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

180 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; 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