In human form, confess'd before his eyes, The river thus; and thus the chief replies: "O sacred stream! thy word we shall obey; But not till Troy the destined vengeance pay, Not till within her towers the perjured train Shall pant, and tremble at our arms again; Not till proud Hector, guardian of her wall, Or stain this lance, or see Achilles fall." He said; and drove with fury on the foe. Then to the godhead of the silver bow The yellow flood began: "O son of Jove! Was not the mandate of the sire above Full and express, that Phoebus should employ His sacred arrows in defence of Troy, And make her conquer, till Hyperion's fall In awful darkness hide the face of all?" He spoke in vain--The chief without dismay Ploughs through the boiling surge his desperate way. Then rising in his rage above the shores, From all his deep the bellowing river roars, Huge heaps of slain disgorges on the coast, And round the banks the ghastly dead are toss'd. While all before, the billows ranged on high, (A watery bulwark,) screen the bands who fly. Now bursting on his head with thundering sound, The falling deluge whelms the hero round: His loaded shield bends to the rushing tide; His feet, upborne, scarce the strong flood divide, Sliddering, and staggering. On the border stood A spreading elm, that overhung the flood; He seized a bending bough, his steps to stay; The plant uprooted to his weight gave way.(270) Heaving the bank, and undermining all; Loud flash the waters to the rushing fall Of the thick foliage. The large trunk display'd Bridged the rough flood across: the hero stay'd On this his weight, and raised upon his hand, Leap'd from the channel, and regain'd the land. Then blacken'd the wild waves: the murmur rose: The god pursues, a huger billow throws, And bursts the bank, ambitious to destroy The man whose fury is the fate of Troy. He like the warlike eagle speeds his pace (Swiftest a