Next thefe, the kindred of the crown are grac'd
With nearer feats, and lords by ladies plac'd.
Scarce were they feated, when with clamors loud
In rush'd at once a rude promifcuous crowd:
The guards, and then each other overbear,
And in a moment throng the spacious theatre.
Now chang'd the jarring noise to whispers low,
As winds forfaking feas more softly blow;
When at the western gate, on which the car
Is plac'd aloft, that bears the God of war,
Proud Arcite entring arm'd before his train,
Stops at the barrier, and divides the plain.
Red was his banner, and difplay'd abroad
The bloody colors of his patron God.

The

At that felf moment enters Palamon gate of Venus, and the rifing-fun; Wav'd by the wanton winds, his banner flies, All maiden white, and fhares the people's eyes. From Eaft to Weft, look all the world around, Two troops fo match'd were never to be found; Such bodies built for ftrength, of equal age, In ftature fiz'd; fo proud an equipage: The niceft eye could no diftinction make, Where lay th' advantage, or what fide to take. Thus rang'd, the herald for the laft proclaims A filence, while they anfwer'd to their names:

For fo the king decreed, to fhun the care,

The fraud of mufters falfe, the common bane of

war.

The tale was juft, and then the gates were clos'd;
And chief to chief, and troop to troop oppos'd.
The heralds last retir'd, and loudly cry'd,
The fortune of the field be fairly try'd.

At this, the challenger with fierce defy
His trumpet founds; the challeng'd makes reply:
With clangor rings the field, refounds the
vaulted sky.

Their vizors clos'd, their lances in the rest,
Or at the helmet pointed, or the creft;
They vanish from the barrier, speed the race,
And fpurring fee decrease the middle space.
A cloud of smoke envelops either host,
And all at once the combatants are loft:
Darkling they join adverse, and shock unseen,
Courfers with courfers juftling, men with men :
As lab'ring in eclipfe, a while they stay,
Till the next blast of wind restores the day.
They look anew: the beauteous form of fight
Is chang'd, and war appears a grizly fight.
Two troops in fair array one moment show'd,
next, a field with fall'n bodies strow'd:

The

Not half the number in their seats are found; But men and steeds lie grov'ling on the ground. The points of spears are ftuck within the shield, The steeds without their riders fcour the field. The knights unhors'd, on foot renew the fight; The glitt'ring fauchions cast a gleaming light: Hauberks and helms are hew'd with many a wound Out fpins the streaming blood and dies the ground. The mighty maces with fuch hafte descend, They break the bones, and make the folid armor

bend.

This thrusts amid the throng with furious force; Down goes, at once, the horfeman and the horse: That courfer ftumbles on the fallen fteed, And floundring throws the rider o'er his head. One rolls along, a foot-ball to his foes; One with a broken truncheon deals his blows. This halting, this difabled with his wound, In triumph led, is to the pillar bound, Where by the king's award he must abide : There goes a captive led on t'other fide. By fits they cease; and leaning on the lance, Take breath a while, and to new fight advance.

Full oft the rivals met, and neither fpar'd

His utmost force, and each forgot to ward.

The head of this was to the faddle bent,

The other backward to the crupper

fent:

Both were by turns unhors'd; the jealous blows
Fall thick and heavy, when on foot they close.
So deep their fauchions bite, that ev'ry, stroke
Pierc'd to the quick; and equal wounds they gave
and took.

Borne far afunder by the tides of men,
Like adamant and steel they meet agen.

}

So when a tiger fucks the bullock's blood, A famish'd lion iffuing from the wood Roars lordly fierce, and challenges the food. Each claims poffeffion, neither will obey, But both their paws are faften'd on the prey; They bite, they tear; and while in vain they strive, The fwains come arm'd between, and both to distance drive.

At length, as fate foredoom'd, and all things tend By courfe of time to their appointed end;

So when the fun to Weft was far declin'd,
And both afresh in mortal battle join'd,

The strong Emetrius came in Arcite's aid,
And Palamon with odds was overlaid:

For turning short, he struck with all his might
Full on the helmet of th' unwary knight.

Deep was the wound; he stagger'd with the blow, And turn'd him to his unexpected foe;

Whom with fuch force he ftruck, he fell'd him down,

And cleft the circle of his golden crown.

But Arcite's men, who now prevail'd in fight,
Twice ten at once furround the fingle knight:
O'erpower'd, at length, they force him to the ground,
Unyielded as he was, and to the pillar bound;
And king Lycurgus, while he fought in vain
His friend to free, was tumbled on the plain.
Who now laments but Palamon, compell'd
No more to try the fortune of the field!

And worse than death, to view with hateful eyes
His rival's conqueft, and renounce the prize!
The royal judge on his tribunal plac'd,
Who had beheld the fight from first to last,
Bad ceafe the war; pronouncing from on high,
Arcite of Thebes had won the beauteous Emily.
The found of trumpets to the voice reply'd,
And round the royal lifts the heralds cry'd
Arcite of Thebes has won the beauteous bride.

The people rend the skies with vaft applause; All own the chief, when fortune owns the cause. Arcite is own'd ev'n by the Gods above,

And conq'ring Mars infults the Queen of love,