under axles groan. No stop, no check, the steeds of Peleus knew: From bank to bank the immortal coursers flew. High-bounding o'er the fosse, the whirling car Smokes through the ranks, o'ertakes the flying war, And thunders after Hector; Hector flies, Patroclus shakes his lance; but fate denies. Not with less noise, with less impetuous force, The tide of Trojans urge their desperate course, Than when in autumn Jove his fury pours, And earth is loaden with incessant showers; (When guilty mortals break the eternal laws, Or judges, bribed, betray the righteous cause;) From their deep beds he bids the rivers rise, And opens all the flood-gates of the skies: The impetuous torrents from their hills obey, Whole fields are drown'd, and mountains swept away; Loud roars the deluge till it meets the main; And trembling man sees all his labours vain! And now the chief (the foremost troops repell'd) Back to the ships his destined progress held, Bore down half Troy in his resistless way, And forced the routed ranks to stand the day. Between the space where silver Simois flows, Where lay the fleets, and where the rampires rose, All grim in dust and blood Patroclus stands, And turns the slaughter on the conquering bands. First Pronous died beneath his fiery dart, Which pierced below the shield his valiant heart. Thestor was next, who saw the chief appear, And fell the victim of his coward fear; Shrunk up he sat, with wild and haggard eye, Nor stood to combat, nor had force to fly; Patroclus mark'd him as he shunn'd the war, And with unmanly tremblings shook the car, And dropp'd the flowing reins. Him 'twixt the jaws, The javelin sticks, and from the chariot draws. As on a rock that overhangs the main, An angler, studious of the line and cane, Some mighty fish draws panting to the shore: Not with less ease the barbed javelin bore The gaping dastard; as the spear was shook, He fell, and life his hear