On those man-teeming furrows. Thronging round,
His comrades cheer'd him with emboldening words.
He, from the river-current, in his helm

Drain'd a full draught, and slaked his panting thirst:
Then bent his pliant knees with motion light,
Fill'd with high courage, and impetuous zeal
Of daring: as a boar, that whets his fangs
Against the hunters, while the dropping foam
Flows from his chafing jaws upon the ground.
And now, from all the furrow'd plain uprose
The earth-born men; all bristling, with strong

shields,

And barbed spears, and shining helms: a field
Hallow'd to Mars, the mortal-slayer God.

Through air the splendour flash'd from earth to

heaven.

As when on earth abundant snows have fallen,
The winds disperse again the wintery clouds
In the dark night, and thick the crowded stars
All glitter through the gloom; so gleam'd the ranks
Up-growing from the dusky-moulded soil.

But Jason then bethought him of the wile
Medea counsell❜d, and from off the plain

Snatch'd a round stone, immense, a quoit for Mars:
Not four strong youthful men had lifted it,
Though but a little. This within his gripe
He took, and hurl'd at distance, with full swing
Of his impulsive force, amid the host.
He, back-receding, sate behind his shield,
Hid, but courageous. Then the Colchians sent
A mighty outcry as the sea, that shrill
Dashes, remurmuring, on the pointed rocks.
But on Eetes, from that quoit's strong cast,
Foreboding silence fell. They, like swift dogs,
Ranging in fierceness, on each other turn'd
Tumultuous battle. On their mother earth

By their own spears they sank; like pines, or oaks,
Strow'd by a whirlwind in the mountain dale.
But, as a shooting star draws through the heavens
A fiery furrow, marvellous to men,

That view the splendour dart through gloomy air ;
So Jason rush'd upon the earth-sprung host,
Drawn from the scabbard waved his flashing sword,
And smote promiscuous; mowing with keen stroke
Some half-uprisen to air, high as the waist:

Some striving from the shoulders: some, but now

Erect, and others starting to their feet,

And hasting to the charge. As when a war
Is kindled on the borders, straight the swain,
Fearing lest others reap before the time
His harvest, takes his sickle newly sharp'd,
And hastening cuts the tender corn, nor waits
The warm sun's ripening beams to dry the grain;
So Jason reap'd the crop of earth-born men.
The furrows overflow'd with blood, as dikes
Fill'd from a fountain. Headlong fell they down :
And bit the rugged ground with hard-clench'd
teeth.

Some backwards fell: some on their elbows propp'd,
Some on their sides: and wallowing lay, like whales:
And many wounded, ere their footing trod
Earth's surface, far as into upper air

Their bodies half emerged, so far, below

The ground, sunk down, and plunged their heads, yet dank

With the fresh mould. As when, profuse, the rain Is pour'd from ether, the young fig-trees bow, Torn from the roots, to earth; the gardener's toil Is blasted, and dejection and sore grief

O'ercome the orchard's owner; so deep cares Press'd on the sadden'd spirit of the king, Æetes: and he went, on his return

To his own city, with the Colchian train; Casting within his troubled mind, how best With sharper trial to confront the chiefs:

Day fell; and so the contest was fulfill'd.

JASON IN AFRIC.

As men that, pale like spectres of the dead,
Stagger along the city-streets, when war
Or pestilence impends, or deluge sweeps,
Immense, the labours of the steer away;
Or, as when idols drop the sweat of blood,
And bellowing sounds seem muttering underneath
The hollow fane; or, in mid-day, the sun
Makes night in heaven, and through the gloomy air
The stars shine twinkling in the dark of noon;
So crept the chiefs along the lengthening shore,
While eve fell shadowy round. With piteous grasp
They press'd each others' hands, and felt a joy
In pouring forth their tears.
Then each apart,
With sorrow spent, fell prostrate on the sands;
For here and there, still onward, as they might,

They chose their place of rest, and wrap'd their heads

Within their mantles. Hungering, and athirst, The livelong night and following day, they press'd The ground, upon the verge of wretched death.