renewed the rage of every heart. Thefe deities, the deadly foes of mankind, chafed far away from both parties generous compaffion, fedate valour, and foft humanity; there was nothing in this confufed and enraged throng but flaughter, revenge, despair and brutal fury. The fage and invincible Pallas herfelf shivered, and started back with horror at the fight.

Mean time Philoctetes marching flowly, and holding the arrows of Hercules in his hands, advanced to Neftor's affiftance. Adraftus not being able to reach the divine fenior, had hurled his darts at feveral Pylians, and made them bite the ground. He had already flain Eufilas fo fwift of foot that he hardly imprinted his footsteps in the fand, and who in his own country out-run the most rapid currents of the Eurotas and Alpheus. At his feet were fallen Entiphron, more lovely than Hylas and as keen a hunter as Hippolytus; Pterelas who accompanied Neftor to the fiege of Troy, was dear to Achilles himfelf for his ftrength and courage; Ariftogiton, who bathing in the waves of the river Achelous, is faid to have privately received of that God the power of affuming all kinds of forms: And indeed he was fo pliant and nimble in all his motions, that he flipt out of the strongest hands. But Adraftus with a thrust of his fpear rendered him motionless, and his foul immediately took its flight with his blood.

and

Neftor feeing his moft valiant captains fall beneath the hands of the cruel Adraftus, like the golden ears in harveft beneath the keen fickle of the indefatigable reaper, forgot the danger to which he vainly expofed his age. His wifdom forfook him, and he thought only of purfuing with his eyes his fon Pififtratus, who on his part ardently maintained the fight, to drive the danger from his father; but the fatal moment was come, when Pififtratus was to convince Neftor, how wretched men often are by living too long.

Pififtratus pushed fo violently at Adraftus with his fpear, that the Daunian would have fallen, had he not avoided it; but while Pifistrastus, staggered with the falfe thrust he had made, was recovering his fpear,

L3

Adraftus

le perça d'un javelot au milieu du ventre. Ses entrailles commencerent à fortir avec un ruiffeau de fang; fon teint fe flétrit comme une fleur que la main d'une nymphe a cueillie dans les prés. Ses yeux étoient déjà prefque éteints, & fa voix défaillante. Alcée, fon gouverneur, qui étoit auprès de lui, le foutint comme il alloit tomber, & n'eut le temps que de le mener entre les bras de fon pere. Là il voulut parler, & donner les dernieres marques de fa tendreffe; mais en ouvrant la bouche, il expira.

Pendant que Philoctete répandoit autour de lui le carnage & l'horreur, pour repouffer les efforts d'Adrafte, Neftor tenoit ferré entre fes bras le corps de fon fils: il rempliffoit l'air de fes cris, & ne pouvoit feuffrir la lumiere. Malheureux, difoit-il, d'avoir été pere, & d'avoir vécu fi long-temps! Hélas! cruelles Deftinées, pourquoi n'avez-vous pas fini ma vie, ou à la chaffe du fanglier de Calydon, ou au voyage de Colchos, ou au premier fiege de Troye ? Je ferois mort avec gloire & fans amertume. Maintenant je traîne une vieilleffe douloureuse, méprifée & impuiffante; je ne vis plus que pour les maux; je n'ai plus de fentiment que pour la trifteffe. O mon fils! ô mon cher fils Pififtrate! quand je perdis ton frerc Antiloque, je t'avois pour me confoler; je ne t'ai plus, rien ne me confolera; tout eft fini pour moi. L'efpérance, feul adouciffement des peines des hommes n'eft plus un bien qui me regarde. Antiloque! Pififtrate! ô chers enfans! je crois que c'est aujourd'hui que je vous perds tous deux; la mort de l'un r'ouvre la plaie que l'autre avoit faite au fond de mon cœur. Je ne vous verrai plus. Qui fermera mes yeux ? Qui recueillera mes cendres ? O cher Pifistrate! tu es mort, comme ton frere, en homme de courage; il n'y a que moi qui ne puis mourir.

comme cet

En difant ces paroles, il voulut fe percer lui-même d'un dard qu'il tenoit : mais on arrêta fa main. On lui arracha le corps de fon fils ; & infortuné vieillard tomboit en défaillance on le porta dans fa tente, où ayant un peu repris fes forces, il voulut retourner au combat; mais on le retint malgré lui.

Cependant

Adraftus run his javelin into the midst of his belly. His bowels came out with a torrent of blood; his colour faded like a flower cropt by the hand of a nymph in the meadows; his eyes were almoft extinguished, and his voice began to fail him. Alceus his governor, who was near him, caught him as he was ready to fall, and had only time to convey him into his father's arms where he endeavoured to fpeak and give the last marks of his fondnefs; but as he opened his mouth, he expired.

While Philoctetes was fpreading flaughter and horror around him, to repel the efforts of Adraftus, Neftor clafped the body of his fon in his arms, rending the heavens with his cries, and unable to bear the light. Wretch that I am, faid he, in being a father and in living fo long! Ah! why, ye cruel Fates! why did ye not cut the thread of my life when I chafed the Calydonian boar, or in my expedition to Colchos, or at the firft fiege of Troy? I should not then have died inglorious, nor with anguish. I now drag a painful, defpicable, impotent old age; I live but to fuffer; I have no fenfe but of forrow. O my fon! my dear fon Pififtratus! When I lost thy brother Antilochus, I had thee to comfort me; I have thee no more; nothing will comfort me now; all is over as to me. Hope, the only fweetner of human woes is a bleffing which concerns me not. Antilochus! Pififtratus ! O my dear children, I lost you both methinks to day; the death of the one opens again the wound which the other had made in my heart. Never shall I behold thee more. Who, shall clofe my eyes? Who collect my ashes ? O my dear Pififtratus! thou as well as thy brother didft die like a man of courage; I alone cannot die.

This faid, he attempted to kill himself with a dart which he had in, his hand; but he was with-held. And the body of his fon being wrefted from him, the unhappy old man fell into a fwoon, and was carried to his tent, where having a little recovered his ftrength he would have returned to the battle, had he not been detained by force. L 4

Mean

Cependant Adrafte & Philoctete fe cherchoient ; leurs yeux étoient étincelans comme ceux d'un lion & d'un léopard, qui cherchent à fe déchirer l'un l'autre, dans les campagnes qu'arrofe le Cayftre. Les menaces, la fureur guerriere, & la cruelle vengeance éclatent dans leurs yeux farouches. Ils portent une mort certaine partout où ils lancent leurs traits. Tous les combattans les regardent avec effroi. Déjà ils fe voient l'un l'autre, & Philoctete tient en main une de ces fleches tertibles, qui n'ont jamais manqué leur coup dans fes mains, & dont les bleffures font irremédiables. Mais Mars qui favorifoit le cruel & intrépide Adrafte, ne put fouffrir qu'il pérît fi-tôt; il vouloit par lui prolonger les horreurs de la guerre, & multiplier le carnage. Adrafte étoit encore dû à la juftice des Dieux, pour punir les hommes, & pour verfer leur fang.

Dans le moment où Philoctete veut l'attaquer, il eft bleffé lui-même par un coup de lance, que lui donne Amphimaque, jeune Lucanien, plus beau que le fameux Nirée, dont la beauté ne cédoit qu'à celle d'Achille, parmi tous les Grecs qui combattirent au fiege de Troye. A peine Philoctete eût reçu le coup, qu'il tira la fleche contre Amphimaque ; elle lui perça le cœur. Auffitôt fes beaux yeux noirs s'éteignirent, & furent couverts des ténèbres de la mort. Sa bouche, plus vermeille que les rofes, dont l'Aurore naiffante feme l'horifon, fe flétrit; une pâleur affreufe ternit fes joues: ce vifage fi tendre & fi délicar tout-à-coup fe défigura. Philoctete lui-même en eut pitié. Tous les combattans gémirent, en voyant ce jeune homme tomber dans fon fang, où il fe rouloit, & fes cheveux, auffi beaux que ceux d'Apollon, traînés dans la pouffiere.

Philoctete ayart vaincu Amphimaque fut contraint de fe retirer du combat; il perdoit fon fang & fes forces. Son ancienne bleffure, même dans l'effort du combat, fembloit prête à fe r'ouvrir & à renouveller fes douleurs ; car les enfans d'Efculape, avec leur fcience divine, n'avoient pu le gué

rir

Mean time Adraftus and Philoctetes were in quest of each other. Their eyes fparkled, like thofe of a lion and a leopard ftriving to tear each other in pieces, in the fields which the Cayfter waters. Menaces, the rage of war, and bloody revenge appeared in their favage looks. They carry certain death wherever they hurl their darts, and all the combatants behold them with terror. They are now within fight of each other and Philoctetes takes one of thofe dreadful arrows, which in his hands never milt their aim, and whofe wounds were incurable; but Mars, who favoured the cruel and intrepid Adraftus, would not fuffer him to perish fo foon, being defirous of making him his inftrument of prolonging the horrors of war and of heightening the carnage. The Gods as yet forbore to make Adraitus an example of their justice, in order to chastise mankind and to shed their blood.

The moment Philoctetes defigns to attack him, he himself is wounded by the spear of Amphimachus, a young Lucanian, who was more lovely than the famous Nireus whofe beauty was only inferior to that of Achilles of all the Greeks that fought at the fiege of Troy. Philoctetes was hardly wounded, when he aimed the arrows at Amphimachus which pierced him to the heart. His fine black eyes immediately loft their luftre, and were overspread with the shades of death. The rofes of his lips, more ruddy than thofe with which the rifing Aurora ftrews the horizon, faded: a ghaftly palenefs deadened his cheeks : his foft, his delicate face was inftantly deformed. Philoctetes himself was moved with pity, and all the combatants made loud laments, feeing the youth weltering in his blood, and his locks, as lovely as thofe of Apollo, trailing in the duft.

Philoctetes having flain Amphimachus was obliged to retire from the battle; having loft a great deal of his blood and his ftrength. Befides, his old wound in the heat of the action feemed ready to bleed afresh and to renew his pains; for the fons of Æfculapius by their divine skill had not been able to cure him entire