her hiffing shield,
Nor Mars himself, tho' Mars in armour bright
Afcend his car, and wheel amidst the fight;
Not these can drive the defp'rate Mouse afar,
Or change the fortunes of the bleeding war.
Let all go forth, all heav'n in arms arise,
Or launch thy own red thunder from the skies.
Such ardent bolts as flew that wond'rous day,
When heaps of Titans mix'd with mountains lay,
When all the giant-race enormous fell,
And huge Enceladus was hurl'd to hell.
'Twas thus th' Armipotent advis'd the Gods, When from his throne the cloud-compeller nods, Deep lengthning thunders run from pole to pole, Olympus trembles as the thunders roll.
Then fwift he whirls the brandifh'd bolt around,
And headlong darts it at the distant ground;
The bolt discharg`d inwrap'd with lightning flies,
And rends its flaming paffage thro' the skies,
Then Earth's inhabitants, the nibblers, shake:
And Frogs, the dwellers in the waters, quake.
Yet ftill the Mice advance their dread design,
And the last danger threats the croaking line,
'Till Jove, that inly mourn'd the loss they bore,
With strange affiftants fill'd the frighted shore.
Pour'd from the neighb'ring strand,deform'd to view,
They march, a fudden unexpected crew!
Strong futes of armour round their bodies clofe,
Which, like thick anvils, blunt the force of blows;
In wheeling marches turn'd oblique they go;
With harpy claws their limbs divide below;
Fell fheers the paffage to their mouth command;
From out the flesh their bones by nature stand;
Broad spread their backs, their shining shoulders rife;
Unnumber'd joints distort their lengthen'd thighs;
With nervous cords their hands are firmly brac'd;
Their round black eye-balls in their bofom plac'd;
On eight long feet the wond'rous warriors tread;
And either end alike fupplies a head.
Thefe, mortal wits to call the Crabs, agree;
The Gods have other names for things than we.
Now where the jointures from their loins depend,
The heroes tails with fev'ring grafps they rend,
|