four fair coursers, practised to obey, To some great city through the public way; Safe in his art, as side by side they run, He shifts his seat, and vaults from one to one; And now to this, and now to that he flies; Admiring numbers follow with their eyes. From ship to ship thus Ajax swiftly flew, No less the wonder of the warring crew. As furious, Hector thunder'd threats aloud, And rush'd enraged before the Trojan crowd; Then swift invades the ships, whose beaky prores Lay rank'd contiguous on the bending shores; So the strong eagle from his airy height, Who marks the swans' or cranes' embodied flight, Stoops down impetuous, while they light for food, And, stooping, darkens with his wings the flood. Jove leads him on with his almighty hand, And breathes fierce spirits in his following band. The warring nations meet, the battle roars, Thick beats the combat on the sounding prores. Thou wouldst have thought, so furious was their fire, No force could tame them, and no toil could tire; As if new vigour from new fights they won, And the long battle was but then begun. Greece, yet unconquer'd, kept alive the war, Secure of death, confiding in despair: Troy in proud hopes already view'd the main Bright with the blaze, and red with heroes slain: Like strength is felt from hope, and from despair, And each contends, as his were all the war. "Twas thou, bold Hector! whose resistless hand First seized a ship on that contested strand; The same which dead Protesilaus bore,(242) The first that touch'd the unhappy Trojan shore: For this in arms the warring nations stood, And bathed their generous breasts with mutual blood. No room to poise the lance or bend the bow; But hand to hand, and man to man, they grow: Wounded, they wound; and seek each other's hearts With falchions, axes, swords, and shorten'd darts. The falchions ring, shields rattle, axes sound, Swords flash in air, or glitter on the g