Like Phoebus, dreadful with his silver bow,
When from Olympus, clad in gloomy night,
Fierce he descends, and blasts the guilty world
With pestilence. Now swells the shout of war,
The tumult thickens, and the combat burns:
Mars bathes in human blood; the dismal field
Is wrapp'd in darkness, and a sanguine cloud;
O'er heaps of slain the foaming river roars;

And Jove with thunder rends the troubled air.

Fierce in the van the dreadful chief

appears,

Victorious Locrine, Brutus' matchless son;

Through breaking ranks his furious course he drives,

And slaughter'd heroes strew the plain beneath.
Before him moves his brother's gloomy shade,
And bares his recent wound, and points the foe.
Then flies the spear, and then the mighty falls.
As when some haughty chief, his foe subdu'd,
The captive navy in proud triumph leads,
And rashly boasts unconquerable force:

Sudden the hurricane descends: the sea

Roars dreadful, and a foaming deluge hurls
Upon the bursting decks: the shatter'd ships
Yield to the storm, and the remorseless deep
Howls, closing o'er their masts: so Humber falls,
And all his boasted triumphs are no more.

In vain Estrildis for her sire's return

Prepares the grateful bath, and spreads the board; Her sire returns not, pale and cold in death.

Thus sung the bard, and wak'd the rage of war. Each beating bosom claim'd the promis'd fight: Each ardent warrior grasp'd his shining shield, And pois'd the spear, or half unsheath'd the sword; Anxious they wish the morning's rising light, And dreams of conquest in their fancy play. In thought they see Cornubia's baffled pow'rs By pale confusion seiz'd, and wild dismay, While fierce behind incens'd Loëgria storms. Oh blind to fate! what shades of heroes slain The morn shall send to Pluto's dreary coasts! How many widows mourn their slaughter'd lords,

While sad Loëgria bleeds at ev'ry vein!

Buoy'd by presumptuous pride, in vain they hope

For heav'nly aid in an unrighteous cause;

But confident in strength, nor victims slain,

Nor vows, nor pray'rs, appease the offended pow'rs.

END OF THE THIRD BOOK.

THE

REVENGE

OF

GUENDOLEN.

BOOK IV.

THE Hall of Odin. The Battle. The Truce. The

Death of Locrine.