"Phœbus! behold thy mother in disgrace,
"Who to no Goddess yields the prior place,
"Except to Juno's self, who reigns above,
"The spouse and sister of the thundering Jove.
"Niobe, sprung from Tantalus, inspires
"Each Theban bosom with rebellious fires:
"No reason her imperious temper quells,
"But all her father in her tongue rebels;
"Wrap her own sons, for her blaspheming breath,
"Apollo! wrap them in the shades of death."
Latona ceased, and ardent thus replies
The God whose glory decks the expanded skies.
"Cease thy complaints; mine be the task assigned
"To punish and to scourge the rebel mind."
This Phebe joined. They wing their instant flight;
Thebes trembled as the immortal powers alight.
With clouds encompassed, glorious Phœbus stands,
The feathered vengeance quivering in his hands.
Near Cadmus' walls a plain extended lay,
Where Thebes' young princes passed in sport the day;
There the bold coursers bounded o'er the plains,
While their great masters held the golden reins.
Ismenus first, the racing pastime led,
And ruled the fury of his flying steed.
"Ah me!" he sudden cries, with shrieking breath,
While in his breast he feels the shaft of death;
He drops the bridle on his courser's mane,
Before his eyes in shadows swims the plain;
He, the first-born of great Amphion's bed,
Was struck the first, first mingled with the dead.
