Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/198

No Subject cou'd sustain their Sov'reign's Look,
Till this hard Enterprize I undertook:
I only durst th' Imperial Pow'r controul,
And undermin'd the Parent in his Soul;
Forc'd him t' exert the King for common Good,
And pay our Ransom with his Daughter's Blood.
Never was Cause more difficult to plead,
Than where the Judge against himself decreed:
Yet this I won by dint of Argument;$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
The Wrongs his injur'd Brother underwent,
And his own Office, sham'd him to consent.
'Twas harder yet to move the Mother's Mind,
And to this heavy Task was I design'd:
Reasons against her Love I knew were vain;
I circumvented whom I could not gain:
Had Ajax been employ'd, our slacken'd Sails
Had still at Aulis waited happy Gales.
Arriv'd at Troy, your Choice was fix'd on me,
A fearless Envoy, fit for a bold Embassy:
Secure, I enter'd through the hostile Court,
Glitt'ring with Steel, and crowded with Resort:
There, in the midst of Arms, I plead our Cause,
Urge the foul Rape, and violated Laws;
Accuse the Foes, as Authors of the Strife,
Reproach the Ravisher, demand the Wife.
Priam, Antenor, and the wiser few,
I mov'd; but Paris and his lawless Crew
Scarce held their Hands, and lifted Swords; but stood
In Act to quench their impious Thirst of Blood:
This Menelaus knows; expos'd to share
With me the rough Preludium of the War.
Endless it were to tell, what I have done,
In Arms, or Council, since the Siege begun:
The first Encounter's past, the Foe repell'd,
They Sculk'd within the Town, we kept the Field.

War