no longer be fafe with Hercules, I thought of hiding myfelf in the deepest caverns of the earth. With one hand I beheld him cafily up-root the lofty firs and ancient oaks, which for feveral ages had braved the winds and the tempefts; with the other, he vainly endeavoured to tear the fatal tunic from his back; ic was glued to his skin, and as it were incorporated with his limbs as he tore that, he tore off his skin and his flesh, and drenched the earth with torrents of blood. At length his virtue getting the better of his anguish, he cried out, You fee! my dearest Philoctetes! the evils which the Gods inflict upon me; they are righteous; I have offended them; I have violated conjugal love; having vanquished fo many enemies, I meanly fuffered myfelf to be vanquished by a beautiful ftranger; I perish, and I am willing to perish to appease the Gods. But alas! my dear friend, whither do you fly? My exceffive tortures have indeed made me commit an act of cruelty on the wretched Lychas; for which my confcience upbraids me; he knew not that he prefented me poifon, nor deferved to fuffer. But do think that I can forget my friendship for you, that I would rob you of your life? No, no, I shall never ceafe to love Philoctetes. Philocteres shall receive my fleeting foul in his bofom; he shall collect my ashes together. Where are you then ; my dear Philoctetes! Philoctetes! the only hope which is left me here below?

you

and

This faid I immediately ran towards him; he ftretches out his arms to embrace me, but draws them back again, for fear of kindling in my bofom the cruel fire with which he himself was confumed. Alas! faid he, even this confolation is no longer allowed me. As he fpeaks thus, he collects together the trees he had torn up by the roots; he makes a funeral pile of them on the top of the mountain; he afcends it with tranquillity; he overfpreads it with the skin of the Nemean lion, which he had fo long worn on his shoulders, when he travelled from one end of the earth to the other to destroy monsters, and deliver the diftreffed; he leans on his club, and bids me light the pyre. TOM. IL D

My

Mes mains tremblantes & faifiés d'horreur ne purent lui refufer ce cruel office; car la vie n'étoit plus pour lui un préfent des Dieux, tant elle lui étoit funefte. Je craignis même que l'excès de fes douleurs ne le tranfportar jufqu'à faire quelque chofe d'indigne de cette vertu qui avoit étonné l'univers. Comme il vit que la flamme commençoit à prendre au bûcher: C'est maintenant, s'écria-teil, mon cher Philoctete, que j'éprouve ta véritable amitié; car tu aimes mon honneur plus que ma vie que les Dieux te le rendent; je te laiffe ce que j'ai de plus précieux fur la terre, ces fleches trempées dans le fang de l'Hydre de Lerne. Tu fais que les bleffures qu'elles font font incurables; par elles tu feras invincible, comme je l'ai été, & aucun mortel n'ofera combattre contre toi. Souviens-toi que je meurs fidele à notre amitié, & n'oublie jamais combien tu m'as été cher. Mais s'il eft vrai que tu fois touché de mes maux, tu peux me donner une derniere confolation promets-moi de ne découvrir jamais à aueun mortel ni ma mort, ni le lieu où tu auras caché mes cendres. Je le lui promis, hélas! je le jurai même en arrofant fon bûcher de mes larmes : un rayon de joie parut dans fes yeux. Mais tout-à-coup un tourbillon de flamme qui l'enveloppa, étouffa fa voix & le déroba prefque à ma vue. Je le voyois encore néanmoins à travers des flammes, avec un vifage auffi ferein que s'il eût été couronné de fleurs & couvert de parfums dans la joie d'un festin délicieux, au milieu de tous fes amis.

Le feu confuma bientôt tout ce qu'il y avoit de terreftre & de mortel en lui. Bientôt il ne lui refta rien de tout ce qu'il avoit reçu dans fa naiffance de fa mere Alcmene: mais il conferva par l'ordre de Jupiter cette nature fubtile & immortelle, cette flamme céleste qui est le vrai principe de vie, & qu'il avoit reçu du pere des Dieux. Ainfi il alla avec eux fous les voûtes dorées du brillant Olympe, boire le nectar, où les Dieux lui donnerent pour époufe l'aimable Hébé, qui eft la Déeffe de la jeuneffe, & qui verfoit le nectar dans la coupe du grand Jupiter, avant que Ganymede eût seçu cet honneur.

Pour

My hands trembling with horror could not deny him this cruel office; for his life was fo racked with tortures, that it was no longer a gift of the Gods. I was moreover apprehenfive left the violence of his pangs should tranfport him to act fomething unworthy of the virtue which had astonished the univerfe. Perceiving the flames begin to catch the pyre, Now, cried he, my dear Philoctetes, I am convinced of the fin cerity of your friendship; for you love my honour more than my life. May the Gods reward you for it! I bequeath you what I have of the most valuable in the world, these arrows dipt in the blood of the Lernæan Hydra. You know that their wounds are incurable; they will render you as invincible as have been, and no mortal will dare to contend with you. Remember that I die your faithful friend, and never forget how dear you have been to me. And if you are really touched with my fufferings, you will afford me the last confolation in your power, a promife never to discover to any mortal either my death or the place where you conceal my ashes. Alas! I promifed, nay I fwore it as I bedewed his pyre with my tears; a beam of gladnefs darted from his eyes. But he was fuddenly involved in curling flames, which ftifled his voice, and almost snatched him from my fight. However, I beheld him again through the fire with a coutenance as ferene as if it had been crowned with flowers, perfumed and encircled by his friends, amidst the merriments of a fumptuous banquet.

Soon did the fire confume all his earthly and more tal part; foon was there nothing left of what he had received from his mother Alcmena at his birth: But he preferved by Jupiter's decree that fubtle and immortal fubftance, that celeftial flame, the true principle of life, which he had received from the father of the Gods. He afcended therefore to drink nectar with them under the gilded roofs of shining Olympus; where the immortals gave him for his wife the lovely Hebe, the Goddefs of youth; who used to pour the nectar into Jupiter's cup, before Ganymede was preferred to that honour.

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Liv. XV. --Pour moi, je trouvai une fource inépuifable de dou leurs dans ces fleches qu'il m'avoit données pour m'élever au-deffus des héros. Bientôt les Rois ligués entreprirent de venger Ménélas de l'infame Pâris, qui avoit enlevé Hélene, & de renverser l'empire de Priam. L'Oracle d'Apollon leur fit entendre qu'ils ne devoient point espérer de finir heureufement cette guerre, à moins qu'ils n'euffent les fleches d'Hercule.

Ulyffe, votre pere, qui étoit toujours le plus éclairé & le plus induftrieux dans tous les confeils, fe chargea de me perfuader d'aller avec eux au fiege de Troye, & d'y apporter les fleches qu'il croyoit que j'avois. Il y avoit déjà long-temps qu'Hercule ne paroiffoit plus fur la terre on n'entendoit plus parler d'aucun nouvel exploit de ce héros: les monftres & les fcélérats recommençoient à paroître impunément; les Grecs ne favoient que croire de lui: les uns difoient qu'il étoit mort; d'autres foutenoient qu'il étoit allé jusques fous l'Ourfe glacée dompter les Scythes: mais Ulyffe foutint qu'il étoit mort, & entreprit de me le faire avouer. Il me vint trouver dans un temps où je ne pouvois encore me confoler d'avoir perdu le grand Alcide: il eut une peine extrême à m'aborder;

car

je ne pouvois plus voir les hommes je ne pouvois fouffrir qu'on m'arrachât de ces déferts du mont Oëta, où j'avois vu périr mon ami; je ne fongeois qu'à me repeindre l'image de ce héros, & qu'à pleurer à la vue de ces triftes lieux mais la douce & puiffante perfuafion étoit fur les levres de votre pere; il parut prefque auffi affligé que moi : il verfa des larmes; il fut gagner infenfiblement mon cœur & attirer ma confiance; il m'attendrit pour les Rois Grecs qui alloient combattre pour une jufte caufe, & qui ne pou→ voient réuffir fans moi; il ne put néanmoins m'arracher le fecret de la mort d'Hercule, que j'avois juré de ne dire jamais; mais il ne doutoit plus qu'il ne fût mort, & il me preffoit de lui découvrir le lieu où j'avois caché fes cendres.

Hélas! j'eus horreur de faire un parjure, en lui difant un fecret que j'avois promis aux Dieux de ne dire jamais j'eus la foibleffe d'éluder mon fers

For my part, I found an inexhaustible fource of forrows, in the very arrows he bequeathed me in order to raise me above the heroes. The confederate kings quickly undertook to revenge Menelaus on the infa mous Paris, the ravisher of Helen, and to fubvert the empire of Priam. The oracle of Apollo gave them to understand that they must not hope for an happy iffue of that war, unless they had the arrows of Hercules. Your father Ulyffes, who in all their councils conftantly difcovered the greatest wisdom and art, undertook to perfuade me to accompany them to the fiege of Troy, and to carry the arrows thither, which were he thought in my poffeffion. Hercules had not been feen for a long while; there was no talk of any new exploit of his; monsters and wicked men began to appear again with impunity. The Greeks knew not what to think concerning him; fome faid that he was dead, and others that he was gone as far as the frozen bear in order to tame the Scythians; but Ulyffes maintained that he was dead, and undertook to make me confefs it. As he came to me while I was yet inconfolable for the lofs of the great Alcides, he found it very difficult to accoft me; for I could not bear the fight of men, nor the thoughts of being torn from the deferts of mount Oeta, where I had feen my friend die : I heeded but to recall the image of that hero to my mind, and to weep at the fight of thofe fcenes of horror. But foft and powerful perfuafion hung on your father's lips; he feemed almost as much afflicted as I; he poured forth floods of tears; he infenfibly won my heart and my confidence, and moved me with pity for the kings of Greece, who were going to fight in a juft caufe, and could not fucceed without me. He could not however extort from me the fecret of Hercules's death, which I had fworn never to reveal; but he no longer doubted of it, and preffed me to show. him where I had concealed his ashes.

Though I had, alas! an abhorrence of being guilty of perjury, by revealing a fecret which I had promifed the Gods never to reveal; yet was I fo weak