Adventure: 'tis not I that seek. Receive

My prayer Thou as I have earned it—lo,

Dying I stand, and hail Thee as I go

Lord of the Ægis, wonderful, most great!"

Which done, he took his stand, and bid his mate

Urge on the steeds; and all the Achaian host

Followed him, not with outcry or loud boast

Of deeds to do or done, but silent, grim

As to a shambles—so they followed him,

Eyeing that nodding crest and swaying spear

Shake with the chariot. Solemn thus they near

The Trojan walls, slow-moving, as by a Fate

Driven; and thus before the Skaian Gate

Stands he in pomp of dreadful calm, to die,

As once in dreadful haste to slay.

Thereby

The walls were thick with men, and in the towers

Women stood gazing, clustered close as flowers

That blur the rocks in some high mountain pass

[8]

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