herbs for my wound, I faw in my cave a a handfome graceful youth, but of an haughty air and heroic ftature. Methought I beheld Achilles himself, fo much had he of his features, looks and gait; his age only convinced me that it could not be he. I obferved both pity and confufion blended together in his face; he was moved at feeing with what pain and how flowly I crawled along; my piercing and doleful cries which the echoes of every shore refounded, melted his very heart.

.

O ftranger! faid I, while I was yet a good way off, what difafter has brought you to this uninhabited island? I know the Grecian habit, that habit which is ftill fo dear to me. Oh! how I long to hear thy voice, and to find on thy lips the language which I learnt in my infancy, and which I have fpoke to nobody for fo long a time in this folitude. Be not ftartled at the fight of fo wretched a creature; you ought rather to pity him.

Neoptolemus had hardly told me that he was a Greek, when I cried out, O inchanting words after fo many years of filence and never-ceafing pain! O my fon! what misfortune, what ftorms, or rather what propitious winds have brought you hither to end my woes! He replied, I am of the island of Scyros; I am returning thither, and am faid to be the fon of Achilles: You know the whole.

So short an anfwer not fatisfying my curiofity, I faid, O fon of a father whom I greatly loved, thou darling of thy grandfire Lycomedes, what brings you hither? whence come you? He replied, that he came from the fiege of Troy. You were not, faid I, in the first expedition. Why, faid he, were you? I plainly fee, anfwered I, that you are a ftranger to Philoctetes's name and misfortunes. Alas! wretch that I am, my perfecutors infult me in my miferies! Greece is ignorant of my fufferings; my forrows increafe; the Atrida have brought me to this; may the Gods requite them for it!

I then told him how the Greeks had deferted me. As foon as he heard my complaints, he made his.

D6

After

me dit-il.....(D'abord je l'interrompis, en lui difant: Quoi! Achille eft mort? Pardonne-moi, mon fils, fi je trouble ton récit par les larmes que je dois à ton pere.) Neoptoleme me répondit : Vous me confolez en m'interrompant : qu'il m'eft doux de voir Philoctete pleurer mon père !

Neoptoleme reprenant fon difcours, me dit: Après la mort d'Achille, Ulyffe & Phénix me vinrent chercher, affurant qu'on ne pouvoit, fans moi, renverfer la ville de Troye. Ils n'eurent aucune peine à m'em mener, car la douleur de la mort d'Achille, & le defir d'hériter de fa gloire dans cette célebre guerre, m'engageoient affez à les fuivre. J'arrive au fiege; l'Armée s'affemble autour de moi; chacun jure qu'il revoit Achille : mais hélas ! il n'étoit plus. Jeune & fans expérience, je croyois pouvoir tout espérer de ceux qui me donnoient tant de louanges. D'abord je demande aux Atrides les armes de mon pere; ils me répondent cruellement : Tu auras le refte de ce qui lui appartenoit; mais pour fes armes, elles font deftinées à Ulyffe.

Auffi-tôt je me trouble, je pleure, je m'emporte; mais Ulyffe, fans s'émouvoir, me difoit: Jeune homme, tu n'étois pas avec nous dans les périls de ce long fiege; tu n'as pas mérité de telles armes, & tu parles déjà trop fiérement; jamais tu ne les auras. Dépouillé injuftement par Ulyffe, je m'en retourne dans l'ifle de Scyros, moins indigné contre Ulyffe que contre les Atrides. Que quiconque eft leur ennemi, puiffe être l'ami des Dieux! O Philoctete! j'ai tout dit.

Alors je demandai à Neoptoleme comment Ajax Télamonien n'avoit pas empêché cette injustice. eft mort, me répondit-il. Il est mort m'écriai-je, & Ulyffe ne meurt pas; au contraire il fleurit dans l'armée ! Enfuite je lui demandai des nouvelles d'Antiloque, fils du fage Neftor, & de Patrocle fi chéri par Achille. Ils font morts auffi, me dit-il. Auffi-tôt je m'écriai encore : Quoi morts? Hélas! que me distu? Ainfi la cruelle guerre moiffonne les bons épargne les méchans! Ulyffe eft donc en vie; Terfire

&

l'eft

After the death of Achilles, faid he..... I immediately interrupted him, faying, How! Achilles dead! O my fon excufe my breaking in upon your narration by the tears I owe your father. You comfort me, replied Neoptolemus, by your interruption. How delightful is it to me to fee Philoctetes bewail my father! Neoptolemus refuming his difcourfe, faid, After the death of Achilles, Ulyffes and Phenix came to me, affuring me that they could not fubvert the city of Troy without me. They had no difficulty to perfuade me to go with them; for my grief for the death of Achilles, and my defire of inheriting his glory in that famous war, were fufficient motives to induce me to do it. I arrive at the fiege, the army gathers around me, and every one fwears that he beholds Achilles again, but he, alas! was no more. Young and unexperienced, I thought I might expect every thing from perfons that beftowed fuch praises upon me. I immediately ask the Atride for my father's armour; they cruelly reply, you shall have every thing elfe that belonged to him; but as for his armour it is defigned for Ulyffes.

Upon this I am troubled, I weep, I rave: But Ulyffes without the least emotion faid, Young man you have not borne your part with us in the perils of this long fiege; you have not merited fuch arms, and already talk too haugtily; you shall never have them. Unjustly robbed by Ulyffes, I am now returning to the ifle of Scyros, lefs incenfed against him than against the Atrida. May all who are their enemies, be beloved of the Gods! O Philoctetes! I have told you all. I then asked Neoptolemus why Ajax Telamon did not prevent fuch a piece of injuftice. He is dead, anfwered he. Dead! cried I; and Ulyffes not dead; he on the contrary profpers in the army! I then inquired after Antilochus the fon of the wife Neftor, and Patroclus fo dear to Achilles. They are dead alfo, faid he. Hereupon I once again cried out How! dead! What, alas! do you tell me! Thus cruel war mows down the good and fpares the wicked. Ulyffes then is living; and fo, no doubt, is

l'eft auffi fans doute ? Voilà ce que font les Dieux; & nous les louerions encore !

Pendant que j'étois dans cette fureur contre votre pere, Neoptoleme continuoit à me tromper. Il ajouta ces triftes paroles: Loin de l'armée Grecque, où le mal prévaut fur le bien, je vais vivre content dans la fauvage ifle de Scyros. Adieu, je pars, que les Dieux vous guériffent!

Auffi-tôt je lui dis: O mon fils, je te conjure par les manes de ton pere, par ta mere, par tout ce que tu as de plus cher fur la terre, de ne me pas laiffer feul dans les maux que tu vois. Je n'ignore pas combien je te ferai à charge, mais il y auroit de la honte à m'abandonner: jette-moi à la proue, à la poupe, dans la fentine même, par-tout où je t'incommoderai le moins. Il n'y a que les grands coeurs qui fachent combien il y a de gloire à être bon; ne me laisse point en un défert où il n'y a aucun vestige d'homme; mene-moi dans ta patrie ou dans l'Eubée, qui n'est pas loin du mont Oëta, de Trachine, & des bords agréables du fleuve Sperchius renvoie-moi à mon pere. Hélas! que je crains qu'il ne foit mort! je lui avois mandé de m'envoyer un vaiffeau ou il eft mort, ou bien ceux qui m'avoient promis de lui dire ma mifere, ne l'ont pas fait. J'ai recours à toi, ô mon fils! fouvienstoi de la fragilité des chofes humaines. Celui qui eft dans la profpérité, doit craindre d'en abuser, & fecourir les malheureux.

Voilà ce que l'excès de la douleur me faifoit dire à Neoptoleme; il me promit de m'emmener. Alors je m'écriai encore: O heureux jour ! ô aimable Néop toleme, digne de la gloire de ton pere! Chers compagnons de ce voyage, fouffrez que je dife adieu à cette trifte demeure. Voyez où j'ai vécu; comprenez ce que j'ai fouffert; nul autre n'eût pu le fouffrir; mais la néceffité m'avoit instruit, & elle apprend aux hommes ce qu'ils ne pourroient jamais favoir autrement. Ceux qui n'ont jamais fouffert ne favent rien; ils ne connoiffent ni les biens ni les maux ; ils ignorent les hommes; ils s'ignorent eux-mêmes. Après avoir parlé ainfi, je pris mon arc & mes fleches.

Neoptoleme

is Therfites? These are the doings of the Gods, and yet we celebrate their praises!

While I was in this rage against your father, Neop tolemus went on to deceive me, adding thefe me lancholy words. Far from the army of the Greeks, where evil prevails over good, I am going to live contented in the rude ifland of Scyros. Farewell, I go; may the Gods heal your wound.

I inftantly faid, O my fon, I conjure you by the manes of your father, by your mother, by all that is dearest to you in the world, not to leave me alone in this miferable condition. I am not ignorant how burdenfome I shall be to you, but it would be disho nourable in you to forfake me; throw me into the prow, the ftern, the fink itself; or wherever I may incommode you the leaft. None but great souls know how much glory there is in being good. Leave me not in a defert; where there is no human footstep; take me into your own country, or into Euboea which is not far from mount Oeta, Trachinium, and the pleasant banks of the river Sperchius: fend me back to my father. Alas! I fear he his dead: I defired him to fend me a ship: either he his dead, or those who promifed to tell him my diftrefs, did not do it. O my for, I fly to you for fuccour. Remem ber the inftability of all human things: Who is in profperity, should apprehend the abusing it, and relieve the diftreffed.

This is what the excefs of my anguish prompted me to fay to Neoptolemus; he promised to take me with him. I then burst into exclamations again. O happy day! O lovely Neoptolemus; worthy of thy father's glory. Ye dear companions of this voyage, permit me to bid this difmal mansion adieu. Lo! where I have lived, imagine what I have fuffered; nobody elfe could have borne it: But neceffity was my tutor, and she teaches men what they would never other wife know They who have never fuffered, know nothing; they know neither good nor evil, they are ftrangers to mankind, they are strangers to them felves. This faid, I took my bow and my arrows. Neoptolemus