other, and deal their fruitless blows upon their burnished and refounding armour. The two combatants ftretch themselves out, shrink themselves up, stoop down, rife again in an inftant, and at length grapple with each other. The ivy growing at the foot of an elm, does not more closely embrace its hard and knotty trunk, with its entwining arms, even to its highest branches, than these two combatants grafp each other. Adraftus having loft nothing of his ftrength, and that of Telemachus not being yet at its height; the former makes feveral efforts to stagger and throw his antago nift by furprife. Ar laft he endeavours to feize the fword of the young Greek, but in vain; for the moment he attempts it Telemachus lifts him from the ground, and throws him on the fand. And now this wretch, who had always defpifed the Gods, betrays an unmanly apprehenfion of death; he is ashamed to ask his life, and yet cannot help manifefting his defire of it. He endeavours to move Telemachus's compaffion. Son of Ulyffes, faid he, I at length acknowledge the righteous Gods; they punish me as I have deferved, nothing but diftrefs opens mens eyes, and shews them the truth; I see it, it condemns me; but let an unfortunate prince put you in mind of your father, who wanders far from Ithaca, and let him excite your pity. Telemachus, who kneeled upon him, and had already raifed his fword to plunge it into his throat immediately replied; I fought nothing but victory and the peace of the nations I came to affist; I do not delight in bloodshed. Live therefore, Adraftus; but live to repair your faults; reftore every thing which you have ufurped; re-establish peace and juftice on the coaft of great Heperia, which you have ftained by numberlefs maffacres and treacheries; live and become another man. Learn by your fall that the Gods are righteous, that the wicked are miferable, that they deceive themselves by feeking for happiness in violence, inhumanity and falshood, and in short that nothing is fo delightful and happy as a plain and steady virtue, Give us as hoftages your fon Donnez-nous pour ôtages votre fils Métrodore douze des principaux de votre nation, A ces paroles, Télémaque laiffe relever Adrafte, & lui tend la main fans fe défier de fa mauvaise foi: mais auffitôt Adrafte lui lança un fecond dard fort court qu'il tenoit caché. Le dard étoit fi aigu & lancé avec tant d'adreffe, qu'il eût percé les armes de Télémaque, fi elles n'euffent été divines. En même temps Adrafte fe jette derriere un arbre pour éviter la pourfuite du jeune Grec. Alors celui-ci s'écrie: Dauniens vous le voyez, la victoire eft à nous; l'impie ne fe fauve que par la trahifon. Celui qui ne craint point les Dieux, craint la mort. Au contraire celui qui les craint, ne craint qu'eux. En difant ces paroles, il s'avance vers les Dauniens, & fait figne aux fiens qui étoient de l'autre côté de l'arbre, de couper le chemin au perfide Adrafte. Adrafte craint d'être furpris, fait femblant de retourner fur fes pas, & veut renverfer les Crétois qui fe préfentent à fon paffage. Mais tout-à-coup Télémaque, prompt comme la foudre que la main du pere des Dieux lance du haut Olympe fur les têtes coupables, vient fondre fur fon ennemi, il le faifit d'une main victorieuse, il le renverfe, comme un cruel Aquilon abat les tendres moisfons qui dorent les campagnes. Il ne l'écoute plus, quoique l'impie ofe encore une fois effayer d'abufer de la bonté de fon cœur. Il lui enfonce fon glaive, & le précipite dans les flammes du noir Tartare, digne châtiment de fes crimes. Fin du vingtieme Livre. 味 LES fon Metrodorus, with twelve of the principal perfons of your nation. This faid, Telemachus fuffers Adraftus to rife, and holds out his hand to him without fufpecting his treachery. But Adraftus immediately darts another javelin at him, which was very short and he had kept concealed. It was fo sharp, and fo artfully thrown, that it would have pierced Telemachus's armour, had it not been divine. Adratus at the fame time runs behind a tree to avoid the purfuit of the young Greek. Whereupon Telemachus cries out, Lo! Daunians the victory is ours; the impious wretch faves himself only by his treachery. Who fears not the Gods, is afraid of death; on the contrary, who fears the Gods, 'fears nothing but them. In fpeaking thefe words, he advances towards the Daunians, and makes a fign to thofe of his own party who were on the other fide of the tree, to intercept the perfidious Adraftus. Adraftus is ready to be taken, makes as if he would go back again, and attempts to break through the Cretans who obftruct his paffage. But Telemachus, fwift as a thunderbolt hurled by the hand of the father of the Gods from the top of Olympus on the heads of the guilty, flies inftantly on his enemy; he feizes him with his victorious hands, he throws him on the earth, as the cruel north- wind beats down the tender harvests which gild the fields; he hears him no more, though the impious wretch makes a fecond attempt to abufe his goodnefs; he plunges his fword into him, and hurls him headlong into the flames of dreary Tartarus, a punishment worthy of his crimes. End of the Twentieth Book. THE Adrafte étant mort les Dauniens tendent les mains aux alliés en figne de paix, & leur demandent un roi de leur nation. Neftor, inconfolable d'avoir perdu fon fils, s'abfente de l'affemblée des chefs, où plufieurs opinent qu'il faut partager les pays des vaincus, & céder à Télémaque le terroir d'Arpi. Bien loin d'accepter cette offre, Télémaque fait voir que l'intérét commun des alliés eft de choisir Polydamas pour roi des Dauniens & de leur laiffer leurs terres. Il perfuade enfuite à ces peuples de donner la contrée d'Arpi à Diomede, furvenu fortuitement. Les troubles étant ainfi finis tous fe féparent pour s'en retourner chacun dans fon pays. PEINE Adrafte fut mort, que tous les DauA niens, loin de déplorer leur défaite or la perte de leur chef, fe réjouirent de leur délivrance. Ils vendirent les mains aux alliés en figne de paix & de réconciliation. Métrodore, fils d'Adrafte que foa pere avoit nourri dans des maximes de diffimulation, d'injuftice & d'inhumanité s'enfuit lâchement. Mais un efclave, complice de fes infamies & de fes cruautés, |