56
BATTLE OF THE
With anguish maddened to the lake he flies,—
But when his panting frame Garleeko eyes,
Vanward he bursts, and hurls his whetted reed:
Stout stands the shield, and bars his spear-point's speed.
Supreme amid the Mouse clan was there one,
Palm of the host, the faultless Loaf-lurk's son:
A very Mars he flam'd, and Snap-scrap hight,
Prince of the Mice, their champion in the fight!
Full of fierce thoughts beside the lake he stood,
And doom'd destruction on the Frogs' fell brood,
Doom'd—and had well-nigh wrought, his might so vast,
When Parent-Jove his eye all-seeing cast
Fall on the fainting Frogs, and, touch'd with ruth,
Bow'd his dark brow and spake the word of truth:
"Woe worth the day! at yonder sickening sight
Ye gods! I faint, my spirit faints with fright14.
Mark where stark Snap-scrap stands beside yon stream,
How the Frogs tremble, as his eyeballs gleam!
Hence then let Pallas and the war god wend,
Hence—and from fight this stalwart champion rend."
Thus spake the son of Saturn: at the word
Mars straight replied, "My father and my lord,
Vain were Athena's might, mine own how vain,
From death to ward the Frogs' devoted train:
Forth to the rescue—all! the bolts of death,
—That quell'd the Titans with their fiery breath,
That dash'd to earth the gaunt Enceladus,
And earth's grim race15,—perchance will wake for us,
Then shall the stoutest fall!16" thus spake the god—
And Jove straight lanch'd the levin-bolt abroad:
But when his panting frame Garleeko eyes,
Vanward he bursts, and hurls his whetted reed:
Stout stands the shield, and bars his spear-point's speed.
Supreme amid the Mouse clan was there one,
Palm of the host, the faultless Loaf-lurk's son:
A very Mars he flam'd, and Snap-scrap hight,
Prince of the Mice, their champion in the fight!
Full of fierce thoughts beside the lake he stood,
And doom'd destruction on the Frogs' fell brood,
Doom'd—and had well-nigh wrought, his might so vast,
When Parent-Jove his eye all-seeing cast
Fall on the fainting Frogs, and, touch'd with ruth,
Bow'd his dark brow and spake the word of truth:
"Woe worth the day! at yonder sickening sight
Ye gods! I faint, my spirit faints with fright14.
Mark where stark Snap-scrap stands beside yon stream,
How the Frogs tremble, as his eyeballs gleam!
Hence then let Pallas and the war god wend,
Hence—and from fight this stalwart champion rend."
Thus spake the son of Saturn: at the word
Mars straight replied, "My father and my lord,
Vain were Athena's might, mine own how vain,
From death to ward the Frogs' devoted train:
Forth to the rescue—all! the bolts of death,
—That quell'd the Titans with their fiery breath,
That dash'd to earth the gaunt Enceladus,
And earth's grim race15,—perchance will wake for us,
Then shall the stoutest fall!16" thus spake the god—
And Jove straight lanch'd the levin-bolt abroad:
