Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/163

And holds the foremost place:
Cloanthus next: his oarsmen row
More featly: but his bark is slow,
And checks him in the race.
Behind, at equal distance, strain
Centaur and Shark the lead to gain:
And now the Shark darts forth, and now
The Centaur has advanced her bow:
And now the twain move side by side,
Their long keels trailing through the tide.

At length the rock before them lay:
The goal was in their reach:
When Gyas, conqueror of the way,
His helmsman thus, Menœtes gray,
Plies with upbraiding speech:
'Why to the right so blindly push?
Here, take a narrower sweep:
Hug close the shore, nor fear its crush:
The cliff's left hand our oars should brush:
Let others hold the deep.'
So Gyas: but Menœtes fears
The hidden rocks, and seaward steers.
'What? swerving still?' he shouts once more:
'The shore, Menœtes! seek the shore!'
And backward as he turns his eyes,
O death!—Cloanthus he descries
Close following, nearer and more near,
And all but springing on his rear.
'Twixt Gyas and the rocky shoal
The rival deftly glides,
Shoots to the forefront, turns the goal,
And gains the safer tides.
Grief flashed to flame in Gyas' soul:
Tears from his eyes were seen to roll: