1. Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form.
As when, to warn proud cities, war appears,
Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush
To battle in the clouds.
Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell,
Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air
In whirlwind. Hell scarce holds the wild uproar.
As when Alcides felt the envenomed robe, and tore,
Through pain, up by the roots, Thessialian pines,
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into the Euboic sea.
2. Each at the head,
Leveled his deadly aim; their fatal hands
No second stroke intend; and such a frown
Each cast at th' other, as when two black clouds,
With heaven's artillery fraught, came rolling on
Over the Caspian, there stand front to front,
Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow
To join the dark encounter, in mid-air:
So frowned the mighty combatants.
3. Then pleased and thankful from the porch they go
And, but the landlord, none had cause of woe:
His cup was vanished; for, in secret guise,
The younger guest purloined the glittering prize.
As one who spies a serpent in his way,
Glistening and basking in the summer ray,
Disordered, stops to shun the danger near,
Then walks with faintness on, and looks with fear,--
So seemed the sire, when, far upon the road,
The shining spoil his wily partner showed.