Himself alone difpers'd the Rhodian crew, The weak difdain'd, the valiant overthrew ; Cheap conqueft for his following friends remain'd, He reap'd the field, and they but only glean'd. His victory confefs'd, the foes retreat, And caft the weapons at the victor's feet. Whom thus he chear'd: O Rhodian youth, I fought For love alone, nor other booty fought : Your lives are fafe; your vessel I refign; Yours be your own, restoring what is mine : In Iphigene I claim my rightful due, Robb'd by my rival, and detain'd by you: Your Pafimond a lawless bargain drove, The parent could not sell the daughter's love; Or, if he could, my love difdains the laws, And like a king by conqueft gains his caufe: Where arms take place, all other pleas are vain, Love taught me force, and force fhall love maintain, You, what by ftrength you could not keep, releafe, And at an easy ransom buy your peace.

Fear on the conquer'd fide foon fign'd th' accord, And Iphigene to Cymon was reftor'd :

While to his arms the blushing bride he took;
To seeming sadness she compos'd her look;
As if by force fubjected to his will,

Though pleas'd, diffembling, and a woman still.
And, for the wept, he wip'd her falling tears,
And pray'd her to difmifs her empty fears;
For yours I am, he faid, and have deferv'd
Your love much better whom fo long I ferv'd,

Than

Than he to whom your formal father ty'd
Your vows, and fold a flave, not fent a bride.
Thus while he spoke, he feiz'd the willing prey,
As Paris bore the Spartan spouse away.

Faintly fhe fcream'd, and ev'n her eyes confefs'd
She rather would be thought, than was distress'd.
Who now exults but Cymon in his mind?
Vain hopes and empty joys of human kind,
Proud of the prefent, to the future blind!

Secure of fate, while Cymon plows the sea,
And fteers to Candy with his conquer'd prey,
Scarce the third glass of meafur'd hours was run,
When like a fiery meteor funk the sun;

The promise of a storm; the shifting gales
Forfake by fits, and fill the flagging fails;
Hoarfe murmurs of the main from far were heard,
And night came on, not by degrees prepar'd,
But all at once; at once the winds arife,
The thunders roll, the forky lightning flies.
In vain the mafter iffues out commands,
In vain the trembling failors ply their hands:
The tempeft unforeseen prevents their care,
And from the first they labour in despair.
The giddy fhip betwixt the winds and tides,
Forc'd back, and forwards, in a circle rides,
Stunn'd with the different blows; then fhoots amain,
Till, counterbuff'd, she stops, and fleeps again.
Not more aghaft the proud archangel fell,
Plung'd from the height of heaven to deepest hell,

}

Than

Than ftood the lover of his love poffefs'd,

Now curs'd the more, the more he had been blefs'd; More anxious for her danger than his own,

Death he defies; but would be loft alone.

Sad Iphigene to womanish complaints
Adds pious prayers, and wearies all the faints
Ev'n if fhe could, her love fhe would repent,
But, fince the cannot, dreads the punishment:
Her forfeit faith, and Pafimond betray'd,
Are ever prefent, and her crime upbraid.
She blames herself, nor blames her lover lefs,
Augments her anger, as her fears increase:
From her own back the burden would remove,
And lays the load on his ungovern'd love,
Which interpofing durft, in heaven's defpite,
Invade, and violate another's right:

The powers incens'd a while deferr'd his pain,
And made him mafter of his vows in vain :
But foon they punish'd his prefumptuous pride;
That for his daring enterprize the dy'd;
Who rather not refifted, than comply'd.

Then, impotent of mind, with alter'd fenfe,
She hugg'd th' offender, and forgave th' offence,
Sex to the laft: mean time with fails declin'd
The wandering veffel drove before the wind:
Tofs'd and retofs'd, aloft, and then below,
Nor port they seek, nor certain course they know,
But
every moment wait the coming blow.
Thus blindly driven, by breaking day they view'd
The land before them, and their fears renew'd;

}

}

The

The land was welcome, but the tempest bore
The threaten'd ship against a rocky shore.
1 A winding bay was near; to this they bent,
And just escap'd; their force already spent :
Secure from storms, and panting from the sea,
The land unknown at leifure they furvey;
And faw (but foon their fickly fight withdrew)
The rifing towers of Rhodes at distant view;
And curs'd the hoftile fhore of Pafimond,

Sav'd from the feas, and fhipwreck'd on the ground.
The frighted failors try'd their ftrength in vain
To turn the stern, and tempt the ftormy main;
But the stiff wind withstood the labouring oar,
And forc'd them forward on the fatal fhore !
The crooked keel now bites the Rhodian strand,
And the hip moor'd constrains the crew to land:
Yet ftill they might be fafe, because unknown,
But, as ill fortune feldom comes alone,
The veffel they difmifs'd was driven before,
Already fhelter'd on their native fhore;

Known each, they know; but each with change of chear;

The vanquish'd fide exults; the victors fear;
Not them but theirs, made prisoners ere they fight,
Defpairing conqueft, and depriv'd of flight.

The country rings around with loud alarms,
And raw in fields the rude militia swarms;
Mouths without hands; maintain'd at vaft expence,,
In peace a charge, in war a weak defence :
Stout once a month they march, a bluftering band,,
And ever, but in times of need, at hand;

This was the morn when, iffuing on the guard,
Drawn up in rank and file they stood prepar'd
Of feeming arms to make a fhort effay,

Then haften to be drunk, the business of the day.

The cowards would have fled, but that they knew
Themselves fo many, and their foes so few :
But, crowding on, the last the first impel :
Till overborn with weight the Cyprians fell.
Cymon inflav'd, who first the war begun,
And Iphigene once more is loft and won.

Deep in a dungeon was the captive cast,
Depriv'd of day, and held in fetters faft:
His life was only fpar'd at their request,
Whom taken he fo nobly had releas'd:
But Iphigenia was the ladies care,
Each in their turn addrefs'd to treat the fair;
While Pafimond and his the nuptial feast

prepare.

Her fecret foul to Cymon was inclin'd,
But the muft fuffer what her fates affign'd;
So paffive is the church of woman-kind.
What worse to Cymon could his fortune deal,
Roll'd to the lowest spoke of all her wheel?
It refted to difmifs the downward weight,
Or raise him upward to his former height;
The latter pleas'd; and love (concern'd the most)
Prepar'd th' amends, for what by love he loft.

The fire of Pafimond had left a fon,

Though younger, yet for courage early known,
Ormifda call'd, to whom by promise ty'd,
A Rhodian beauty was the deftin'd bride;

Caffandra