While they astonish’d heard the king relate
These wonders of his hapless brother’s fate,
The prince’s herdsman at the court arrives,
And fresh surprise to all the audience gives.
“Oh Peleus! Peleus! dreadful news I bear,”
He said, and trembled as he spoke for fear.
The worst affrighted Peleus bid him tell,
While Ceyx too grew pale with friendly zeal.
Thus he began: “When Sol mid-heaven had gain’d,
And half his way was pass’d, and half remain’d,
I to the level shore my cattle drove,
And let them freely in the meadows rove.
Some stretch’d at length, admire the watery plain,
Some cropp’d the herb, some wanton swam the main
A temple stands of antique make hard by,
Where no gilt domes, or marble, lure the eye.
Unpolish’d rafters bear its lowly height,
Hid by a grove, as ancient, from the sight.
Here Nereus, and the Nereids they adore:
I learn’d it from the man who thither bore
His net to dry it on the sunny shore.
Adjoins a lake, enclosed with willows round,
Where swelling waves have overflow’d the mound,
And muddy, stagnate, on the lower ground,
From thence a rustling noise, increasing, flies,
Strikes the still shore, and frights us with surprise;
Straight a huge wolf rush’d from the marshy wood,
His jaws besmear’d with mingled foam and blood,
Though equally by hunger urged, and rage,
His appetite he minds not to assuage;
Naught that he meets his rapid fury spares,
But the whole herd with mad disorder tears.
Some of our men, who strove to drive him thence,
Torn by his teeth, have died in their defence;
The echoing lakes, the sea, and fields, and shore,
Impurpled blush with streams of reeking gore:
Delay is loss, nor have we time for thought,
While yet some few remain alive, we ought
To seize our arms, and, with confederate force,
Try if we so can stop his bloody course.”
But Peleus cared not for his ruin’d herd,
His crime he call’d to mind, and thence inferr’d
That Psamathe’s revenge this havoc made,
In sacrifice to murder’d Phocus’ shade.
The king commands his servants to their arms,
Resolved to go, but the loud noise alarms
His lovely queen, who from her chamber flew,
And her half-platted hair behind her threw,
About his neck she hung with loving fears,
And now with words, and now with pleading tears,
Entreated that he’d send his men alone,
And stay himself, to save two lives in one.
Then Peleus: “Your just fears, oh queen, forget,
Too much the offer leaves me in your debt:
No arms against the monster I shall bear,
But the sea nymphs appease with humble prayer.”
The citadel’s high turrets pierce the sky,
Which home-bound vessels glad, from far descry;
This they ascend, and thence with sorrow ken
The mangled heifers lie, and bleeding men;
The inexorable ravager they view,
With blood discolour’d, still the rest pursue:
There, Peleus pray’d submissive towards the sea,
And deprecates the ire of injured Psamathe.
But deaf to all his prayers the nymph remain’d,
Till Thetis for her spouse the boon obtain’d.
Pleased with the luxury, the furious beast,
Unstopp’d, continues still his bloody feast:
While yet upon a sturdy bull he flew,
Changed by the nymph, a marble block he grew.
No longer dreadful now the wolf appears,
Buried in stone, and vanish’d like their fears.
Yet still the fates unhappy Peleus vex’d,
To the Magnesian shore he wanders next.
Acastus there, who ruled the peaceful clime,
Grants his request, and expiates his crime.