This virgin too, thy love, O Nessus, found; + 

To her alone you owe the fatal wound. + 

As the strong son of Jove his bride conveys, + 

Where his paternal lands their bulwarks raise; + 

Where from her slopy urn Evenus pours + 

Her rapid current, swell’d by wintry showers, + 

He came. The frequent eddies whirl’d the tide, + 

And the deep rolling waves all pass denied. + 

As for himself, he stood unmoved by fears, + 

For now his bridal charge employ’d his cares. + 

The strong-limb’d Nessus thus officious cried + 

(For he the shallows of the stream had tried), + 

“Swim thou, Alcides, all thy strength prepare, + 

On yonder bank I’ll lodge thy nuptial care.” + 

The Aonian chief to Nessus trusts his wife, + 

All pale and trembling for her hero’s life. + 

Clothed as he stood in the fierce lion’s hide, + 

The laden quiver o’er his shoulder tied + 

(For cross the stream his bow and club were cast), + 

Swift he plunged in: “These billows shall be pass’d,” + 

He said, nor sought where smoother waters glide, + 

But stemm’d the rapid dangers of the tide. + 

The bank he reach’d, again the bow he bears, + 

When, hark! his bride’s known voice alarms his ears. + 

“Nessus, to thee I call,” aloud he cries, + 

“Vain is thy trust in flight, be timely wise: + 

Thou monster double-shaped, my right set free: + 

If thou no rev’rence owe my fame and me, + 

Yet kindred should thy lawless lust deny. + 

Think not, perfidious wretch, from me to fly; + 

Though wing’d with horses’ speed, wounds shall pursue.” + 

Swift as his words the fatal arrow flew: + 

The centaur’s back admits the feather’d wood, + 

And through his breast the barbed weapon stood, + 

Which when, in anguish, through the flesh he tore, + 

From both the wounds gush’d forth the spumy gore, + 

Mix’d with Lernaean venom; this he took, + 

Nor dire revenge his dying breast forsook; + 

His garment, in the reeking purple died, + 

To rouse love’s passion, he presents the bride. + 